Please join us as we return to our Southern Literary Salon Series with Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams on the Tabor Stage on Friday, January 21 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, January 23 at 3:00 pm.
Generously sponsored by Irene and Fred Smith, Blue Roses is curated and directed by TSC Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary.
The one-hour Salon will explore, in a theatrical form perhaps Mr. Williams would appreciate, the first decade of the life of Thomas Lanier Williams III as he is raised in Mississippi and is inspired to pen his first published poetry, correspondence, short stories, and first plays.
McCleary and a cast that includes TSC company members Claire Hayner, Lauren Gunn, Michael Khanlarian, and Nicolas Dureaux Picou will perform scenes from The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire with music – and a Williams-inspired cocktail or two. The Salon introduces TSC Young Company actor Collins McCleary has Tom Williams.
TSC returns to the work of Williams for the first time since its impressionist production of The Glass Menagerie was presented outdoors on the grounds of The Dixon Gallery & Gardens in 2012.
“My sense over the past few decades of Williams’ relationship to Mississippi was not based in scholarship, rather in a lifetime of playing his characters and directing his plays,” says McCleary. “But as is so often the case with our Salons, I discovered my assumptions required more biographical information. Yes, Williams was sometimes sickly, and his family moved frequently, and he was challenged by a religious rigidity and a father that seemingly gave up on him in his absence. But young Tom also had his older sister Rose and his mother, and vivid story-telling, and a pastoral vista that made the Magnolia state a Valhalla for him – especially after his family had to re-locate to St. Louis. His earliest writing and first plays are firmly linked to the beauty, poetry, relationships, and spirituality around which he was raised. Mississippi was home, and he appears to be always seeking a poetic return.”
Artist and Production Bios
Michael Khanlarian (Senior Artist-Manager) TSC: King Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses, Macbeth Initiative, Julius Caesar, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, To Kill a Mockingbird, Henry V, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Othello, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet. Education: University of Memphis. Michael is a founding member of TSC.
Lauren Gunn (Company member) TSC: Ada and the Engine, Macbeth, Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Southern Arena Theatre: Boeing Boeing, I Hate Hamlet. New Stage Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Crimes of the Heart, A Christmas Carol, Cat in the Hat. Fish Tale Group Theatre: Voice of Freedom Summer. Unframed: Constellations, Gruesome Playground Injuries. Lauren is originally from Jackson, MS. Education: University of Southern Mississippi (M.F.A. in Acting).
Claire Hayner (Company member) TSC: Julius Caesar, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, As You Like It, Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors. Other credits: A Little Night Music, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Les Misérables, Present Laughter, Singing in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, Collected Stories, A Funny Thing…Forum, Into The Woods, Cyrano de Bergerac. Education: University of Memphis (B.F.A. in Theatre Performance). Claire hails from New York City.
Collins McCleary (Young Company member) makes his stage debut as an 11-year-old Riverdale Middle School student. He is a three-year veteran of TSC’s Summer Camps and regularly plays piano in the lobby prior to TSC performances. He is a Boy Scout, academic honors student, award-winning visual artist, GFL football all-star, GBL baseball all-star, wrestler, basketball player, distance runner, and an avid reader.
