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Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams connected to New England in fascinatingly different ways. Both won Pulitzer Prizes for their dramas. Wilder, a Yalie, imagined Grovers Corners, NH and "Our Town," his 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, became America's most popular play. In its specificity was a universal, timeless message about life, love and mortality. Wilder was a literary archeologist.
Tennessee Williams, a Southerner whose lifespan corresponded to the Midwestern Wilder's, spent time in Provincetown as a young man. There he fell in love and confronted his homosexuality. The premiere of his 45-minute play "Parade," his rendition of that experience, was produced in a 2006 play festival recognizing Williams' life on Cape Cod. In Provincetown, he also wrote early drafts of "The Glass Menagerie,""Summer and Smoke," "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale," and "A Streetcar Named Desire," winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for drama.
These mighty dramatists impact on our lives and imaginations long after their own deaths. "Our Town" will be given a Trinity Rep rendering in Spring 2007 while "Suddenly, Last Summer" fills a Broadway stage in the Fall 2006.
William "Mack" Woodward is a native Texan architectural historian who has served on the staff of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission since 1976. As the Commission's Planning and Land Use Coordinator, he assists Rhode Island municipalities in integrating preservation activities into community planning, development, and revitalization. He has published several surveys of historic resources and scholarly articles, and is currently writing a book about Rhode Island landscapes.
Needs: slide projector/screen; lighted lectern/water