This is the centenary of Tennessee Williams' birth year, and as a result theatres all over the nation are honoring his plays, from the famous to the obscure. To this end, the Fountain Theatre has mounted a revival of A House Not Meant to Stand, his last produced work. Unfortunately, the script is a mess, combining warmed-over Williams greatest hits--mental illness, a roaring Big Daddy-like character, troubled gay son--and cartoonishly broad humor into an uneasy gumbo. The Fountain production, a West Coast premiere, is a professional rendering, although a couple of the performances fail to connect. more ›

For the centenary of Tennessee Williams’ birth year, the Theatre@Boston Court and CalArts School of Theater have collaborated on a production of his rarely produced 1953 work, Camino Real. The play is unique in Williams’ oeuvre in that it’s surreal and heavily symbolic without much in terms of traditional plot. It seems like Williams’ take on No Exit, albeit set in an unnamed Mexican or South American location. more ›

Jack Pendarvis, author of the just-released collection of short stories, Your Body is Changing is a funny guy. He was just in town on Friday for a reading at Skylight Books and posted about it on his blog yesterday under the heading, “An Open Letter to the People of California.” What did his post say? “You are nice!” Yup. That's it. So short prose really is his specialty... more ›