SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH Comes to The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans This Month

The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans will be presenting Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams this July & August at The Marigny Opera House, returning for its fifth production in the historic space. In this piece, Williams dove into the human impulse to fly when faced with adversity, the tolls of aging, and the challenges of remaining pure in a hostile world.

The production is helmed by Doug Spearman, a local actor and director of theatre, film, and television who has received two Emmy Award nominations. “The show promises a raw and contemporary re- telling of a Williams classic,” says Spearman, “The brilliance of Tennessee Williams is that he never stops showing our humanity.”

Williams’ story of human fault and consequence is told by a cast headed by Rachel Whitman Groves as Princess Kosmonopolis and Santo Panzarella as Chance Wayne. Chance has returned to his home town of St. Cloud on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a chauffeur and paid lover to the Princess—a movie star who fears she is over the hill. Chance hopes to reconnect with his sweetheart Heavenly (Betsy Holt), but her father Boss Finley (John Wettermark) has different plans for Chance...and a whole town full of minions to execute those plans. The cast also includes Judy Lea Steele, Brandi-Rose Michael, Brandon Kotfila, Spencer Crim, Rashif Holmes, Rachel Rhea Shannon, Matthew Boese, Andrew Niemann, Benjamin Dougherty, and Robert A. Mitchell.

The production team for the production includes Nick Shackleford, Adachi Pimentel, Steve Schepker, James Lanius, Kelsey Brehm, Ryan Sheckart, Lindsay Kaufman, Augustin J Correro, Diane Baas, and Madeline Taliancich. This season of the Tennessee Williams theatre Company of New Orleans is supported by a grant from The New Orleans Theatre Association (NOTA). Sweet Bird of Youth is presented through the generous support of the the New Orleans Tourism & Cultural Fund, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and WWNO. TWTC continues its ongoing professional residency with Loyola University New Orleans Department of Theatre and Dance and includes a number of current or recent students in this production.

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