Thomas Stars in Williamstown's Blanche and Beyond, Aug 8

By: Jun. 22, 2005
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The Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, MA will bring a second installment of Tennessee Williams' letters to the Main Stage on Monday, August 8th at 8 PM. Richard Thomas will portray the playwriting legend in Blanche and Beyond, which as a follow-up to A Distant Country Called Youth, covers the years 1945 to 1957; both are adapted from Williams' early letters and directed by Steve Lawson.

"Presented through special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, Blanche and Beyond spans the peak of Williams' career - from the Broadway triumphs of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire through Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In letters both hilarious and poignant to the likes of Elia Kazan, Jessica Tandy, and Gore Vidal as well as his critics, lovers, and family, a no-longer obscure Williams faces the seismic shock of international fame," states the show's press release.
 
A Distant Country Called Youth previously premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2001 and went on to play at theatres across America including WTF (2002) and the Kennedy Center (2004).

Thomas is perhaps best known to TV viewers for his Emmy Award-winning performance as John Boy on the long-running series, "The Waltons." He has played classical roles for such directors as Mark Lamos, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Michael Kahn, and Peter Hall, while New York stage appearances include Fifth of July, Tiny Alice, The Stendhal Syndrome, Democracy, and the current Public Theater production of As You Like It in Central Park. He has been seen at WTF in The Devil's Disciple, Williams' Vieux Carré, Barbarians, Hawthorne Country, and Love Letters, and was M.C. of last season's 50th-anniversary gala As Dreams Are Made On.

Lawson is Executive Director of the Williamstown Film Festival, which marks its seventh season this fall and has been called "a world-class festival with a small-town heart." Having been with the WTF for over 30 years, he was literary manager, co-founded the Cabaret and Free Theatre, and adapted or wrote such projects as A Study in Scarlet, Wild Oats, Tribute to the Group, and La Ronde. He runs the Writers in Performance series at Manhattan Theatre Club, where A Distant Country Called Youth (recently published by Samuel French) and Blanche and Beyond both began. Steve won a Christopher Award and was nominated for an Emmy and a Humanitas Prize for his work in television.

Tickets for Blanche and Beyond are $30 and go on sale Wednesday, June 22 at 10 a.m. Tickets are available online at the Festival's official website (www.WTFestival.org), at the box office for in house sales, and by calling (413) 597-3400.

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