VMU to Celebrate Tennessee Williams’ Week
This year, March 26 is a red letter day to many theatres around the world, marking the 100th birthday of world-famous American playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). Celebrating the ocassion, the VMU Dept. of English Philology at the Faculty of Humanities will hold several events on March 22-24.
On March 22, 5 p.m., readings from Williams’ various plays will take place, while several film adaptations of A Streetcar Named Desire will be watched on March 23 and 24.
On Wednesday, March 23, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., at the Faculty of Humanities (K. Donelaičio g. 52, room 514), the Dept. of English Philology is organizing a student conference that will take a closer look at Tennessee Williams’ critically acclaimed work, the play A Streetcar Named Desire.
The participants of the conference are third and fourth year students of English Philology at VMU, enrolled in the course "Theory of Drama". In the conference, students will present their papers on A Streetcar Named Desire, analyzing various aspects of the playwright’s arguably most famous creation.
The language of all events is English. The complete program of the conference is available here.
Tennessee Williams’ theatre plays came to Lithuanian theatres in the 1960s, starting with the production of Orpheus Descending at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in 1962. Another one of his plays, A Streetcar Named Desire, was especially popular in the country after the production by the Kaunas State Drama Theatre (premiere on February 2, 1974; directed by D. Tamulevičiūtė). The play resonated with Lithuanian public of the time thanks to the theme at its core – the clash between different worlds. Across the pond, famous American actors have played roles in film adaptations of A Streetcar Named Desire, including Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Jessica Lange, Alec Baldwin and others.
Since 1962, more than 20 theatre productions of Tennessee Williams’ plays, tackling issues of human identity, interpersonal relations and connections between the present and the past, have been run at various Lithuanian theatres.
The program of the conference
