Tony Award Winning Play “Appropriate" Breaks New Ground Heralding “The Tennessee Effect” in St. Louis

by Grayling Holmes

For ten years, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis (TWSTL) has presented classic works such as The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, and TWSTL’s 2018 and 2025 productions of A Streetcar Named Desire. For its 11th season, the theatre company will bridge the gap between the legend that is Tennessee Williams. For the first time ever, the TWSTL mainstage will be held by a work not written by Williams, rather by a work that celebrates “The Tennessee Effect”, the contemporary masterpiece, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony award-winning play “Appropriate”.

From September 17–27, 2026, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis returns to the Berges Theatre at COCA with a bold new vision. This year’s theme, “The Tennessee Effect,” celebrates Williams’s massive shadow over modern culture by pairing his timeless spirit with the voices he inspired. Fresh off a triumphant Broadway run that secured the Tony Award for Best Revival, this play marks a historic evolution for the Festival. Tickets go on sale June 1st at TWSTL.org.

Why Appropriate Was Chosen for The St. Louis Festival

“We are expanding our programming to include contemporary voices shaped by his legacy,” said Carrie Houk, executive artistic director for the St. Louis festival. “This evolution reflects our growing and increasingly diverse audience and strengthens our commitment to artistic relevance and inclusion,” she said.

Why “Appropriate” Inspired The “Tennessee Effect”

On a trip to New York City, Carrie Houk was enjoying a play. She was struck by a thought — “My God, this could be The Glass Menagerie or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof of our era now. It was magnificent,” Houk said.

She went back to her hotel room, Googled Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and found that one of his greatest inspirations is Tennessee Williams. That led Houk to Jacobs-Jenkins’ previous play Appropriate, a dramedy that takes place in an appropriately Williams-esque crumbling plantation. Three siblings have gathered to handle their recently deceased father’s estate, a situation that swiftly devolves into a Southern Gothic nightmare. Originally produced in Louisville in 2011, its 2023 Broadway production won the Tony Award for best revival and Drama Desk award for outstanding revival.

Houk is excited to mount it for St. Louis audiences this fall. “I think they will immediately see the connection with Tennessee Williams,” she says. “And I do believe that if Mr. Williams were alive today, he would be applauding us loudly for forging ahead with this.”

Why Will “Old” Tennessee Audiences Enjoy the Effect of the “New” Influence

The hope is that patrons who’ve enjoyed the festival’s exceptional productions of Williams’ classics will come along for this more modern play. And if some aren’t ready for it, that’s OK: Houk notes that the satellite events that are always a part of the festival will have traditionalists covered. “There will be Tennessee Williams’ words produced at this festival this year,” she promises. Expect further news about that as we get closer to the festival.

The TWSTL board feels that Appropriate by Jacobs-Jenkins is a perfect choice for the Festival’s Main Stage production for its 11th season, “The Tennessee Effect.” Jacobs-Jenkins is widely regarded as one of the most important playwrights of his generation. A Pulitzer Prize winner for Purpose and a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Play, he has acknowledged Williams’s profound impact on his writing. Many consider him a contemporary theatrical heir to Williams, particularly in his focus on Southern settings and complex family dynamics. Producing the St. Louis premiere of Appropriate is both an artistic milestone and a statement of our commitment to honoring Williams through dialogue with today’s leading dramatists.

Origins of “Appropriate”

“Appropriate” was originally developed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays. It recently had a celebrated Broadway run starring Sarah Paulson. Her performance earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, and the production received Best Revival of a Play. Like Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, Appropriate explores fractured family relationships, inheritance, memory, and the uneasy presence of the past. Including this play in our season brings Williams’s thematic concerns into the twenty-first century, demonstrating that his influence remains urgent and alive.

Is Branden Jacobs- Jenkins A Theatrical Heir to Tennessee Williams

Tony Award winner and American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins won a Tony Award in 2024 for his play *Appropriate*.

Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is is widely considered a modern theatrical heir to Tennessee Williams.

He was even awarded the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award by the Sundance Institute early in his career Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to Receive Tennessee Williams Award and is frequently cited as the contemporary voice carrying the torch for intense, character-driven.

Why is “Appropriate” Transformative

The Festival exists to expand access to transformative artistic experiences. It believes art deepens empathy and fosters compassion. In a time when many voices are marginalized or silenced, they affirm the power of theatre to confront difficult truths. Williams consistently wrote about otherness and belonging; “Appropriate” similarly examines a white Southern family confronting a destabilizing legacy. The play wrestles with race, memory, and generational responsibility, inviting audiences to consider how history shapes identity in contemporary America. Presenting this work creates space for meaningful conversation while drawing new and diverse audiences to the Festival.

