It will be a big weekend for Clarksdale and Tennessee Williams.
The community will host a variety of events aimed at telling the world about one of its most famous native sons with three days of ceremony, events and, of course, performances of some of the playwright’s most famous works.
“This is the 27th year and Clarksdale has always embraced this,” said Jen Waller, co-director of the Tennessee Williams Festival. “The unveiling of the Mississippi Writers Trail Marker honoring Tennessee Williams is a very big deal and kicks off a weekend full of events.”
The ceremony for the Clarksdale marker will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Cutrer Mansion. Waller said Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Beth Henley, of Jackson, who wrote Crimes of the Heart will speak at this event.
An added treat will be a performance by the Coahoma Community College Choir. Coahoma Community College is host and a major sponsor of the Tennessee Williams Festival.
“The Cutrer mansion is featured in many of Tennessee Williams plays and the family inspired many of the characters in Williams’ plays,” said Waller. “They were the classical strong Southern family. Tennessee Williams visited there with his grandfather and spent time there just about every summer of his childhood.”
Scholars and dignitaries from around the state are expected to attend Thursday’s unveiling. The event is free and open to the public.
A private Delta Lawn Party will be held at 6 p.m. at the mansion and tickets to this event can be purchased by calling the Cutrer Mansion at 662-621-9344 or 662-645-3555.
The Mississippi Writers Trail is an initiative of the Mississippi Arts Commission. The trail will span the state and highlight notable places which helped shape some of the world’s most acclaimed authors’ lives and influenced their renowned works.
Schedule of Events
THURSDAY, Oct. 17
Mississippi Writer’s Trail Marker: 4 p.m., Cutrer Mansion, 109 Clark St.
Delta Lawn Party: 6 p.m., Cutrer Mansion.
FRIDAY, Oct. 18
Keynote Speech: 9:30 a.m., Dr. Kenneth Holditch, Cutrer Mansion, 109 Clark St.
Historic Performance: 10:45 a.m., “Minnie Brewer,” Gov. Brewer House, 41 John St.
Historic Slideshow: 11:15 a.m., Clarksdale Women’s Club, 101 Sharkey Ave.
Reading/Interview: 11:30 a.m., Clarksdale Women’s Club.
Performance: 2 p.m., The Front Porch Girl, Chapman Lewis Swan Office, 501 First St.
Performance: 3 p.m., Spring Storm, Carnegie Public Library, 115 Delta Ave.
Performance: 4 p.m., Beautiful Agitators, Coahoma Co. Tourism office, 326 Blues Alley.
Performance: 5 p.m., News Displays, Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum, 106 Sharkey.
SATURDAY, Oct. 19
High School Performance: 9 a.m. Georgia Lewis Theater, 3240 Friar’s Point Road.
College Acting Class: 9 a.m. Cutrer Mansion, 109 Clark St.
Museum Tour: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum, 106 Sharkey.
Open House: 1:30 to 3 p.m., Clarksdale Women’s Club, 101 Sharkey Ave.
Williams Talk: 2 p.m., St. George Episcopal Church, 101 Sharkey, Ave.
Porch Plays: 3 p.m., Clarksdale Historic District.
• 415 Court Street.
• 235 Clark Street.
• 203 Court Street.
• 41 John Street.
Afterparty: 5:30 p.m., Ground Zero Blues Club, 387 Delta Ave.
The theme of the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival this year is focused on the playwright's sister Rose Williams and important women in Clarksdale's history. Friday’s “News Display” is a wine-and-cheese party at the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum featuring new displays of letters written by Tom and Rose Williams 1920-1922 from that very rectory.
This year's festival honors Tennessee Williams's sister, Rose Isabel Williams, who inspired roles in many of his plays, and two important women in Clarksdale history: Civil Rights activist Vera Mae Pigee, and newspaper publisher & women's voting advocate Minnie Brewer.
Born Thomas Lanier Williams III, in Columbus in 1911, Tennessee Williams moved to Clarksdale with his mother, sister and grandparents in 1917. His grandfather, Walter E. Dakin was the rector of Clarksdale's St. George's Episcopal Church until 1932. After Williams' father was promoted to a desk job in 1918, the family moved to St. Louis. Both Tennessee and his sister Rose returned regularly to Clarksdale to live with and then visit their grandparents as they grew up. The rectory they lived in is now a museum.
Williams would imbed Mississippi Delta landmarks, stories, and people in some of his most famous plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, This Property is Condemned, Orpheus Descending, Summer and Smoke, Eccentricities of a Nightingale and the film Baby Doll, as well as dozens of short plays, stories and poems.
Nearby Moon Lake is featured in all of Williams' Delta plays, as well as the former Moon Lake Club (known in the plays as Moon Lake Casino and currently named Uncle Henry's Place). Other locales and landmarks that inspired Williams include the towns of Lyon and Friar's Point, the Delta Planter's Bank, the White Star Pharmacy, the angel statue in Grange Cemetery and many more.
Character names from Clarksdale neighbors and Williams' grandfather's parishioners include Blanche, Stella, Brick, Baby Doll, Laura, Wingfield, Cutrer, Gilliam and Baugh.
