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August 9, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: Rory Marcus
RoryMarcusPR@aol.com
508.760.2039
Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival Presents
Coffee with William Jay Smith, Former U.S. Poet Laureate
A Conversation About His Friend, the Unknown Tennessee Williams
September 26, 2010, 11 am
(Provincetown, MA – Aug 9, 2010) The Tennessee Williams Theater Festival will offer audiences a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear personal stories about Tennessee Williams from an award-winning poet who shared friendship and a love of poetry with Williams during their college days, back when they still called him Tom.
William Jay Smith’s book, “My Friend Tom – The Poet-Playwright Tennessee Williams” will be published by the University of Mississippi Press in 2011, but this September at the TW Festival Smith will share his personal insights into Williams’ character, talent, friendships and influences, including that of his indomitable mother, -- the woman who inspired the famous character Amanda Wingfield in “The Glass Menagerie.”
TW Festival Curator David Kaplan says that the theme of this year’s festival – UNDER THE INFLUENCE – has special significance for Smith who was close to the playwright in St. Louis from 1935 to 1940, when, completely unknown, Williams produced his first full-length plays. Smith says, “I was aware of the people, past and present, who influenced him at the time. It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to bear witness to the powerful influence that my friend Tom (Tennessee) with his enduring work, now has throughout the world.”
William Jay Smith was born in 1918 in Winnfield, Louisiana. Like Williams, he was a displaced Southerner who moved to St. Louis as a child and he studied at Washington University in St. Louis with Williams. His full and interesting life is reflected in his prolific writings of more than 50 books of poetry, children’s verses, translations, criticism, and memoirs.
Smith’s poems have been published and reviewed in American and worldwide journals since he was a young man. Noted for his translations, he has won awards from the French Academy, the Swedish Academy, and the Hungarian government. He was honored with the Louisiana Writers Award, a recognition for lifetime achievement from the area that influenced him during his formative years.
Son of an army band member, he grew up in the barracks he remembers so vividly in his memoir, “Army Brat.” He became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, lived in France and Italy, and became a poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (the position now known as the U. S. Poet Laureate) from 1968 until 1970. Of Choctaw descent, Smith also wrote what some consider a masterpiece, “The Cherokee Lottery,” the history of the Trail of Tears.
Smith, who splits his time between Cummington, MA and France, says the key to his vitality at the age of 92 is his devotion to his writing. “It makes me feel alive to write. It’s important to exercise the brain as well as the body.”
New Directions Editor Thomas Keith will lead the discussion at Coffee With William Jay Smith at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Smith recently wrote the introduction for the New Directions publication of “Candles to the Sun.”
Tickets to this TW Fest event are open to holders of the Williams Pass and Sustaining Donors. For information, see www.twptown.org/
About this year’s Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival:
For UNDER THE INFLUENCE artists from Los Angeles to New York and Chicago to Florida will converge on Provincetown in performance of well-known works by Tennessee Williams, complemented by work that inspired him and work that he inspired in today’s artists. Some highlights of performances of plays, dance, music, and art, throughout the seaside village that inspired the writer during his early years are:
“Orpheus Descending” by Tennessee Williams, and a companion gallery exhibition of artists in Orpheus in the Galleries
The World Premiere of Williams never seen short play, “American Gothic.”
“Diff’rent” by Eugene O’Neill, which Williams saw as a young man in Provincetown.
“The Jazz Funeral of Stella Brooks,” inspired by Williams’ friendship with the jazz singer known as “the white Billie Holiday.”
For the full program of performances and events, see www.twptown.org/.
