Tennessee Williams Festival

The Second Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival will feature an appearance by poet/playwright Amiri Baraka. Under the name of LeRoy Jones, Amiri Baraka wrote the play Dutchman in 1964 and in doing so, changed the American theatre radically. He is invited to Provincetown as part of the festival to share his vision of Tennessee Williams as forever provocative and political.

The four-day Festival features Williams’ work in various genres including film, dance, poetry, photography, music and plays. This year’s festival trumpets Williams startling unknown work – from science fiction to laugh-out-loud farce to scalpel-sharp self-examination. The 2007 festival will debut the world premiere of Williams’ short play, Sun Burst, written in 1980. This unpublished play will be paired with The One Exception, a text completed by Williams in January 1983, a few weeks before his death.

In addition, the festival will highlight new work created especially for the festival by an international gathering of playwrights, film-makers, choreographers, musicians, poets, sculptors, acrobats and drag queens – all inspired by Tennessee Williams. Additionally, the festival will focus on the role of women in Williams’ work. Featuring performances directed by women, original work created by women writers, choreographers and performance artists, the festival will continue to celebrate Provincetown’s cherished diversity.

This year’s schedule of performances, curated by David Kaplan, will highlight dance, performance art, live music, dramatic performances and original films. The programming focuses on the rule-bending writing Williams created after he turned 60, in 1971. Williams’ experiments late in life channel his early exposure to the avant garde art scene in the late 40’s in Provincetown. Several programs will highlight Provincetown in the 1940’s including an homage to performance artist Valeska Gert, performed by Julie Atlas Muz. A Valeska biographer from Berlin, Susanne Foellmer, will also speak and show Valeska footage from the 1920’s to the 1970’s.