Profile: Richard Ford

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

Richard Ford is one of America's preeminent modern novelists, but a lot of people don't associate him with New Orleans--or, for that matter, with the South. He was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived for years in the French Quarter (his wife, Kristina, was head of the city planning commission for eight years until Mayor Ray Nagin came along).

Ford is the author of six novels and several short-story collections, but he's probably best known for the trilogy of novels chronicling the progress of American everyman Frank Bascombe: The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and last year's The Lay of the Land. In 1996, Independence Day became the first novel ever to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

I'm not sure if the Fords are still living in the French Quarter or if they've decamped permanently for parts North, but I did see him a couple of years ago at Fiorella's on the French Market, quietly waiting for Fiorella's justly famed fried chicken plate lunch. That's typical New Orleans; you can run into anyone in a barroom or a luncheonette. Even a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Fri., Mar. 30, 4 pm
"A Conversation with Richard Ford"

The Times-Picayune on John Waters on Tennessee Williams

David Cuthbert of The Times-Picayune has an extremely entertaining Tennessee-themed Q&A with filmmaker and panelist John Waters in today's paper. Waters has written the introduction for Memoirs, the TW biography that's just been reissued by New Directions Publishing.

There's also a great roundup of stories on the Festival's theater offerings, including Jeremy Lawrence in "Everybody Expects Me to Write Another Streetcar," Gregg Barrios' new play "Rancho Pancho," and a general roundup of Tenn-themed stage offerings.

Sat., Mar. 31, 4 pm
"Tennessee Williams' Memoirs: When the Playwright Had His Say"

Panelists: John Waters, David Kaplan of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, and Thomas Keith, editor of New Directions Publishing. Moderator: Kenneth Holditch.

CDs from past Festivals

Missed the 2006 TW Fest? Get up to speed with archival CDs from the first post-Katrina Festival. They're $10 apiece, and there are dozens to choose from at the Festival's online CD store.

First day of spring, New Orleans style

Spring--early spring--is the very best time of the year to come to New Orleans, as people seem hellbent on getting outside before it gets hellishly hot (which it always does before the end of April; 'spring' is more a seasonette than a season here). And the flowers always seem to be at their best during the time of the Festival--the azaleas are going crazy, and I saw rivers of crimson-and-clover growing wild alongside the highway this afternoon.

Like all things in New Orleans, though, the good is inextricably twined with the regrettable, and with all this lushness comes some of the worst hay fever in the country. Pollen.com listed today's pollen count as 10.7 on a scale that I thought only went to 10, and said that the oak, grass, juniper, and cedar are busily budding and spor-ing and sending sinuses haywire.

Everyone knows that if you're coming to the Jazz Festival, you bring a hat and sunscreen. For Tennessee Williams? Claritin and Kleenex. Trust me.

Annette Cardona joins the program

Annette Cardona, who played the role of Perla in the 1996 off-Broadway production of one of Williams' last plays, The Red Devil Battery Sign, has been added to the Festival lineup. (And I'd be remiss not to note that Ms. Cardona also originated the role of Cha-Cha DiGregorio, 'the best dancer at St. Bernadette's...with the worst reputation' in the film version of Grease.)

She'll be appearing in the "Ode to Tennessee" panel, as well as speaking after the screening of the documentary Tennessee Williams: Theater in Process. As the program says:

Narrated by Tennessee Williams, this documentary traces the development of his play The Red Devil Battery Sign from its opening press conference to its first performances at Boston’s Schubert 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 work to stage.

Sun., Apr. 1, 10 am
The Cabildo

Tennessee Williams: Theater in Process
A screening of the 1976 documentary narrated by Williams, with a discussion of the play The Red Devil Battery Sign featuring Annette Cardona

Back in town

I arrived in New Orleans last night about midnight. My luggage did not. Fortunately I had my one-quart Ziploc bag with no more than 3 oz. of essential liquids and gels on my person rather than in my suitcase...

Will it be found in time for the Festival? Or will I be covering it in a T-shirt and gym shorts?

Edited to add: Man and bag are one again. Thanks, American Airlines!

NPR on Tennessee's notebooks

Last weekend, National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" had a feature on Tennessee Williams' Notebooks, which have been collected in a new volume by scholar Margaret Bradham Thornton. Actor Rick Foucheux read them aloud; you can listen to the broadcast here.

