Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           www.selu.edu/NewsEvents
    Date: 3/9/98
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple  

SLU HOSTS "TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AT SOUTHEASTERN"
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University will host four outstanding scholars of
Tennessee Williams in two programs, March 12 and 17.
     The scholars are sponsored by Southeastern's College of Arts and Sciences, Department
of English,  Clark Hall Gallery, and Louisiana Literature, the university's award-winning literary
journal. The programs are being offered in conjunction with the March 12-15 Tennessee
Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and  French Quarter Literary Festival, March 11-13,
which Southeastern co-sponsors  in New Orleans.
     At 2 p.m., March 12,  in the Student Union Theater, Nancy Tischler will speak on
Williams's early development as a playwright. On the same program, Dan Isaac will trace the
development of A Streetcar Named Desire through its manuscripts, showing how Williams
gradually revised his ideas to arrive at the play and its familiar characters.
     On Tuesday, March 17,  Kenneth Holditch and Richard Leavitt will present a talk and
video program on Tennessee Williams in New Orleans. This program, scheduled for 2 p.m. in
the Music Recital Hall, also will include discussion of Streetcar.
     Tischler recently retired as professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. She has
authored two books and many articles on Williams, as well as books on black characters in
Southern fiction, women in scripture, and famed "Peter Wimsey" mystery writer Dorothy Sayers.
With Albert Devlin, she is currently compiling Williams's Collected Letters for New Directions
Press.
     Isaac writes on drama for Back Stage, the Village Voice, the New York Times, and other 
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TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AT SLU  -- Add One
periodicals, as well as for academic journals. He is editing two early Williams plays for New
Directions Press, and he is also a  successful playwright and a rabbi and lives in New York City.
      Holditch, professor emeritus of English at the University of New Orleans, is a familiar
and favorite speaker on regional literature. Best known for his scholarship on Williams and
Faulkner, he has written on many other aspects of Southern literature. At present he is working
on a biography of John Kennedy Toole.
     Leavitt, a close and longtime friend of the Tennessee Williams, authored a valuable
photobiography of the playwright. Leavitt has collected thousands of photos related to Williams,
a collection that has proved invaluable to television documentaries and exhibits around the
world.
     The programs will also feature "Tennessee Williams: A Retrospective Exhibit," a photo
display of Williams's career, which has been loaned to Southeastern by the Florida Center for the
Book at Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.. The exhibit will be on display at Sims
Memorial Library through April 8.
     At 1 p.m., March 13, all four speakers will serve on a Tennessee Williams/New Orleans
Literary Festival panel sponsored by Louisiana Literature, "Streetcar at Fifty." The fiftieth
anniversary of the premier of A Streetcar Named Desire forms the topic of the current special
issue of the journal.                    
     The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is an annual four-day celebration  
showcasing local and regional scholars, writers, and performing artists. Programs include panel
discussions, theatrical performances, a one-act play competition, public lectures by noted
speakers, literary walking tours, musical performances, and a bookfair. The French Quarter
Literary Conference offers includes parties, opportunities for networking and the chance, through
three days of stimulating classes, to be inspired about writing.
      For additional information, call 504-581-1144 or email twfest@gnofn.org. A web site is
also available: www.gnofn.ofg/~twfest.   
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