{"id":214,"date":"2021-09-10T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/?p=214"},"modified":"2022-12-05T12:19:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T18:19:55","slug":"the-w-partners-with-columbus-community-to-celebrate-tennessee-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/news\/the-w-partners-with-columbus-community-to-celebrate-tennessee-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"The W partners with Columbus community to celebrate Tennessee Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/12\/Tennessee-Williams-House.jpg\" alt=\"Tennessee Williams House\" class=\"wp-image-215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/12\/Tennessee-Williams-House.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2022\/12\/Tennessee-Williams-House-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>COLUMBUS, Miss. &#8212; Mississippi University for Women will help celebrate the 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the Tennessee Williams Tribute this weekend with a first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 7 p.m. Saturday, September 11, the three finalists in the inaugural National 10-Minute Playwriting Contest will present readings of their works on ZOOM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The W\u2019s Theatre Department and Department of Languages, Literature and Philosophy will partner with the Columbus Community\u2019s Tennessee Williams Tribute Weekend organization and \u201cPonder Review\u201d to help honor the legacy of Williams and the tradition of Southern literary excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The contest will feature readings from \u201cShe\u2019s Dead to Me\u201d by Bryan Starchman, \u201cSome Woman\u2019s Son\u201d by Jennie Franklin and \u201cAging Out\u201d by Gerald Williams. The plays contain adult themes and graphic language. Viewer discretion is advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thomas \u201cKris\u201d Lee, and assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at The W, and David Carter, chair of the Department of Theatre, worked closely with the Tennessee Williams Tribute board and played integral roles in organizing the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee said the contest \u201craises the bar\u201d on the exciting and challenging art form of playwriting by forcing participants to tell a whole story realized in 10 minutes or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is the anatomy of a crucial moment,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe basic rules of a full-length play apply, for the most part, but when you add in additional restrictions such as cast size, minimal set, etc. it pushes playwrights to think beyond their typical comfort zones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee credits everyone involved for their help in pulling off the contest during a pandemic. He said it was a \u201cnatural step\u201d to bring together The W\u2019s MFA programs in Creative Writing and Theatre, the dedicated faculty members in each department and the Tennessee Williams Tribute Weekend<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe hope to continue to strengthen the relationship between the city of Columbus and The W,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIn the process we invite the rest of the world to see the birthplace of the great Tennessee Williams and the impact he continues to have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winner of the contest will receive an interview and will have their script published in \u201cPonder Review,\u201d which is a student-run publication of the MFA program at The W. The finalists will split a cash prize of nearly $500.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COLUMBUS, Miss. &#8212; Mississippi University for Women will help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tennessee Williams Tribute this weekend with a first. At 7 p.m. Saturday, September 11, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}