A.C.T. to Welcome John Lahr in Conversation with Carey Perloff, 10/6

American Conservatory Theater, in association with The Commonwealth Club of Northern California, will present John Lahr in Conversation with Carey Perloff on the occasion of the release of his newest biography, "TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" on Monday, October 6 at 7 p.m. at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco).

For more than two decades, John Lahr, as The New Yorker's senior drama critic, has captivated readers with his vivid and thought-provoking reviews and profiles. Now, the Tony award winner and author of twenty books presents an authoritative biography of arguably one of the most brilliant playwrights of the twentieth century.

"TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh" -- available beginning September 22 -- gives intimate access like never before to the mind of the writer whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation's sense of self. Mr. Lahr will be signing books following the conversation. Entry into the event is free, but all guests must reserve a ticket by visiting www.act-sf.org/lahr or by calling 415.749.2228.

While more than forty books have been written about the playwright since his death in 1983, Lahr presents the most personal, multilayered perspective to date, reinterpreting the plays and the life through the lens of his subject's childhood. At the outset of his career, Williams vowed to write plays that were "a picture of my own heart." His plays, including The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), are an emotional autobiography that echo Williams's warring parents-a tyrannical father and overbearing Puritan mother; his fragile, lobotomized sister; his hysteria; his promiscuous homosexuality; his alcoholism; his battle to unlearn repression and to refashion himself into a free, carnal, creative adult. The plays, which were later made into films, gave defining roles to many of the century's greatest actors: Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar, Laurette Taylor as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie, Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach as Serafina and Alvaro in The Rose Tattoo, and Geraldine Page as the Princess in Sweet Bird of Youth.

Drawing on interviews with Williams's lovers (including Pancho Rodriguez, the model for Stanley Kowalski) and his brother, Dakin Williams; his voluminous correspondence, diaries, and unpublished poems and plays; and the letters of his long-time agent, Audrey Wood, and his major collaborator, director Elia Kazan, "TENNESSEE WILLIAMS" redraws the map of the man and his work. Nearly one hundred photographs, many never before seen, complete the portrait.

In the sensational saga of Williams's rise and fall, Lahr superbly dramatizes not just the tempestuous public façade but also the thrilling backstage life where Brando, Anna Magnani, Bette Davis, Maureen Stapleton, Diana Barrymore, Tallulah Bankhead, Eli Wallach, and Laurette Taylor all have scintillating walk-on parts. It's biography of the highest order: a book about the major American playwright of his time written by the major American drama critic of his time.

JOHN LAHR is the author of seventeen previous books on the theater and two novels, among other publications. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, where for two decades he was the magazine's senior drama critic. He previously wrote for the Nation, the Village Voice, and British Vogue, among other publications. He has twice won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and twice been included in volumes of The Best American Essays. His stage adaptations have been performed around the world; he is the first critic ever to win a Tony Award (for co-authoring Elaine Stritch at Liberty). He lives in London. For more information, including his fall schedule of events, visit www.johnlahr.com. Follow him on Twitter: @johnlahrwriter.

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