A DISTANT COUNTRY CALLED YOUTH Opens Harbinger’s 5th Season at the Mopco Improv Theatre
Performances run April 24 through May 3.
Harbinger Theater's fifth season will include its first one-man show, A Distant Country Called Youth by Steve Lawson — adapted from the early letters of Tennessee Williams, one of America's greatest playwrights and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes.
This is Harbinger's 20th production and 19th Capital Region premiere and making her directorial debut with them, will be Linda Shirey. The leading man starring in the company's first one-man show will be their very own co-founder, Patrick White! Performances will be held at The Mopco Improv Theatre in Schenectady from April 24 through May 3, with a FREE preview on April 23.
“As director of A Distant Country Called Youth, I've had the unique opportunity to explore and witness the journey that Tennessee Williams took to becoming an iconic American playwright,” Shirey said. “What an extraordinary experience for one and all to be touched by the actual letters that Williams wrote to all who contributed to his artistry. The letters — filled with adventures, hopes, dreams, and failures — mirror the life of a man trapped in his own personal drama. He masterfully escaped his story by creating the masterpieces that are still exciting audiences today. Thank you, Tennessee Williams, for your letters — a beautiful gift that we are fortunate to share with you.”
Spanning the twenty-five years from boyhood to the opening of The Glass Menagerie, this one-man show evokes the evolution of an American genius through his extraordinary correspondence with family, friends, lovers, and other writers. Hilarious, raunchy, and poetic in turn, the piece spotlights these fairly obscure years in William's life. Here is a young Thomas Lanier Williams growing up, exploring, and finding his artistic voice as Tennessee Williams.
This production is a fully staged, off-book performance of the letters where the actor will create scenes with his correspondents: his mother, his sister Rose, grandparents, the great love of his life Kip Kiernan, his agent Audrey Wood, Harold Clurman, William Saroyan and many, many others.
“I have loved Tennessee Williams since I read The Glass Menagerie, the first play I ever read in Mr. Marhafer's 10th-grade Creative Writing class at Colonie High School over 45 years ago. It is what made me become an actor,” White said. “Last year, I felt the personal need to return to his glorious writing to stoke the fires of my love for theater. We were being denied performance rights and affordable venues for our new season. So, I created this opportunity — out of great necessity — to immerse myself in his words, life, inspiration, and fabulous creations.”
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