Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Richard Ford, to speak on Friday afternoon
Academy & Emmy Award-winning producer, Milton Justice, to speak on Friday evening
Justice will also direct abridged version of “The Glass Menagerie” on Saturday afternoon
CLARKSDALE, MS – With just a week away, organizers of the MS Delta Festival are on the countdown for the 30th annual literary celebration in Clarksdale of great American playwright, Tennessee Williams. The dates are October 13-15. The festival begins on the grounds of the Coahoma County Higher Education Center/ Cutrer Mansion on Thursday, October 13 at 10:30 AM with a hot tamale demonstration, music by Alice Hasen and also Lucious Spiller, and talks by Blues City Cultural Center’s artistic director, Levi Frazier, and well-known writer and newspaper man, Curtis Wilkie.
The MS Delta Tennessee Williams Festival (MDTWF) was founded by Coahoma Community College (CCC) in 1992 under the leadership of Dr. Vivian Presley, president of CCC from 1992 to 2013, with a $10,000 grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and it has been chugging along ever since.
Clarksdale journalist/photographer Panny Mayfield, who was a part-time consultant for the Mississippi Arts Commission at the time, assisted Dr. Presley in writing the grant and has remained heavily involved ever since. Mayfield now serves as director emeritus of the festival and is pleased that Coahoma Community College is celebrating 30 years of Tennessee Williams.
“We were fortunate to have three outstanding professionals serve as NEA consultants for more than a year to plan the first festival,” said Mayfield. “They included Dr. Ann Abadie, a key creator of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss who had experience planning the Faulkner Conference and other academic events; Dr. Kenneth Holditch, an academic from the University of New Orleans, who spoke on the works of Tennessee Williams at the International Tennessee Williams Festival in France and edited the Tennessee Williams Journal; and theatre director Greg Boyd from Shelby State College of Memphis (now Southwest Tennessee Community College) who was a specialist on performances and the production of plays. Later his position was filled by playwright and professor Levi Frazier of Memphis who will join us this year on Thursday at the Cutrer Mansion. ”
The very first Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival was held in October 1993.
“As I look through the pages of newspaper articles that covered the Tennessee Williams Festival over the years, I can see that festival organizers have had so many wonderful people come to Clarksdale and celebrate Tennessee Williams in the MS Delta,” said Jen Waller, director of the 2022 festival. “People like Emmy Award winning actress Ruby Dee who performed as Tom's mother in excerpts from THE GLASS MENAGERIE in the Pinnacle and the quite memorable comedian Jimmy Walker, the great Williams biographer, Lyle Leverich, and of course Tennessee’s brother, Dakin… We plan to highlight some of those memories during the festival this year and celebrate Williams in ways that honor his Delta roots.”
This year’s festival is also dedicated to the late Dr. Colby Kullman of the University of Mississippi who served over 25 years as part of the festival advisory team. Kullman was a beloved teacher at the University of Mississippi and he believed in the importance of “Teaching Tennessee.”
Other notable highlights of the 2022 MS Delta Tennessee Williams Festival will include a tour through Clarksdale's historic district and other areas; a MDTW festival reunion and a look at festivals past at the Tennessee Williams park; a Delta Dinner Party in the Norman Brown Commons Building on Thursday night, and a movie screening of the acclaimed 1958 film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on the lawn of the Cutrer Mansion;.
The festival will also have academic presentations from scholars from around the country including Williams Scholar, Dr. Kenneth Holditch; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Richard Ford; Award-winning author, W. Ralph Eubanks; Moorman Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Dr. Andrew Haley; Award-winning Highway 61 Radio Host, Writer and Researcher, Scott Barretta; Williams Historian and Director of the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum, Karen Kohlhaas; and Academy and Emmy Award winning producer, Milton Justice; as well as performances by both professional and community actors; a High School Student Drama Competition; our signature Porch Plays in the historic district; and at least three social gatherings with food and music by numerous artists including the acclaimed Coahoma Community College choir and the celebrated blues band, the Stone Gas Band.
Academy and Emmy Award winning producer, and former professor at the Stella Adler Academy and also the Stella Adler Conservatory, Milton Justice, will also direct an abridged production of A Glass Menagerie on Saturday afternoon in Clarksdale on the porch of the historic Governor's Mansion located at 41 John Street.
The MS Delta Tennessee Williams Festival is free and open to the public. Its continued success depends on sponsorships, grants, and donations. We give special thanks and recognition to the following sponsors: Coahoma Community College, the MS Humanities Council, the MS Arts Commission, the Coahoma County Tourism Commission/Visit Clarksdale, and Visit Mississippi. For more information, please contact Jen Waller at jwaller@coahomacc.edu or at 662-645-3555.