Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Annette Sadik: A New Look at Tennessee Williams - Transforming Madness into Meaning

A New Look at Tennessee Williams
CUNY Lecture Series

One of the most important and prolific playwrights of the twentieth century, Tennessee Williams, is primarily known for his earlier works, including “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1948) and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955), both Pulitzer Prize-winning plays that were made into films. But, according to New York City College Technology English professor Annette Saddik, it is his later works that deserve a fresh look. Saddik, the editor of “The Traveling Companion and Other Plays: The Later Plays of Tennessee Williams (coming out next year) and the college’s 2007 Scholar on Campus, explains in her lecture, “Transforming Madness into Meaning” that Williams was ahead of his time and displayed the tragicomic style that would be seen in the type of drama being done in the 1960’s and 1970’s by Pinter, Beckett and Albee. “He was moving into a different kind of dramatic style, with more reliance on visuals than language, very experimental.”

To Listen to the Interview (MP3)

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