Why “Appropriate” Emanates “The Tennessee Effect

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate is considered Tennessee Williams-inspired because it acts as a modern Southern Gothic homage, utilizing a dysfunctional family returning to a decaying Arkansas home to confront a dark, buried past. It mirrors Williams' style through intense, unhinged characters, high-stakes familial melodrama, and the examination of secrets, race, and hypocrisy.

Similar to Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Appropriate explores the same themes – fractured family, inheritance, memory, and the uneasy presence on the past and its impact on the future.

Key Aspects of the Play

The Plot: Siblings Toni (the eldest), Bo (the middle brother), and Frank/Franz (the estranged youngest) reunite, bringing their own baggage, addictions, and secrets to a crumbling, debt-ridden family home.
The Conflict: The discovery of disturbing, racist, and morbid items in their father's belongings forces the siblings to grapple with the reality of their father’s past, and by extension, the nature of American history and racial violence.
Core Themes: The play explores the legacy of America's racial history, the concept of southern whiteness, and the uncomfortable truth that families often inherit both financial and moral debt.
Genre & Tone: While operating within the structure of a classic Southern family drama, it is a subversive "dramedy" (drama-comedy) that features sharp dialogue, intense confrontation, and jarring, macabre humor.
Title Meaning: The title plays on the word "appropriate," suggesting both the seizure of items/history (appropriation) and what is considered suitable or "proper" behavior.

The “Tennessee Effect” Includes

Southern Gothic Atmosphere: Like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the play features a family gathering in a decayed Southern home, filled with resentment and sordid history.

Dysfunctional Family Drama: The plot centers on siblings arguing over their deceased father’s legacy, evoking the emotional turbulence often found in Williams' works.
Secrets and Deception: The characters grapple with "mendacity" (lying) and hidden secrets—specifically involving the father's racist past—which, like in a Williams play, are unearthed with violent consequences.
"Southern Discomfort": It explores the moral decay and refusal to face the past of a white American family, often described as a "Southern discomfort" play.

About the Director

Benny Sato Ambush is a veteran, well-traveled, professional stage director and a long-time member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union (SDC). He is a former Artistic Director of four theatres (LORT, SPT, Community, Academic), an MFA-BFA-BA teacher of acting and directing nationally, a published commentator, a consultant, a public speaker, and a contributor to thought leadership in the U.S. theatre ecosystem through participation in many national service organizations.

Much of his work champions an inclusive human pluralism. He has collaborated with a multiplicity of identities and communities to amplify their voices/worldviews, elevate consciousness, enlarge human understanding, inspire hope, uplift the human lot, and advocate for proactive agency in repairing and uniting a broken world.

Beyond Season 11’s Mainstage Production

In addition to the main stage production of “Appropriate,” the highly respected scholars panel and other additions to the Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Appropriate” will be presented September 17-27, 2026, at COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre. As we broaden our scope, we remain committed to producing Williams’s extraordinary body of work for years to come, including Orpheus Descending, Sweet Bird of Youth, Camino Real, Summer and Smoke, Spring Storm, and The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. “The Tennessee Effect” affirms that Williams’s voice continues to shape American theatre today.

About the tennessee williams festival st. louis

In 2014, award-winning producer, casting director, actor, and educator Carrie Houk produced Williams’ Stairs to the Roof to such success that an ongoing annual festival was established. Now in its 11th season, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis enriches the cultural life of St. Louis by producing an annual theater festival and other artistic and educational events that celebrate the art and influence of Tennessee Williams. In 2019, TWSTL was named the Arts Startup of the Year by the St. Louis Arts and Education Council. Since 2016, the festival has attracted more than 20 thousand patrons from around the country to its readings, panel discussions, concerts, exhibitions, and productions, and has reached hundreds of young people through its educational programming. TWSTL has earned 12 awards from the St. Louis Theater Circle and was recently nominated for two more for 2025’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

The Legacy of Tennessee Williams

Born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Mississippi, Williams moved to St. Louis at age seven, when his father was made an executive with the International Shoe Company (where the City Museum and the Last Hotel are now located). He lived here for more than two decades, attending Washington University, working at the International Shoe Company, and producing his first plays at local theaters. He credited his sometimes-difficult experiences in St. Louis for the deeply felt poetic essence that permeates his artistry. When asked later in life when he left St. Louis, he replied, “I never really left.” Most people are familiar with the famous works that have garnered multiple Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards, and Academy Awards, such as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly Last Summer. He also wrote hundreds of additional plays, stories, essays, and poems, many of which are only now seeing the light of day as his estate permits greater access. Today, Williams is considered by many leading authorities to be one of America’s greatest playwrights.