The
12th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams
Festival
How
appropriate it is to any celebration of Tennessee
Williams to focus some attention on food and
eating, as both play an important part in his
various writings. A street vendor in A Streetcar
Named Desire shouts, "Hot tamales! Hot
tamales!" as Blanche and her sister, Stella,
go to Galatoire's for dinner so that Stanley
can have his "little card party" to
which the "ladies are cordially not invited."
This year's Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams
Festival was highlighted by the appearance of
Betty Hicks of Clarksdale, who, with her husband
Eugene, has won national fame among chefs and
former President Bill Clinton for outstanding
Southern cuisine. An enthusiastic audience learned
the art of making hot tamales. This cooking
demonstration was paired with the team of Marda
Burton (international travel writer) and Kenneth
Holditch (Tennessee Williams scholar) who spoke
about their recently published Galatoire's:
Biography of a Bistro. They read a selection
of anecdotes from their unique history of the
100-year-old New Orleans restaurant that has
been a favorite of world figures from Charles
de Gaulle to American presidents and Tennessee
Williams.
Each
year, the Williams Festival focuses on a specific
play, with this year's selection Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof. Consequently, Kenneth Holditch began
the program with a lecture titled "The Mystique
of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the Mississippi Delta."
From the woods surrounding Moon Lake, where Maggie
and Brick used to run and hunt, to the setting
of Big Daddy Pollitt's plantation of "28,000
acres of the richest land this side of the valley
Nile," Cat is filled with local color references.
Distinguished actor, director, producer, author,
and filmmaker Anthony Herrera talked about Big
Daddy Pollitt asserting that Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof is Big Daddy's play, as it is he who faces
death, "looks at all the junk" in his
house, and seeks out what is most important in
life. "Despair in the family setting can
cause us to betray ourselves," Herrera maintained,
"while Mother Nature clears our heads"
and "art becomes medicine for the soul."
Actress Marissa Duricko and actor Jeff Pucillo
then performed a dynamic first-act scene between
Maggie and Brick. The celebration of Cat concluded
with a scholars panel (Jay Jensen, Colby Kullman,
Travis Montgomery, Wanda Reid, and Dorothy Shawhan)
that considered such questions: Why are Peter
Ochello and Jack Straw, the ghosts of Big Daddy's
plantation, so very important? What do Maggie
and Big Mama have in common? How do we know that
Big Daddy and Brick truly love each other? Why
is Maggie "so catty"? Is Brick a homosexual?
Why are various games so important to Williams's
play? What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin
roof?
On
Saturday morning, scholar, teacher, and playwright
David Radavich presented yet another way of looking
at the world of Tennessee Williams by talking
about "The Midwestern Plays of Tennessee
Williams." He was followed by playwright,
actor, and director Dawson Moore, who gave practical
advice on writing plays and seeing them into production.
Dakin Williams awed his audience once again by
reciting from his brother's works and sharing
family stories.
Unique to the Williams Festival are the plays
presented every year on the porches of the mansions
in Clarksdale's historic district. Professional
story-teller Rebecca Jernigan gave a performance
version of Williams's short story "Portrait
of a Girl in Glass," which he later turned
into The Glass Menagerie; actress Janna Montgomery
performed as two of Williams's Italian women,
Lady in Orpheus Descending and Serafina della
Rosa in The Rose Tattoo; and Clarksdale High School
students acted in a scene from Williams's short
play The Lady of Larkspur Lotion.
Always
the most energetic part of the Williams Festival,
this year's drama competition included nearly
one hundred students from Brandon High School,
Clarksdale High School, Coahoma County Junior
High School, Madison South Palmer High, Northwest
Rankin High School, Oak Grove High School, Power
APAC, Purvis High School, and Rolla High School.
Emily Bearden of Rolla, Missouri, was the first
student outside of Mississippi to enter the competition,
which gives substantial financial prizes for three-minute
monologues and ten-minute scenes from the plays
of Tennessee Williams. What better way to conclude
a celebration than with feasting at Clarksdale
Station and dancing to the Wesley Jefferson Band,
one of the Delta's best.
Colby
H. Kullman
photo: Richard Leavitt Collections
