The Fire Weeds Makes NYC Debut With OUTRAGED HEARTS Featuring Two One-Act Plays By Tennessee Williams

Hot off an acclaimed run as part of the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival, new female-centric theatre company The Fire Weeds is bringing its inaugural production to New York City in an industry-targeted run this June. "Outraged Hearts" is an evening of two rarely produced prototypes for American classics, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Co-produced with Tony-nominated Future Home Productions and Torn Page.

These two plays, The Pretty Trap and Interior: Panic, illuminate some of Williams' earliest impulses toward these stories, illuminating and challenging assumptions about these characters that have emerged since the premieres of their final forms. Most strikingly, these forgotten gems expand our understanding of the inner lives and complex worlds of the women who would go on to iconic reverence in the later works. Staged immersively in Chelsea's historic Torn Page, get ready to be captivated by Williams' unique storytelling and unforgettable characters with an unflinching feminist gaze that promises a night of raw emotions and powerful performances.

Comments from Artistic Directors Jaclyn Bethany and Lin Gathright: "We are thrilled to share our immersive and bold, inventive and feminist take on Tennessee Williams in a space so aligned with the legacy of Williams. The Fire Weeds offers a new perspective on iconic characters through explorations of early versions of his most famous works."
For more information, visit The Fire Weeds website here.

The production team in New Orleans for "Outraged Hearts" included Lindsey Neville (Co-Director), Mackenzie Franco (Scenic Designer), Adachi Pimentel (Lighting Designer), Stacy Scarborough (Costume Designer), Amara Skinner (Sound Designer), Grace Curley (Production Stage Manager), Monica Ordonez (Choreographer), Mary Day (Technical Director).

The New York team adds Co-Producer Josh Sobel (FutureHome), Torn Page, Executive Producer Carl Black, Scenic Designer and Graphic Designer Maya Irvine, Intimacy Director Nicole Chaffin, and Daisy Friedman.

Originally presented with the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival with support from the New Orleans Theatre Association, Fractured Atlas, and Threadhead Cultural Foundation, the NYC transfer is Executive Produced by Carl Black and co-produced by FutureHome Productions at Torn Page.

The Pretty Trap (A Comedy in One Act) and Interior: Panic by Tennessee Williams is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

The Pretty Trap (A Comedy in One Act) and Interior: Panic is presented by Special Arrangement with the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Tennessee Williams (Playwright) was one of the preeminent American dramatists of the 20th century. His major plays include The Glass Menagerie (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award), Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), Orpheus Descending, Suddenly, Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Night of the Iguana (Tony Award), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and Vieux Carre. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Baby Doll, a novel titled The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and over seventy one-act plays. Born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911 to a shoe salesman and a southern belle, Williams grew up in Mississippi and later St. Louis, Missouri. He attended university in Missouri and became interested in theatre, adopting the name Tennessee. Williams died in 1983 at the age of 71.

Lin Gathright (Co-Artistic Director, Amanda/Blanche) is the co-artistic director of New Orleans' new female-focused theater company, The Fire Weeds. She is an actress in theater, film, and television. Most notably, Triple Lexx in Killing of A Lesbian Bookie and Sylvia Mills in American Horror Story: Freak Show. She is also known as burlesque icon Bunny Love. She is a fan of Tennessee Williams and has had the pleasure of bringing many of his characters to life.

Jaclyn Bethany (Director, Co-Artistic Director, Laura/Grace) is an actor and Emmy award-winning filmmaker, writer, and Director. She holds an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute, an MA in Screenwriting from the London Film School, and a BA in Theater Performance from Fordham University. She can be seen in lead and supporting roles in numerous indie and studio films. Jaclyn has directed eight feature films and an Emmy award-winning digital series, The Rehearsal. Her films have been shown at festivals worldwide (Berlinale and Santa Barbara, among others) and released by companies such as Giant, Bohemia, and Icon. Her recent film, Tell That to the Winter Sea (Kaleidoscope UK), featuring an all-female cast, will play UK and Irish cinemas in June 2024, followed by two feature films set to be released this summer. She is in post-production on the feature In Transit featuring Jennifer Ehle and Francois Arnaud and Delusion, a collaboration with Adult Film NYC. She is in pre-production on All Five Eyes, co-written and co-starring Greta Bellamacina, which features Honor Swinton-Byrne (A24's The Souvenir). Jaclyn has worked extensively with theater companies across the US and UK, including Clubbed Thumb, the Arcola, Berkshire Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, and Invulnerable Nothings. She recently portrayed Laura in The Glass Menagerie in the New Stage Theatre revival. She has presented research and moderated panels on Tennessee Williams and his female characters across the US and UK. She is repped by Buchwald NY/LA and Alta Global Media in Los Angeles.

FutureHome is a Tony-nominated multimedia, multi-disciplinary development, and production incubator seeking to leave the world more hopeful than they found it. Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award-nominated co-producer/investor on Broadway's Gutenberg! The Musical!, Appropriate, and The Wiz. Additional recent and current projects include: GOON, a proof-of-concept heist short; the short films Whole and Six Feet Apart, selected for Oscar-qualifying festivals; Godvein, an immersive fantasy roleplaying game experience with a 4-course meal; The Femininity Project, a "docu-mythologia" about masculine fear of the feminine; and Awake & Narcoleptic, a solo show about invisible disability (Playbill Pick, Edinburgh Fringe 2023). Upcoming: Crossing The Desert, a Bengali-English coming-out short film; The Hunting of the Snark, an immersive Lewis Carroll adaptation (2024 Hollywood Fringe).