TENNESSEE RISING: THE DAWN OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS to Return Off-Broadway For Pride Month

The newly renovated AMT Theater in midtown will host a special LGBT+ Pride return engagement of the Off-Broadway Premiere of TENNESSEE RISING: THE DAWN OF Tennessee Williams, a solo play written and performed by Jacob Storms and originally directed for the stage by Alan Cumming. It will run June 2 - 23 before heading to Edinburgh this summer and Rochester, NY in September.

What led Tennessee Williams to become the most groundbreaking and unique playwright of the twentieth century? TENNESSEE RISING: THE DAWN OF Tennessee Williams explores the formative six-year period from 1939-1945 in which an unknown writer named Tom metamorphosizes into the acclaimed playwright known as Tennessee. The solo play brings these unknown years center stage as the audience becomes friend and confidant to young Williams as he experiences the unexpected highs and devastating lows of his early career, wherein his most iconic character emerges: himself.

An earlier version of TENNESSEE RISING received the United Solo Award for Best One-Man Show at the 2017 United Solo Festival in New York City and headlined the 2018 Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. The current version, under the direction of Alan Cumming, was slated to premiere in March 2020 at the Beaubourg Theatre in New Orleans but was canceled due to Covid. And in the spring of 2021, Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre hosted a limited engagement run on their outdoor patio for an audience of only 20 per performance.

Jacob Storms is best known for his recurring role (Serge) on Steven Soderbergh & Gregory Jacobs' Amazon Original Series, Red Oaks. Jacob won the United Solo Award for his original solo play, Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams, at United Solo Fest. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Guggenheim Museum, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York Live Arts Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Symphony Space, The St. Louis, New Orleans, and Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festivals, The Hollywood Bowl, Disney Concert Hall, PICA's Time-Based Art Festival, the cell theatre and more. Jacob is also the youngest actor in the world to have performed Doug Wright's Pulitzer Prize winning, forty-character solo play, I Am My Own Wife. Follow Jacob on instagram @therealjacobstorms and Jacobstorms.net.

Alan Cumming is beyond eclectic. His most recent projects include creating a dance theatre piece about the Scottish bard Robert Burns, lip-synching the protagonist in a documentary, directing a podcast series about a sperm bank heist, playing a gangster opposite Liam Neason in a Neil Jordan film, curating a cabaret festival in Australia and recording a duet with a Gaelic rapper. Perhaps not surprisingly, Time Magazine called him one of the three most fun people in show business (the others were Cher and Stanley Tucci!).

TENNESSEE RISING runs June 2 - 23, Fridays at 5pm. Running time is 75 minutes. AMT Theater is located at 354 West 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. Tickets are $24 - $47, available at www.SpinCycleNYC.com.

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