Tennessee Williams 1911-1983

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=gWcDODllqSIC&lpg=PP1&dq=a%20streetcar%20named%20desire%20script&...1911 March 26 - Thomas Lanier Williams is born in Columbus, Mississippi.1927 = Williams gets his first taste of literary fame, placing third in a national essay contest sponsored by The Smart Setmagazine.1929 = He is admitted to the University of Missouri where he sees a production of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts and decides to become a playwright.1931 = His father forces him to withdraw from school and work in a St. Louis shoe factory where he meets a young man named Stanley Kowalski who will later resurface as a character in A Streetcar Named Desire.1937 = Two of his plays, Candles to the Sun and The Fugitive Kind, are produced by Mummers of St. Louis.1938 = Williams graduates from the University of Iowa with a bachelor of arts degree.1939 = He moves to New Orleans and changes his name from "Tom" to "Tennessee" which was the state of his father's birth.He receives a $1,000 Rockefeller Grant.1943 = A prefrontal lobotomy is performed on Williams' sister Rose who had long suffered from mental illness. The operation, however, is a failure and leaves Rose incapacitated for the remainder of her life. Tennessee never forgives his parents for allowing the operation.1944 December 26 - The Glass Menagerie premieres at the Lyric Theatre in Chicago and enjoys a successful run.1945 March 31 - The Glass Menagerie moves to the Playhouse Theatre on Broadway, earning Williams the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the season.1947 = Williams meets and falls in love with Frank Merlo.December 3A Streetcar Named Desire opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, earning Williams his first Pulitzer Prize and establishing him as one of the top dramatists of the American theatre.1948 October 6 - Summer and Smoke opens at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway.1951 February 3 - The Rose Tatoo opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway, earning Williams a Tony Award for Best Play.1953 March 17 - Camino Real opens at the National Theatre on Broadway.1955 March 24 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway, earning Williams his second Pulitzer Prize as well as another Tony Award for Best Play.1956 = Williams writes the screenplay for Baby Doll, a movie thatTime magazine calls "just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited."1957 March 21 - Orpheus Descending opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway.1959 March 10 - Sweet Bird of Youth opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway.1960 November 10 - Period of Adjustment opens at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway.1961 December 28 - The Night of the Iguana opens at the Royale Theatre on Broadway, earning Williams another Tony Award for Best Play.1963 January 16 - The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway.His partner, Frank Merlo, dies of lung cancer and Williams falls into a deep depression that will last for a decade.1968 March 27 - The Seven Descents of Myrtle opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 29 performances.1973 March 1 - Out Cry opens at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 12 performances.1976 November 23 - The Eccentricities of a Nightingale opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 24 performances.1977 May 11 - Vieux Carré opens at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 6 performances.1980 March 26 - Clothes for a Summer Hotel opens at the Cort Theatre on Broadway. It closes after only 14 performances.1983 February 24 - Tennessee Williams dies in his New York City residence at the Hotel Elysee. According to official reports, he choked to death on a bottle cap. He is buried in St. Louis, Missouri.

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