Dan McCleary (TSC Founder and Nancy R. Copp Producing Artistic Director), a native of Memphis, has created, directed, and acted in most of TSC’s productions, including this season’s Ada and the Engine, As You Like It (Jaques), Julius Caesar, Waiting for Godot, The Glass Menagerie (Tom), The Taming of the Shrew (Sly), Richard III (title role), To Kill a Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, Ernest Hemingway in Key West, Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia Gothic, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the all-female Julius Caesar, Othello, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), Themes from a Midsummer Night with IRIS Orchestra, and last season’s Classical Creations in Quarantine and Shakespeare’s Election of Coriolanus. As Associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires (1993-2005), Dan acted in and directed over 30 productions, including his acclaimed production of The Servant of Two Masters, his own adaptation of Anaïs Nin’s Henry and June, as well as Vita & Virginia, My Own Stranger, and The Fiery Rain. Other regional directing credits of Shakespeare and new work: Seattle Shakespeare, Orlando Shakespeare, and Georgia Shakespeare. He has played over 120 roles on stage, including Coriolanus, Richard III, Macbeth, Falstaff, Marc Antony, Caliban, Brutus, Petruchio, Bottom, Master Ford, Stephano, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus, Cassio, Bertram, Demetrius, Silvius, Herman Melville, Porfiry, Charles Dickens, The Gentleman Caller, and Bertha Bumiller in the Greater Tuna series. Dan is a published poet, and the creator/director/actor of plays Speak What We Feel: Shakespeare’s Radical Response to a Radical Time, Unto the Breach, Quintessence: Shakespeare in Performance, and Classical Creations in Quarantine. Memphis Magazine named him among the “Who’s Who in Memphis” for five years (including 2020). Dan presented his TEDx Talk “Shakespeare in Kindergarten, or Let Fall Rome” in Memphis in 2020, and the Germantown Arts Alliance honored him with its 2009 Distinguished Arts and Humanities Medal for Performing Arts. Dan holds a B.A. in Advertising and Journalism from Temple University.
Nicolas Dureaux Picou (Actor/Teaching-Artist Fellow) TSC: Ada and the Engine, King Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses, The Tempest, As You Like It, Macbeth, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Henry V. Other favorite productions include M. Butterfly, The Physicists, Private Eyes. Nic holds a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of Memphis.
Health Safety Information for the Tabor Stage
All TSC personnel are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
TSC follows Shelby County Health Department directives and recommendations: As it is possible TSC actors could be within 15 feet of patrons, all patrons aged 2+ must wear a facial mask at all times inside TSC’s facility and must present (at point of entry) a valid proof of receipt of at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose, or, if patrons are aged 12+ and unvaccinated, must present valid proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken at least 72 hours prior.
Box Office Information
Purchase tickets now and receive more information by calling TSC’s Box Office at (901) 759-0604 or going online here.
TSC’s Tabor Stage is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.
Tickets range from $15-$27, including tiered seating tickets for Seniors (age 62+) ranging from $20-$24 and tiered seating tickets for Students (age +/-22, with identification) ranging from $15-$20.
No refunds/exchanges. House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain for purchase of specialty Salon cocktail. Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Cast/schedule subject to change with notice. Free parking and covered drop-off area.
Schedule for Blue Roses of Tennessee Williams
Friday, January 21: 7:30 pm
Sunday, January 23: 3:00 pm matinee
Season 14 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, Anne and Michael Keeney, Irene and Fred Smith, and the Memphis City Council. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.
TSC’s programming and outreach partners include University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Cities of Bartlett/Collierville/Germantown/Lakeland/Memphis, and the Benjamin Hooks Public Library Friends.
About Tennessee Shakespeare Company:
Tennessee Shakespeare Company is a professional, not-for-profit theatre and education organization in Memphis dedicated to live, diverse performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as works of social significance by classical, Southern, and modern writers/composers; and to providing innovative educational and training programming in-person and online.
Founded in 2008 by Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary, Tennessee Shakespeare Company is Memphis’ first and only professional, classical theatre. In 2017, TSC purchased its first performing arts facility, which is being renovated into the state’s only permanent home for professional, year-round Shakespeare performance, education, and training. The company is engaged in its Brave New World capital campaign with a goal of $9.2 million, of which nearly one-third has been raised.
TSC has engaged its community with 58 site-specific plays and events for over 52,000 patrons. Its ground-breaking Education Program has reached 120 schools across nine states, totaling over 275,000 student interactions. The Program has achieved a high regional and national profile, partners annually with most local school systems, and this year is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest’s Shakespeare in American Communities grants: one for The Romeo and Juliet Project in underserved local schools, and the other for expanded residencies with local incarcerated youth. TSC is one of just a handful of U.S. theatres to be awarded this grant for the third consecutive year.
