The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis is returning to live performances next month with a headliner that couldn’t be bigger: “The Glass Menagerie” will be performed at the Central West End building where the legendary playwright lived and where the award-winning play was imagined.
The festival, now in its sixth season, kicks off Thursday, Aug. 19, with “The Glass Menagerie,” the play that first brought Williams national acclaim and is considered by many to be his most autobiographical work.
The character of Tom Wingfield, the play’s narrator and protagonist, strongly mirrors many aspects of Williams’ personal life. The playwright, whose given name was Thomas, changed it to Tennessee when he was in his late 20s. Williams, like Tom, aspired to be a writer and worked at the same shoe factory where his father toiled.
Williams was 7 years old when the family relocated to St. Louis for his father’s job at the International Shoe Company. “The Glass Menagerie” will be performed outdoors behind the building on Westminster Place (now known as The Tennessee) where the Williams family first settled and lived from 1918 to 1922.
“I would drive by this building all the time, and when I would have visiting Tennessee Williams scholars, it’s the first thing they want to see,” said Carrie Houk, founder and executive artistic director of Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. “I stared at the back of the building and said to myself, ‘We could do this. Is it slightly insane? Yes!’”
Houk credits her team of designers, engineers and director Brian Hohlfeld, among others, for turning her vision into reality.
“When they actually stood at the parking lot and looked at the back of the building, they thought, ‘This is historic … why in the world would we not do this?’” she recalled.
Houk says it’s always been a dream to produce “The Glass Menagerie” where Williams lived, noting the pandemic, which forced the festival to take to the airwaves last year, was a driving factor to make it happen live on stage in 2021.
“We took our whole festival and dropped it lock, stock and barrel onto the airwaves on Classic 107.3,” she said. “’The Glass Menagerie’ was the centerpiece of that festival. The cast was stellar, and there was a certain magic that was obtained by it.”
Conventional wisdom would dictate the theatrical production be performed inside the apartment, but with lessons learned from the pandemic, Houk and her team put their creativity to work to transform it for the outdoors.
“I love site-specific theatre, but we felt most comfortable performing at an outdoor venue,” she said. “The thing about this venue is that you could imagine The Gentleman Caller and Tom Wingfield arriving after their day at the shoe company, walking down the sidewalk. We’re utilizing the exteriors of the building onto the set – the fire escape and the landings where he had his heart-to-hearts with his mother.”
Houk says this season’s production of “The Glass Menagerie” has been a dream since the festival’s beginnings.
“It’s my favorite Tennessee Williams play. It’s the most iconic of his St. Louis plays, of which there are many,” she said. “I’ve always loved Tennessee Williams and never really understood why St. Louis didn’t honor him with a theatre festival. New Orleans does, Provincetown, Massachusetts does, Clarksdale, Mississippi does, why not St. Louis? He spent 20 years here, which is the longest he’s spent anywhere.”
With the support of key individuals from the local business and arts community, Houk was able to launch the festival’s inaugural season in 2016. Since its founding, the Tennessee Williams Festival has attracted thousands to its productions, readings, panel discussions, concerts and exhibitions, as well as garnered a dozen awards from the St. Louis Theater Circle. In 2019, the Arts and Education Council recognized the festival as the Arts Startup of the Year at the St. Louis Arts Awards.
In addition to “The Glass Menagerie,” (Aug. 19 to 22 and Aug. 26 to 29), the 2021 season includes “You Lied to Me about Centralia” (Aug. 21 and 22). Adapted by John Guare based on Williams’ short story, “Portrait of a Girl in Glass,” the play picks up where “The Glass Menagerie” ends. Other season highlights include scholars’ panels, walking tours of Williams’ St. Louis and more.
The theme of the 2021 festival is “The Moon and Beyond: Tennessee Williams and the Central West End.”
“The Central West End is pretty important in the Williams lore,” Houk noted, adding that the walking tour includes stops such as the apartment on Westminster Place, as well as the Wednesday Club building, the former home of the Mummers theatre group where Williams got his start in the theatre and as a playwright.
As the new season draws near, Houk says the stars are aligning to make a dream a reality.
“If there’s anything we’ve learned in the last 18 months, it’s that we have to be flexible,” she said. “Our whole team has been vaxxed … and because it’s outdoors, we’ve scheduled a couple of rain dates. But we’re going to have a full moon on opening night, and we have the best technicians and the best engineers in the world and they are bringing it!”
The cast of “The Glass Menagerie” includes Bradley Tejeda as Tom Wingfield; Brenda Currin as Tom’s mother, Amanda; Elizabeth Teeter as Tom’s sister, Laura; and Chauncy Thomas as The Gentleman Caller. Performances are at 8 p.m. at The Tennessee (4633 Westminster Place).
For ticket information and a complete festival schedule, visit the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis website.
