Tennessee Williams Theatre Company to Present THE ROSE TATTOO, 7/22-8/7

Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans sets sail for uncharted territory in its second season, opening with The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams. The playwright's love letter to Italy was a Broadway blockbuster, winning a Tony Award for Best Play in 1951. Although its characters are mostly described as Sicilian, the play doesn't take place in the Mediterranean, but right here in the Gulf South! To realize the scope of this play and to engage the local and educational community, TWTC is partnering with Dillard University Theatre to collaborate on this production.

The Rose Tattoo chronicles a three-year journey of Serafina delle Rose (played by Lillian J. Small), an immigrant who is a pillar of her tight-knit community reduced to rubble after the sudden death of her husband. Her friends and loved ones beg for her to return to the fold, but she can't overcome her grief. She cloisters herself away and keeps her daughter captive like Rapunzel in a magic tower. She is shaken abruptly out of her mourning by learning truths about her husband which cause her to question everything about her life, choices, values, and beliefs. When she's left with nothing to believe in, will she rejoin her community, or lose her daughter and her mind?

"The seriousness of the subject matter-Serafina's grief and spiritual crisis-are set off playfully against squealing neighborhood children, wild party girls trampling through her home, an outlandish witch, and a runaway goat," states director Augustin J Correro, "Williams could easily have made this a languishing tragedy, but instead he crafted a hilarious, joyous celebration of life set against the backdrop of death. It's something I think a New Orleans audience really understands. A place which celebrates funerals with parades and dresses up death in macabre decadence is the perfect place to stage a comedy centered around a cremation urn."

Correro suggests you get comfortable with loud people and big personalities for this performance which will be in the beautiful Samuel Dubois Cook Theatre on the Dillard Campus. Audience members will be up close and personal with this nosy, over-the-top circus of a town in modern dress, and you just might find yourself on their front lawn in the middle of a fracas.

Co-Artistic Director Nick Shackleford says: "One of the most exciting parts of this production is our collaboration with Dillard University. We have students and faculty involved in this production, and although we will be putting our signature TWTC spin on the use of the space, it's wonderful to have such talent and technical resources at our disposal. Dillard University has opened its beautiful campus and facility to us and we're extremely grateful."

Local favorites Michael P. Sullivan, Mary Pauley and Mike Spara will join a diverse cast including locals and newcomers to the New Orleans professional theatre scene. The cast will work as an ensemble to serve broad, brilliant, and sometimes buffoonish physical accompaniment to Serafina's plight.

Tattoo is the first production of TWTC's Second Season, focusing on savage, primal forces in human relationships. This season, expect to see carnivorous birds, overgrown plants, and powerful, vividly drawn portrayals of women at the ends of their ropes.

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