TANDY TALKS TENNESSEE to Benefit Tennessee Williams Key West Museum

Actress Tandy Cronyn, daughter of legendary actors Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, talks about her mother, her father and how their lives intersected with the great American playwright Tennessee Williams in a program to benefit the Tennessee Williams Key West Museum. "Tandy Talks Tennessee" will be streamed live on Saturday, March 13th at 7:00PM. Tickets are $20.

Jessica Tandy, the Tony and Oscar-winning actress originated the role of Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1947, and her father, Hume Cronyn, made it all happen after he optioned a series of plays from Audrey Wood years before Williams had his first success with "The Glass Menagerie". This, along with a number of other stories, anecdotes and reminiscences about her mother and father, one of the most distinguished couples of the American Theater, will take place in conversation with Stephen Kitsakos, theater director, opera librettist and host of the conversation series Between Two Palms at The Studios of Key West who is also an Artistic Associate of the Tennessee Williams Key West Museum.

Ms. Cronyn, who has had a distinguished career as an actor on the Broadway, London stage and in major regional theaters, will present and read from the original postcard sent to her mother by Williams on the opening night of Streetcar, as well as discuss an exchange of letters between her mother and the playwright about the notorious painting, The Poker Night, by Thomas Hart Benton, on display in the Whitney Museum in Manhattan, in which Jessica believed the painter did an injustice to the character by hyper-sexualizing Blanche.

The program also has a pencil line drawing that Benton did to prepare for the painting, a gift to Irene Selznick one of the producers of the original Broadway play as well as a number of other ephemera from her father and mother. In addition, Ms. Cronyn, a member of poetrytheatre.org will read from the playwright's poetry collection. The program is part of a month long celebration of the playwright Tennessee Williams who lived and worked in Key West for over 40 years until his death in 1983. All proceeds benefit the Tennessee Williams Key West Museum which has been shuttered for almost one-year because of the pandemic.

The Museum is operated by the Key West Art & Historical Society. For more information about purchasing a ticket to stream the event which will only be available on Saturday from 7-8PM please visit https://www.kwahs.org/upcoming-event/tandy-talks-tennessee-a-virtual-performance-and-conversation

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