Beautiful Soup to Present William Shumann's EN AVANT! During May Festival

Spend a mesmerizing night with one of our most cherished writers this March, when William Shuman's insightful, moving and award-winning solo show En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams will receive a special, one-night-only performance in Beautiful Soup Theater's play festival on May 25th at 7:00 pm at New York's Clarion Theatre.

The festival, celebrating five plays by Steven Carl McCasland, features a look at many historical figures including Gertrude Stein, Dorothy Parker, John F. Kennedy, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Richard Strauss, Laurette Taylor, Rose Kennedy and legendary playwright Tennessee Williams.

While McCasland's play What Was Lost visits a young Williams at the beginning of his career, En Avant! takes a look at the playwright in the latter years of his life.

Drawn from Williams' own journals and letters to family and friends, as well as several other writings about him, En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams is a biographical recounting of the four major elements of Williams' life: his family (including his schizophrenic sister who was lobotomized in 1943, his frigid mother, and his verbally abusive father), his three most important lovers, his seminal works, and his battle with inner demons: a fear of insanity and extreme loneliness (which he masked with alcohol, barbiturates and a compulsive sexual appetite). The entertaining and engaging show offers a glimpse into the personal side of the American theatrical treasure, exposing the emotional essence of this immensely talented playwright. En Avant! and writer-performer Shumann won the 2013 NYC International Fringe Festival Overall Excellence Award for Solo Performance.
William Shuman is an actor and playwright who made his New York stage debut in 1977 as Percy in Charles Dyer's Rattle of a Simple Man. He is a founding member of the Abingdon Theatre Company in NYC and during the ?? ??'s was frequently seen on the daytime drama All My Children. William received a B.A. in English and Economics from Boston University, and an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School but left the corporate world to pursue a life in the theater.

In What Was Lost, beloved stage actress Laurette Taylor returns to the stage after a six-year hiatus. BroadwayWorld critic Kristen Morale called the play "one of the most riveting" she had ever seen. For the first time in over a decade, she takes to the stage sober. Chronicling her process from the first rehearsal of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie through her legendary first performance as Amanda Wingfield, What Was Lost is a piercing look at the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. Paul Thomas Ryan returns in his critically acclaimed turn as Tennessee Williams, with Penny Lynn White returning as Laurette Taylor.

The Clarion Theatre is located at 309 East 26th Street in New York City. Tickets for En Avant! and all five plays in the festival are priced at $18 each and now on sale. A 5-Play Package (excluding En Avant!) is available for a reduced price. Tickets can be purchased at http://beautifulsoup.showclix.com.

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