Richard Thomas Will Read Letters of Tennessee Williams to Open MTC’s 2005 "Writers in Performance" Season

Manhattan Theatre Club will open the 35th anniversary season of its “Writers in Performance” (WIP) literary series on Monday, March 21 with Blanche and Beyond, a tribute to Tennessee Williams by Richard Thomas, at 8pm on MTC’s Stage I at City Center (131 West 55th Street).

Thomas will read from The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams: Vol. II: 1945-1957, edited by Albert J. Devlin and co-edited by Nancy M. Tischler. The book includes letters that Williams wrote to friends, family, lovers, and fellow artists during a period of intense creativity and self-doubt; they deal with such matters as production qualities, censorship, homophobia, personal loss, and depression.

Richard Thomas’s Broadway career began in 1958 with Sunrise at Campobello. His other New York stage credits include Fifth of July, The Seagull, The Front Page, Tiny Alice, and The Stendhal Syndrome. Thomas has appeared in many films and in more than 40 movies for television; in 1972, he won an Emmy Award for his starring role in the TV series The Waltons.

The actor comes to MTC’s “Writers in Performance” on his night off from the Broadway show Democracy. He returns to familiar territory with Blanche and Beyond, having toured the country in A Distant Country Called Youth reading the letters of the young Tennessee Williams. Tickets for Blanche and Beyond are priced at $17.50 and can be reserved by calling Manhattan Theatre Club at 212-399-3030.