More schedule changes

• All performances of The Last Madam have been cancelled, due to actress Grace Zabriskie being unable to attend. Ticket holders will be contacted directly.
• Amy Guth has replaced Earnest Hill in the Saturday Writers Read panel
• A Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa has been moved to Saturday at 2:30 pm
• New Orleans as a Home for Writers ... Still has been moved to Saturday at 11:30 am

News: Grace Zabriskie out, Annette Cardona in

Marika Christian from the Festival writes:

I wanted to let you know that Grace Zabriskie had to cancel due to a medical issue ... We are working to either refund tickets for The Last Madam, or offer tickets to different theater performances ...

However, at the last minute we were notified that Annette Cardona would like to attend. She played Anthony Quinn's daughter in the documentary that traces the development of his play Red Devil Battery Sign -- I honestly don't know much about it ... so I am just going to type out what we have:

Tennessee Williams: Theater in Progress
10 AM The Cabildo

Narrated by Tennessee Williams, this documentary traces the development of his play Red Devil Battery Sign, from its opening press conference to its first performance at Boston's Shubert Theater in June 1975. The film offers an unusual look behind the scenes at a different kind of drama - the process of bringing theater to life. What we see and hear in the film is what makes the play possible. We witness the rehearsals, follow the revisions, and encounter the problems Williams faced in bringing the world to stage. The film reveals the work in progress - the collaborative effort between the writer, director and actors - that is the creative process of theater.

And Marika adds:

I know Annette Cardona as Cha Cha DiGregorio, the best dancer at St. Bernadette's with the worst reputation! - from Grease ...

Anyway, she will be on Dr Holditch's panel discussing her experience with Tennessee at ODE TO TENNESSEE 4pm Le Petit Theater mainstage.

Profile: Sharyn McCrumb

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Sharyn McCrumb is one of America's leading writers about Appalachia, specifically about the lives of people in the Tennessee and North Carolina mountains, in what is known as the "Ballad" series. She's also written nine mystery novels about forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson, and a couple of science-fiction spoofs--including the excellently titled Bimbos of the Death Star.

Her newest book, Once Around the Track, which will be released in May, is a followup to St. Dale, her take on The Canterbury Tales as set in the world of NASCAR. (You can download Chapter 1 here.)

McCrumb has also won a slew of awards, from the Appalachian Writers' Association's Book of the Year to the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Macavity, and Nero.

I think she's a great addition to the lineup; sometimes Southern literature focuses almost exclusively on writings from the Deep South to the exclusion of all other areas, and I'd like to know more about Appalachia and the people who live there.

Fri., Mar. 30, 11:30 am
"Head for the Hills: The Mystique of Appalachia"

Fri., Mar. 30, 1:30 pm
"An Interview with Sharyn McCrumb" (master class)

The Festival schwag shop

Now you can save room in your luggage for books and mail-order souvenirs from the Festival's online store.

T-shirts, baseball jerseys, messenger bags, mugs, aprons, clocks, hats, cups, and totes are all available...even dog clothes. (Mint juleps still available onsite only.)

Profile: Grace Zabriskie

Edited to add: Due to illness, Grace Zabriskie will not be attending the Festival.

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Grace Zabriskie, a New Orleans-born actor, is coming home to perform the role of the infamous French Quarter madam Norma Wallace in Carl Walker and Jim Fitzmorris' The Last Madam, an adaptation of Chris Wiltz' biography of Wallace.

Zabriskie is one of those character actors whom you've seen in everything (the IMDB lists more than 80 films to her credit!), though she's probably most known to TV watchers for three memorable characters: the mother of Susan (George's fiancee who dies from licking envelopes) on Seinfeld; the matriarch on HBO's Big Love; and Sarah, the mother of doomed Laura Palmer, in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. She's also an accomplished artist--check out some of her spectacular boxes.

She's the perfect choice to play Norma; Zabriskie grew up in the French Quarter, and her father operated both Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop and Café Lafitte in Exile, two of the Vieux Carré's liveliest bars. As Zabriskie remembers in an HBO interview:

It was reputedly where Jean and Pierre Lafitte, the pirate brothers, had their blacksmith shop upfront, smuggling activities in back. We were living in the attic when I was born. People like Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote came by and brought me dolls....

