Tennessee Williams One-Acts Wraps UW Drama's 2012-13 Season, Now thru 6/9

UW School of Drama presents five one-act plays by Tennessee Williams, directed by MFA directing candidates Leah Adcock-Starr and Tina Polzin and featuring performers from the School of Drama's graduate and undergraduate programs. Previews begin tonight, May 29 at the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre. Opening Night is Friday May 31 and the production runs through Sunday, June 9.

Tennessee Williams is recognized as an American literary icon. He was a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, plays and screen plays. And the five plays in this series are snapshots of Williams' creative vision spanning three decades from the 1930s through the 1950s.Williams wrote about social outcasts with deep sympathy and made them his heroes. All of Williams' plays are intensely personal, drawn from family and the South he knew so well; and later, life in New Orleans. Some of his one act plays laid the groundwork for full-length plays including The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)-the latter two won the Pulitzer Prize.

About the Plays:

Mister Paradise, directed by Leah Adcock-Starr
Anthony Paradise has a fan club of one. His forgotten poetry is discovered by a girl who is determined to bring Paradise back to the world and to the fame and renown she believes he deserves. She's fallen in love, but with the poet or the man? For her . . . it's not too late and for him . . . it's not late enough.

The Long Goodbye, directed by Leah Adcock-Starr
"They'll move every stick a furniture out a this place before they do you." His sister's words ring in Joe's ears as movers empty the rooms around him. Every inch of this place holds a memory. Life keeps moving, his friend Silva insists, but first, Joe thinks, you gotta say your goodbyes.

Hello From Bertha, directed by Tina Polzin
There's something heroic and grand about Bertha. She's dying, sick out of her mind in a room in a brothel. Yet she clings to her place and profession with bleak ferocity. There is good she insists, even now - enough to write 'Hello, with love' and know this means something to someone.

Talk to Me Like The Rain and Let Me Listen, directed by Tina Polzin
There's sweet talk, and there's straight talk, and there's just talk. How do a man and woman who've been disjointedly in love for years express fears, feelings and forgiveness to each other in so many words? Only a master poet can say.

Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily? directed by Tina Polzin
Lily's eyes shine "a brilliant tortured green" in Williams' eloquent description as she "exudes another transparent grey cone from her pursed lips." This rebellious young woman is hounded nearly mad by her mother's incessant, inane chatter. If only we could shake her and say, 'For God's sake, Lily, don't quit!'

Leah Adcock-Starr, director, worked as a freelance director, play maker, and educator for theatre companies in the Saint Paul and Minneapolis metro area before joining the MFA Directing program at the University of Washington. In addition, Leah worked for several years as the Teen Programs Coordinator for the Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company. Favorite theatrical adventures include assisting Greg Banks on the award-winning audience immersive production of Romeo and Juliet at the Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company, creating and directingWork of Heart; an original musical odyssey with Interact Arts Center, and directing a promenade STOMP-inspired production ofShakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dreamfor Upright Egg Theatre Company.

Tina Polzin, director, is a graduate of UC Irvine and moved to Paris after completing her degree to direct and design lighting. She has worked with LAByrinth Theater Company and Manhattan Theater Source in New York and produced Fusion Film Festival at NYU and The Estrogenius Theater Festival at MTS, both of which encourage strong working relationships between men and women in the arts. She was also a member of the literary department for North Coast Rep and the Ojai Playwright's Conference. As a writer and teaching artist, Polzin has worked with theaters such as Palo Alto Children's Theater where she led students in the creation of a full length play dealing with war and corporate responsibility. She performs improv and sketch comedy.

Tickets: Ticket and subscription information: (206) 543-4880, or drama.washington.edu. Single tickets at the door: previews Wednesday and Thursday, $10; Wednesday-Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees, $20. Student tickets are $10 to all shows. Tickets for UW employees/UWAA and seniors, are $15. The UW Arts Ticketing Office is located at 1313 NE 41st Street, open Monday-Friday, 11-6 pm.

The University of Washington School of Drama is one of the country's leading training institutions for theatre artists and scholars. Sixteen faculty and 20 staff members serve 150 undergraduate majors and 45 graduate students. The School offers a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education, Masters of Fine Arts degrees in acting, design, and directing, and a PhD in theatre history and criticism.

Internationally, students study and present work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland and in Pontlevoy, France as The Drama Collective. Faculty and alumni have founded theatres such as ACT (Seattle), Azeotrope, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Empty Space Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Emerald City Scene, Jet City Improv, and Next Stage.

For more information, call (206) 543-4880 and visit online at drama.uw.edu.

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