Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival to Hold Tennessee Williams Institute Online

Friday, October 2 through Sunday, October 4 the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, organized around the theme of Tennessee Williams & Censorship, will be holding the Tennessee Williams Institute online with a constellation of scholars and theater artists from around the world. Last week the festival presented live performances in Provincetown and other sites around the country.

The 2020 online symposium will hear witnesses to Festival performances offering reports, assessing meaning, and answering questions about what they saw. Scholars of historical censorship will provide context.

The Festival is honored to announce that Jung Chang, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China, will be joining us to share her family's experience during the Cultural Revolution. Jung Chang's latest book, Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, first published October 2019, was released in paperback on September 22nd, 2020.

Other TWI scholars include Jacob Mchangama from Denmark, creator of Clear & Present Danger - A Free Speech History podcast; Kate Bredeson, the Portland, Oregon-based author of Occupying the Stage; and South Africa's Ismail Mahomed, former CEO of Johannesburg's Market Theatre Foundation. They will be joined by practitioners and scholars from Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, Sudan, and America. There will be six sessions, two hours each.

CENSORSHIP IN THEATER IS NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

These witnesses will be joining TWI online:

Máté Gáspár from Budapest, Hungary where the faculty has resigned from the University for Theater & Film Arts and students have blockaded the building over issues of censorship.

Naba Mohiedeen from Khartoum, Sudan where theater artists were jailed for mixing with members of the opposite sex during a workshop.

Caglar Yigitogullari reporting from Germany about Turkey where increased government involvement has altered the repertory of the state theaters.

Dates and Information For TWI online via Zoom:

Friday, October 2nd

10AM - 12PM: "Tennessee Williams, Race, and Self-Censorship" with Thomas Owen Mitchell plus reports on "Why Did Desdemona Love the Moor?" in Champaign-Urbana, IL.

2PM - 4PM: "Battle in Boston Derails Broadway Plans" with Claudia W. Case plus reports on Battle of Angels in Brooklyn, NYC.

Saturday, October 3rd

10AM - 12PM: "Tennessee Williams' Politics Offstage and On" with Thomas Keith plus reports on Longing Lasts Longer by Penny Arcade in Provincetown.

2PM - 4PM: "Revolution Onstage and Off in 1968 Europe" with Kate Bredeson plus reports on The Demolition Downtown on the Jersey Shore.

Sunday, October 4th

10AM - 12PM: "Censorship in the Context of World History" with Jacob Mchangama (from Denmark), Naba Mohiedeen (reporting from Sudan), Jung Chang (speaking about China's cultural revolution) & reports on The Municipal Abattoir in Provincetown.

2PM - 4PM: "Censorship in the World Theater - Tennessee Williams as Puritan & Cavalier" with David Kaplan and South Africa's Ismail Mahomed, Brazil's Luis Marcio Arnaut and David Medeiros, Turkey's Caglar Yigitogullari, and Hungary's Máté Gáspár.

Enrollment and More Information

You can enroll online at www.twptown.org/study. All sessions are $20 each, $100 for all six.