I always felt guilty about bringing up my children in relatively restrained suburban life in Atlanta. I was third-generation bohemian. My parents lived in the Quarter before it was even remotely popular. New Orleans harbors every reverse prejudice; I was 30 before I thought someone who took care of a lawn was okay.

Here's Zabriskie in one of her most famous roles, Sarah Palmer in Twin Peaks:


Sat., Mar. 31, noon: "The Last Madam: A Colorful and Decadent Reading with Grace Zabriskie" ($25)

One-Act Play winner announced

The winning play in the 2007 One-Act Play Contest is Weird by Brett Ryback of Los Angeles. The University of New Orleans Department of Film, Theater, and Communication Arts presents a staged reading of Weird on Sunday, April 1st at 10:00 am at Muriel’s Cabaret, Le Petit Théâtre, followed by a full production of last year’s winning play, Cary Pepper's Small Things, at 11:00 am. Brett will also receive a $1000 cash prize, and Weird will appear as a full production at next year’s Festival.

140 plays were submitted for the 2007 competition. The runners-up (who will each receive panel passes to this year's festival) are:

• 3DB Inside (Cynthia Ferrell, Oak Park, CA)
• On the Permanence of Fugitive Colors (Cyd Casados, New Orleans, LA)
• A Roz by Any Other Name (Brett Ryback, Los Angeles, CA)
• The Secret Museum (Lynne Kaufman, San Francisco, CA)
• Down the Lane (Clodagh Ann Mulvey, New York, NY)
• Into the Sun (Susanne Karsten, Cologne, Germany)
• In the Rare Event (Douglas Reitinger, Sheridan, WY)
• Kissing Jennifer in the Moonlight (Peter Hardy, Atlanta, GA)
• Green (Bekah Brunstetter, Brooklyn, NY)
• Hoops (Demetra Kareman, New York, NY)

Profile: Haven Kimmel

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Okay, I fell half-in love with Haven Kimmel 20 pages into her astonishing memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, and immediately went out and found her debut, She Got Up Off the Couch. Both were tales of growing up in the Midwest in a weird family, and both would be greatly appealing to anyone who enjoyed Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors (the wonderful book, not the mediocre movie); it's no surprise that Burroughs is a huge Haven Kimmel friend and fan.

Here's an interview that Ms. Kimmel did with Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. One telling quote:

For a while I thought that Zippy might be my ultimate experiment in terms of what can be done with first person narration. I was interested, first of all, in how long it's possible to sustain a child's voice intelligibly, meaningfully, and without losing the interest of the reader. It turns out you can do it a damn long time. The comment I get most often about Zippy is, "I wish it were four hundred pages longer."

I agree--it was one of those books that I hated to see end.

Sat., Mar. 31, 11:30 am:
"Writers Read"

Sun., Apr. 1, 10 am:
"Writing From Memory: An Insider's Look at Autobiography"

Sun., Apr. 1, 11:30 am:
"Wild At Heart"

You're invited...

Come finish off the Fest with some free food and drink over Jackson Square after a panel discussion for the release of Louisiana in Words! Many of the 110 authors involved in the much anticipated anthology will be there to sign, read, chat and celebrate, including John Biguenet, Andrei Codrescu, Bev Marshall and many others.

Never before has a book sought to capture a state with words like this. Created from submissions received from the world over, the book offers an authentic diary of Louisiana featuring 120 nonfiction selections from known and unknown writers, each one minute in time.

Where: The Cabildo in Jackson Square, 2nd floor gallery
When: Sun., Apr. 1, 4 pm (following the 2:30 pm panel discussion)
Sponsored and hosted by: The Cabildo

Schedule changes

A few alterations to the printed schedule (which can be downloaded here in PDF format):

• There will be no Sunday performance of The Last Madam
• Amy Guth has replaced Earnest Hill in the Saturday Writers Read panel
• A Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa has been moved to Saturday at 2:30 pm
• New Orleans as a Home for Writers ... Still has been moved to Saturday at 11:30 am