Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis Seeks One-Acts for Playwriting Initiative

Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis Seeks One-Acts for Playwriting Initiative

The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis invites playwrights to submit original one-act plays for our 2020 Playwriting Initiative. At least three winners will be chosen by our panel of playwrights. The winning plays will be presented in a staged reading, with professional actors, as an element of the 2020 Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, May 7-17, 2020. 


The winning playwrights will be invited to attend the staged reading and to participate in a talkback panel—featuring the other winners and the judges—at the conclusion of the event. The plays, with playwrights’ biographies, will be listed in the official Festival program.The winning playwrights will be provided with Festival passes. (The Festival will not be able to provide other compensation or reimbursement.)

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams started out in St. Louis writing one-act plays, and one of his biggest breaks was winning a competition sponsored by the Group Theater in New York—the first time he signed his name as “Tennessee” rather than “Tom.” He wrote more than seventy throughout his career—sometimes edgy, often experimental, and always infused with his unsurpassed poetry. Many of them have been presented at the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, several as world premieres. We invite you to find your inspiration in his artistry and to share it with us.

The panel is chaired by Jack Ciapciak, winner of New York University’s 2017 Goldberg Playwriting Prize and winner of our own inaugural Playwriting Initiative. Judges also include Deanna Jent, whose play Falling has been produced on Broadway, and Gregory Carr, who teaches playwriting at Harris Stowe University. 

Guidelines for submission:

  • The play must be no more than 15 minutes long.
  • The play must not have been professionally produced (although plays that have been workshopped or presented as staged readings are acceptable).
  • The play must be submitted by the author of the play.
  • Only one submission per author.
  • The author must include a statement of no longer than 250 words, including a brief biography, contact information, and author’s availability to attend the staged reading and serve on the talkback panel. (Attendance is requested but not mandatory.)
  • The play must be in a PDF in Standard Playwriting Format. 
  • Submit your materials by March 1, 2020, to info@twstl.org with the subject line 2020 Playwriting Initiative.

Winners will be notified no later than April 1, 2020. By submitting the play, authors give performance rights to the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis for the May, 2020 event, as well as possible other uses in connection with the 2020 Festival. Authors retain all other rights. 

For more information, visit the website: www.twstl.org

Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis Announces One-Man Show

Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis Announces One-Man Show

The Tennessee Williams Festival will present “Confessions of a Nightingale” Nov. 1-4 at Curtain Call Lounge.
In “Confessions of a Nightingale,” Terry Meddows stars as Tennessee Williams, riveting us with untold stories of Williams’ private life and professional challenges. It will be directed by Lana Pepper and presented November 1-4 at the Curtain Call Lounge at the Fox Theatre in the Grand Center Arts District.
The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis was named 2019 Best Arts Startup by the Arts & Education Council
St. Louis’s own Tennessee Williams, widely considered to be America’s greatest playwright, sat almost four decades ago for an extensive, self-revelatory interview with Charlotte Chandler. She, along with Ray Stricklyn, transformed that interview into a play that provides an unforgettable evening. The play has received rave reviews. The Los Angeles Times calls it “an irresistibly charismatic one-man show.” Time Magazine characterizes it as “ingratiatingly salty,” and the Hollywood Reporter gushes that it is “a thrilling evening.”
As the New York Times said, “This is 90 minutes spent in the company of a born dramatist ineluctably drawn to tell tales out of school.”  Tennessee gossips about Tallulah Bankhead, Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, and Greta Garbo—but in one of many deeply human moments of the play, he confesses that gossip, for him, is way of diverting people from that which is most personal–his work. And how would he like it all to end? ‘If I could choose my spot to die,” he says, “I would like it to be in a Broadway theater on opening night, listening to the wild ovation at the end of my newest play.”
Meddows, who is from Fairview Heights, Ill., and lives in St. Louis, has won acting awards from the St. Louis Theater Circle Award and the Kevin Kline, and been nominated several times. In recent years, he has performed “Grey Gardens” with Max and Louie Productions, “The Diary of Ann Frank” and “Yentl” at the New Jewish Theater, and “Waiting for Godot” at the St. Louis Actors’ Studio. He was in the 2017 Tennessee Williams Festival play, “Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?”.
Tickets for “Confessions of a Nightingale” go on sale on Friday, Sept. 7 through MetroTix, at the Fox Box Office or at the door. General admission tickets are $30, preferred seating is $35 and students with a valid ID are $25.  Parking available in Grand Center.
The full Tennessee Williams Festival season announcement will be coming soon at www.twstl.org.
About Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis
Now in its fourth year, the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis enriches the cultural life of St. Louis by producing an annual theater festival and other artistic and educational events that celebrate the art and influence of Tennessee Williams. The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis is led by Executive Artistic Director Carrie Houk, a producer,  casting director, actor, and teaching artist. For more information, visit www.twstl.org.