Tennessee Shakespeare Company Presents THE HUNTING HEART

Tennessee Shakespeare Company continues its Dr. Greta McCormick Coger Literary Salon Series on Sunday, January 24 at 3:00 pm (CST) with an exploration of the popular Southern Gothic/Realism writer, Carson McCullers.

TSC's ninth Salon during its 13th season, The Hunting Heart: Carson McCullers is curated and directed by TSC's Stephanie Shine. It will be presented from TSC's Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage exclusively online via a one-camera setup. All tickets are only $15.

The Hunting Heart is generously sponsored in part by Anne and Michael Keeney.

Running approximately one hour without intermission, The Hunting Heart features excerpts from McCullers' play A Member of the Wedding (which she adapted from her novella) and major works The Ballad of the Sad Café and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Excerpts will also be read from her first published work when she was 19 years old (the short story "Wunderkind"), as well as two of her poems: "Stone Is Not Stone" and "Father, Upon Thy Image We Are Spanned."

TSC's company of actors includes Shine, Cara McHugh Geissler, Jasmine Robertson, John Ross Graham, Michael Khanlarian, and Irene Keeney.

"Carson writes with all of her questions about life and love guiding her pen," says Shine. "Her singular ability to conjure characters of rich complexity, and sometimes surprising duplicity, makes her a great humanist. Her people breathe, and we breathe with them because of their haunting humanity. Rarely has a writer been able to capture detail that both clarifies and entices as she does. Even more inviting, Carson's words are thrilling when spoken out loud."

Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 - September 29, 1967) was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. She was a rare multi-form fiction writer (novels, short stories, poems, play) who enjoyed both critical and popular success creating within a Southern Gothic/Realism landscape populated by characters usually in physical, psychological, and spiritual isolation. Multiple, successful film adaptations furthered her popularity.

McCullers more briefly described her writing as "a search for God."

A friend of Tennessee Williams, McCullers abandoned her early-life music studies when she lost her Juilliard tuition money on the subway. Her literary influences included Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy.

She published eight books, including The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940; made into a film in 1968), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941; made into a film in 1967), The Member of the Wedding (1946; adapted into a Broadway play in 1950 and won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play; made into a film in 1952), and the novella The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951).

Her own complex, frequently tragic romantic life was made more complicated by her physical pain, addiction, and illnesses. She was incapacitated by strokes for long periods, and ultimately confined to a wheelchair due to partial paralysis.

Purchase tickets online at www.tnshakespeare.org or by calling (901) 759-0604 Monday-Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. The Salon will be available to patrons as a digital/online-only experience.

The online presentation will show only once via a one-camera setup on TSC's website with a time-stamped, specific password provided to patrons on the day of the Salon. The digital waiting room opens 15 minutes prior to curtain. All digital online tickets are $15.

Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Schedule subject to change with notice. There are no refunds/exchanges.

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