LAByrinth's Non-stop Tennessee Williams in NYC

On the weekend of what would have been the late playwright Tennessee Williams’ 99^th birthday, LAByrinth Theater Company in New York staged Tenn 99: around-the-clock readings of Williams’ plays, one-acts, short stories and other works. The free event started March 26 and runs until midnight March 28.

As soon as I heard about it, I knew I wanted to attend just to see the spectacle of it. It’s almost impossible to grow up in the United States without being exposed to Williams. His Pulitzer-winning plays “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” are staged regularly in high schools. And most people have seen at least once (or heard of) the 1951 “Streetcar” movie with Vivienne Leigh as Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski.

I also wanted to go because my friends told me celebrities such as elder actors Ellen Burstyn and Eli Wallach would be participating. Both had worked with Williams. I missed seeing them, but did see playwright and director John Patrick Shanley, who won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the 1987 movie “Moonstruck.” More recently he directed the movie version of his play “Doubt: A Parable.”

“To me, Tennessee Williams was the ocean. He was a geologic movement. He turned America into something else,” Shanley told a full house at Tenn 99 March 27, having just got in from New Orleans, where he had taken part in the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Shanley said Williams inspired him and others. The late playwright was a master at portraying real life and the struggles and triumphs of everyday people.

I planned to stop by the Cherry Pit Theater in the West Village for only a few minutes March 27, but ended up staying close to five hours. A steady flow of people came and went throughout the event, overflowing the theater, or waiting in its lobby, where food and drinks were served and books of Williams’ plays were for sale.

At 4 a.m. March 27, 60 people were in the audience. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Rose Tattoo” were read during that day. Later, close to midnight, another group, possibly numbering 100, stood shivering outside the theater waiting to see “Orpheus Descending.” “A Streetcar Named Desire” is set to be read March 28.

It took about two months to plan and coordinate the event, which was a volunteer effort, said Yul Vazquez, a co-artistic director at LAByrinth Theater Company, along with Stephen Adly Guirgis and Mimi O’Donnell. While there, others I talked with included Mel Nieves, co-producer; Kelley Rae O’Donnell, one of the actors/readers in “The Rose Tattoo;” Angelina Fiordellisi, artistic director of the Cherry Lane and the Cherry Pit theaters; and playwright Jonathan Smit, one of the readers of Williams' “Summer and Smoke.”

The LAByrinth Theater Company, which is celebrating its 18^th birthday, is seeking donations of $18. For more info on Tenn 99 see LAByrinth's Twitter or Facebook sites.