A panel discussion on the theatre and film works of Tennessee Williams will feature actors Ellen Burstyn, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jodie Markell, Elaine Stritch, and Eli Wallach. Burstyn and Howard are set to star in the newly discovered "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" screenplay by Williams. The film is directed by Markell. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times will moderate.
An all-star panel of actors and directors will talk about the enduring legacy of Tennessee Williams, who was among the most important and influential playwrights of the 20th century. The upcoming movie The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, the directorial debut of actress Jodie Markell, is based on a rediscovered screenplay by Williams. Markell and two of the film's stars, Ellen Burstyn and Bryce Dallas Howard, will be on the panel, along with the legendary Elaine Stritch, who recently presented an evening "The Lighter Side of Tennessee Williams," and the equally legendary Eli Wallach, who made his memorable screen debut in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll. Charles Isherwood, theater critic for The New York Times, will moderate the program. The evening will include scenes from films including A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Doll, and The Fugitive Kind, and an exclusive look at scenes from The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.
The discussion will be presented at the Museum of the Moving Image and will coincide with their "Tennessee Williams on Film" festival, to be presented December 5th through 13th. The festival will feature showings of "The Glass Menagerie", "Suddenly, Last Summer", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and "The Fugitive Kind."
Williams lived for a time in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA. He first lived at 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carré. The building is part of The Historic New Orleans Collection. He began writing A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street. He finished it later in Key West, Florida, where he moved in the 1940s. While in New Orleans, Williams met and fell in love with Frank Merlo, a second generation Sicilian American who had served in the U.S. Navy in World War II.
Tennessee was close to his sister Rose, a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. As was common then, Rose was institutionalized and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. When therapies were unsuccessful, she showed more paranoid tendencies. In an effort to treat her, Rose's parents authorized a prefrontal lobotomy, a drastic treatment that was thought to help some mental patients who suffered extreme agitation. Performed in 1937 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the operation incapacitated Rose for the rest of her life.
Williams never forgave his parents. Her surgery may have contributed to his alcoholism and his dependence on various combinations of amphetamines and barbiturates often prescribed by Dr. Max (Feelgood) Jacobson.
Williams worked extremely briefly in the renowned Gotham Book Mart in Manhattan, lasting less than a day.
Williams' relationship with Frank Merlo lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1963. With that stability, Williams created his most enduring works. Merlo provided balance to many of Williams' frequent bouts with depression and the fear that, like his sister Rose, he would go insane.
The "mad heroine" theme that appeared in many of his plays seemed clearly influenced by the life of Williams' sister Rose. Characters in his plays are often seen as representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was understood to be modeled on Rose. Some biographers believed that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is also based on her.
Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was generally seen to represent Williams' mother, Edwina. Characters such as Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer were understood to represent Williams himself. In addition, he used a lobotomy operation as a motif in Suddenly, Last Summer.
