Tennessee Shakespeare Company Presents BLUE ROSES OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS at Southern Literary Salon

Tennessee Shakespeare Company returns with its second installment of its Southern Literary Salon Series during its 14th performance season with Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams on the Tabor Stage on Friday, January 21 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, January 23 at 3:00 pm.

The one-hour Salon will explore, in a theatrical form perhaps Mr. Williams would appreciate, the first decade of the life of Thomas Lanier Williams III as he is raised in Mississippi and is inspired to pen his first published poetry, correspondence, short stories, and first plays.

McCleary and a cast that includes TSC company members Claire Hayner, Lauren Gunn, Michael Khanlarian, and Nicolas Dureaux Picou will perform scenes from The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire with music - and a Williams-inspired cocktail or two. The Salon introduces TSC Young Company actor Collins McCleary has Tom Williams.

TSC returns to the work of Williams for the first time since its impressionist production of The Glass Menagerie was presented outdoors on the grounds of The Dixon Gallery & Gardens in 2012.

"My sense over the past few decades of Williams' relationship to Mississippi was not based in scholarship, rather in a lifetime of playing his characters and directing his plays," says McCleary. "But as is so often the case with our Salons, I discovered my assumptions required more biographical information. Yes, Williams was sometimes sickly, and his family moved frequently, and he was challenged by a religious rigidity and a father that seemingly gave up on him in his absence. But young Tom also had his older sister Rose and his mother, and vivid story-telling, and a pastoral vista that made the Magnolia state a Valhalla for him - especially after his family had to re-locate to St. Louis. His earliest writing and first plays are firmly linked to the beauty, poetry, relationships, and spirituality around which he was raised. Mississippi was home, and he appears to be always seeking a poetic return."

Purchase tickets now and receive more information by calling TSC's Box Office at (901) 759-0604 or going online to www.tnshakespeare.org.