Arriving today

By the grace and mercy of the U.S. airline system, I'll be pulling into the New Orleans airport tonight at an ungodly hour and flopping at the house of some friends in Metairie. Dinner will be eaten in the concourse of the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, where I'll have my choice of Popeyes or Subway and be dreaming of a muffuletta from Napoleon House.

Profile: John Waters

A look at some of the personalities at the TW Fest

John Waters is a director, a writer, and one of the most hilarious people in the world. Even if you didn't grow up watching Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and his other cinema outrages, you've probably seen Hairspray (either the film or the Broadway musical, which has been turned into a film again). Two years ago, I was lucky enough to interview Waters on one of his jaunts to New Orleans, where his artwork is often on display at the Arthur Roger Gallery in the Warehouse District.

Waters is also a major Tennessee-ophile, and wrote about his obsession last year in The New York Times. This year, he wrote the introduction for Memoirs, a reprinting of Williams' biographical essays. His new projects are "'Til Death Do Us Part," a macabre comedy-documentary series that premieres tonight on CourtTV, and Fruitcake, a children's film (!) scheduled to start shooting this fall.

Sat., 4 pm: "Tennessee Williams' Memoirs: When the Playwright Had His Say"

The schedule continues to evolve...

More panel and panelist changes...

New Orleans as a Home for Writers ... Still

In 1987, at the first Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, a group of writers gathered on a panel to discuss the distinctive elements that make New Orleans congenial to their creative spirits. Is it Mardi Gras, the weather, the Sazeracs, or the jazz? Join original panelists as they share how the Crescent City continues to inspire and influence their work.

Fri., Mar. 30, 10 am
Panelists: Jason Berry, Christine Wiltz. Moderator: Ralph Adamo.
Bourbon Orleans Ballroom


And the Beats Go On

With the end of World War I came the Lost Generation and the Golden Age of American prose: Steinbeck, Faulkner, Hemingway. With World War II came a very different movement—the Beat Generation—one that brought the rhythms of jazz to the written word, and continues to influence the major writers of today. Kerouac, Burroughs, Thompson: All spent time in Tennessee Williams' "spiritual home"—part of the "Golden Triangle" between New York and San Francisco—and like him, captured the Crescent City with their words. In this panel, three authors who knew and have written about members of the Beat movement, discuss the Beats' influence on their own work and the group's lasting contributions to the contemporary literary landscape.

Sat. Mar. 31, 11:30 am
Panelists: Doug Brinkley, Barry Gifford, and Curtis Robinson. Moderator: Michael Swindle.
Bourbon Orleans Ballroom

Tennessee one-acts

Not an official Festival event, but running concurrently with it: The Marigny Theatre is presenting Tenn Times 3, three one-acts by you-know-who. The program (which opened last Friday) consists of "Fat's Man's Wife," "Adam & Eve on a Ferry," and "And Tell Sad Stories on the Death of Queens." Director Glenn Meche is blogging daily about the production; read all about it.

Tenn Times 3: Three One-Acts by Tennessee Williams
Mar. 16-Apr. 1, 2007
Marigny Theatre, 1030 Marigny St. (at St. Claude)
(504) 218-8859

Press from all over the area

The Baton Rouge Advocate has a nice story about the Festival today by its books editor, Greg Langley. Among the things he says:

The Tennessee Williams/French Quarter Literary Festival is a great opportunity to go back to New Orleans, help out with the city’s recovery a little and get a whole lot back. It’s a high-profile literary event that spotlights the best of New Orleans. If you live in The Advocate’s circulation area, then you’re within no more than a couple of hours’ drive of New Orleans. Hop on the interstate and go. Make a day of it. Get some of that great food you remember. Be entertained. See some live theater. Get a book by a great writer and get a great writer to sign it. It’s a rare opportunity.

The Louisiana Weekly has a writeup on the appearance of Yusef Komunyakaa:

Komunyakaa is the author of 12 books of poetry, among them Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, which won the Pulitzer Prize. His Thieves of Paradise and Talking Dirty to the Gods were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other honors include a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the Universite de Rennes, the Hanes Poetry Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Professor and Distinguished Senior Poet at New York University and served as a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets from 1999 to 2005. His most recent book is Gilgamesh, a verse play (concept and dramaturgy by Chad Gracia), published by Wesleyan University Press in November 2006.

Also, from Sunday's New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is among the 39 winners of the 2006 James Patterson PageTurner Awards, described in the citation as "a New Orleans literary festival that continues to bring excitement and fun to a community still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Katrina." The award includes a cash donation of $5,000.