Tennessee Williams in Provincetown

by David Kaplan

Tennesse Williams in Provincetown is the story of Tennesse Williams' four summer seasons in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In Provincetown Williams fell in love unguardedly for perhaps the only time in his life and had his heart broken. Williams drank in Provincetown, he swam there, and he took conga lessons there. He was poor and then rich there; he was unknown and then famous. Throughout it all, Williams wrote every morning. The list of plays Williams worked on in Provincetown include "The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Summer and Smoke", the beginnings of "The Night of the Iguana" and "Suddenly Last Summer".

Tennessee Williams in Provincetown collects original interviews, journals, letters, photographs, accounts from previous biographies, newspapers from the period, and Williams' own writing to establish how the time Williams spent in Provincetown shaped him for the rest of his life. The book identifies major themes in Williams' work that derive from his experience in Provincetown, in particular the necessity of recollection given the short season of love. The book also connects Williams mature theatrical experiments to his early friendships with Jackson Pollack, Lee Krasner and the German performance artist Valeska Gert. Tennessee Williams in Provincetown, based on several years of extensive research and interviews, includes previously unpublished photographs, previously unpublished poetry, and anecdotes by those who were there.

Genres: LGBT

148 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

David Kaplan is the author of Tennessee Williams in Provincetown (Hansen Publishing Group) and The Five Approaches to Acting (Hansen Publishing Group). He is a theater director who stages plays around the world with professional companies in indigenous languages and settings. He is a former Fellow at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin, Texas, the repository of Tennessee Williams’s literary estate. He has experience directing Williams’s repertory around the world.

In 2003, Mr. Kaplan staged Tennessee Williams’s "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale" in Cantonese at the Hong Kong Repertory Theater. Seasons past include directing the first Russian production of Tennessee Williams’s "Suddenly Last Summer" (the subject of a TASS documentary); a Sufi "King Lear" in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, performed in the Uzbek language and broadcast on Uzbek television; and Genet’s "The Maids" in Ulaan Baator, Mongolia, performed in Mongolian. In America, he has staged his own adaptation of "The Circus of Dr. Lao" in Los Angeles, Tennessee Williams’s "The Traveling Companion" at West Beth in New York, and Williams’s "Frosted Glass Coffins" in Birmingham, Alabama. He is also the curator of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival.

David Kaplan is also the author of articles on such varied subjects as Eudora Welty and Andres Segovia, the history of Shakespeare productions in Central Asia, the American monologist Ruth Draper, the twenty-first century freaks of Coney Island USA. His translations of Chinese poetry from eighteenth century Japan will appear in the journal Alehouse early 2007.

Reviews

[Doug H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth the purchase price for the history of Provincetown alone, Tennessee Williams fans will also find a treasure trove of information about Tennessee Williams' times in this special place. If you're a fan of both the town and the writer, I highly recommend it.

Halfway through reading this, I learned that the author of this book is also one of the founders of the annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival and is the program curator for the 2016 season (which coincidentally starts today). We're heading there tomorrow and will be watching Small Craft Warnings on Sunday. Might try to watch one of Eugene O'Neill's plays too (also part of the festival).

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Enjoyable... especially if you're a Tennessee Williams fan.

[Davis Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this well enough! A bit hard to follow in terms of chronology, but several interesting anecdotes. The author’s passion for Williams comes across clearly, though it borders on defensive at times.

[Hansen Publishing Group · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tennessee Williams in Provincetown is the story of Tennessee Williams’s four summer seasons in Provincetown, Massachusetts – 1940, ‘41, ‘44 and ‘47. During that time he wrote plays, short stories, and jewel-like poems. In Provincetown, Williams fell in love unguardedly for perhaps the only time in his life. He had his heart broken there, perhaps irreparably. The man he thought might replace his first lover tried to kill him there, or at least Williams thought so. Williams drank in Provincetown, he swam there, and he took conga lessons there. He was poor and then rich there; he was photographed naked and clothed there. He was unknown and then famous – and throughout it all Williams wrote every morning.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

You probably need to be a hardcore Tennessee Williams fan to really embrace this short, focused and somewhat academic history. I am, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The author has quickly surveyed the four 1940s summers that Williams spent in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The photos are as revealing as the biographical details. And this was the perfect warm-up for the new John Lahr-penned biography of Williams, which I am enthusiastically tackling next.

[Kendal · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too academic for me.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light tramp along the beach, noticing a poet there.

[Jane Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great background information on Williams' life in P-town.