“Underwater: Two One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams” at The Studios of Key West

This year’s month-long Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration will conclude with performances of two rarely seen one-act Williams plays, “Lifeboat Drill” and “Kingdom of Earth,” each of which will be performed on Sunday, March 31 and Monday, April 1 beginning at 7:30pm in the Helmerich Theater at The Studios of Key West, 533 Eaton Street.

Written by the great American playwright who was a resident of Key West from 1941 until his death in 1983 and directed by Key West writer and director Stephen Kitsakos, “Lifeboat Drill” is a comedy that follows the mishaps and mayhem that occur in the stateroom of an aging couple on the “Queen Elizabeth II” who have been prevented from attending the vessel’s lifeboat drill by interfering ship stewards. “Kingdom of Earth,” is a play based on a short story Williams wrote in 1942 that puts a steamy romantic triangle in the path of a coming flood.

“Lifeboat Drill” image with Jeff Johnson and Kitty Clements by Larry Blackburn.

Performed by Alaina Albertson and Michael Catlege, two New York-based actors with theater, television and film credits, and Key West-based actors Kitty Clements, Arthur Crocker, and Jeff Johnson, the two plays are thematically united by characters trapped both physically and metaphorically by rising waters.

“In presenting a two-night run of these two plays, unified with stagecraft, scenography and pedagogy, we hope to enrich audiences already familiar with Williams but also to draw in new audiences to whom these rarely performed plays will appeal,” says Kitsakos.  Following both performances, there will also be a talkback with the actors and the director to further enhance the audience’s understanding of Williams’s writing process and stage directions.

Presented in part by the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, Neal Ruchman and Melissa Jean McDaniel, and Bert Whitt.  Tickets are $45 for general seating, $60 preferred seating, and are available at kwahs.org, click “Tickets.” For more information contact Cori Convertito, Ph.D., at 305-295-6616 x 112 or [email protected].

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