COFFEE WITH MITCH DOUGLAS, Tennessee Williams' Agent, Set for Provincetown Festival, 9/20-23

Mitch Douglas, Tennessee Williams' last literary agent at ICM, will join the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival in an informal conversation with Festival Curator David Kaplan over Coffee during the four-day festival taking place September 20-23, 2012.

Mitch Douglas, the shy son of a poor Kentucky coal miner, never dreamed he'd be rubbing elbows with Hollywood celebrities or that he would be representing Tennessee Williams, as well as Arthur Miller, or that he'd work with the musical theater's Kander and Ebb and with Shelley Winters on her life story through the powerhouse agency of ICM for over 20 years.

David Kaplan first interviewed Mitch Douglas in 2006 as preparation for the book Tennessee Williams in Provincetown. "We met, at Mitch's suggestion, at a show biz watering hole. His stories about Williams were so good, and funny -- and outrageous -- that people from other tables were openly eavesdropping and trying not to laugh. It should be fun to have him tell them in Provincetown with an audience invited to laugh. Better still, Mitch had true insight to Williams' later writing. He'd been there as the plays were being drafted, rewritten, and reshaped (sometimes for the better, sometimes not) in rehearsals and performances."

Douglas, a lively, Southern storyteller in his own right, revels in talking about the unique experiences he's had with the famous and infamous during those years.

It was Douglas' disarming charm that compelled others to recognize his talents and open doors for him, but it was his dedication and very hard work that led him to his many accomplishments.

Throughout his career, Douglas has represented new and veteran writing talent in the fields of books and plays. Besides Playwright Tennessee Williams, his clients included novelist and playwright Henry Denker, Graham Greene, Arthur Miller, musical theatre's Kander and Ebb, historian/novelist James Alexander Thom, and the Nunsense musicals creator, Dan Goggin. He also handled Eartha Kitt's memoirs as well as Shelley Winters' life story.

Coffee With Mitch Douglas takes place at the Fine Arts Work Center during the 7th Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival. This year's theme of "Tennessee Williams and Music" presents the pleasures of music in the drama of America's great playwright.

The seaside village of Provincetown will be alive with the sounds of blues, Mariachi, Dixieland, American Pop, Art Song and African drums. Theater artists from around the globe will converge on this art colony where Williams worked over several summers in the 1940s, performing his classic "The Glass Menagerie," his little known works such as "Kingdom of Earth" from South Africa, and new works that he has inspired, such as "Autumn Song," a dramatic meeting of poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Tennessee Williams in conversation through their poetry and jazz.

"Coffee with Mitch Douglas" is only open to holders of the VIP Carte Blanche all access pass , Students of the TW Institute and Sustaining Donors. Tickets and passes for productions at the Festival are on sale online at www.twptown.org or by phone at 866/789-TENN (8366). Tickets can be purchased individually or in special packages, such as the Carte Blanche VIP all access pass, the Flex Pass that allows you to create your own package, and the Discount Student Study Pass for full time students. Discounts are also available for groups.

 

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