The 11th Annual Tennessee Williams Festival opens next Thursday, September 17 and continues through September 27 at COCA (Center of Creative Arts) in University City. Though this year’s festival is taking place in UCity, there is a strong CWE connection to Williams. He and his family lived at 4629 Westminster Place during his formative years (1918-1939) in a building now named The Tennessee. Williams also held readings and performances at Link Auditorium (then the Wednesday Club) at Taylor and Westminster. 
Also on a local note, Tennessee Williams is one of 4 notable St. Louis writers memorialized with a bronze sculpture on “Writers’ Corner” at Euclid and McPherson.
In August 2021, The Glass Menagerie was beautifully staged on the fire escape of The Tennessee, at Walton and Westminster, while the audience watched from the parking lot. It was a magical experience.
For the first time in its 11-year history, the TWSTL will feature a work not written by Tennessee Williams, but rather one by Tony-award winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Jacobs-Jenkins play, Appropriate, celebrates what the festival is calling “The Tennessee Effect.”
Executive Artistic Director of TWSTL Carrie Houk explained, “We are expanding our programming to include contemporary voices shaped by Williams’ legacy. This evolution reflects our growing and increasingly diverse audience and strengthens our commitment to artistic relevance and inclusion.”
According to the press release, “Jacobs-Jenkins, above, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Purpose and a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Play, has acknowledged Williams’s profound impact on his writing. Many consider him a contemporary theatrical heir to Williams, particularly in his focus on Southern settings and complex family dynamics. Producing the St. Louis premiere of Appropriate is both an artistic milestone for TWSTL, and a statement of the festival’s commitment to honoring Williams through dialogue with today’s leading dramatists.”
In addition to the Main Stage production of Appropriate, there will be a series of scholar panels and “A Conversation with Jacobs-Jenkins” at 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 19 at St. Louis County Library Clark Family Branch. This free event is supported by the Helen Clanton Morrin Endowment at WashU’s Performing Arts Department.
Cast members include:
The Tennessee Williams Festival presents Appropriate at the Catherine Berges Theatre at COCA, 6880 Washington. For ticket information, visit the website. The Opening Night performance is sold out.
