Fans of Tennessee Williams hit the road Saturday in Columbus, crisscrossing town for a series of birthday events honoring the playwright.
A 100th birthday party and open house were held Saturday morning at the Tennessee Williams Home and Welcome Center. It was there Jonathan Morgan, director of the production of Williams” “Strangest Kind of Romance,” was preparing to return to New York following Friday”s performance at the Rosenzweig Arts Center.
“The play went supremely well. The last performance was sold out, packed to the rafters,” he said. “It was a terrific audience, very responsive. We got applause between scenes, which you never get in New York.”
Morgan, a theater junkie who takes in two to three shows a week in New York, said Williams” work has unique staying power.
“My experience with Tennessee Williams is his weakest play is stronger than a lot of new plays you see today,” said Morgan.
Kathryn Zox, a radio host from Albany, N.Y., shared a similar sentiment as she and her partner of 20 years, Barry Batnikoff, waited to view Williams” last screenplay, “Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” at the Malco Cinema 8 at 11 a.m.
“His work is timely. What he wrote about 50 years ago is the same relationships and family problems people deal with today,” she said.
Zox and Batnikoff were planning to visit family in Tampa, Fla., this weekend when an item in The New York Times travel section spurred a detour through Columbus. The couple are huge fans of Williams” work and spend summers in Provincetown, Mass., where Williams lived and worked for a period.
Another fan of Williams” also made the long trip from New York to Columbus. Min Zhang is a Chinese scholar currently studying at New York University, where she”s working on a dissertation on Williams” work. She flew down to New Orleans for another Williams event, then made the trip to Columbus. She plans to return in September for the Tennessee Williams Tribute, when she”ll present a lecture on Williams” principles and the ideas which guided his work called “Plasticity Into Lyricism.”
Saturday”s events also featured the unveiling of two historic markers, one at the downtown Trustmark Bank which was the site of the hospital where Williams was born, and another at St. Paul”s Episcopal Church, where Williams” grandfather was rector.
Williams” day-long birthday party culminated with a fundraising gala and silent auction at the Rosenzweig.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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