[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 45 (Friday, April 15, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E672-E673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     TRIBUTE TO TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. LINCOLN DAVIS

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2005

  Mr. DAVIS of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of 
playwright Tennessee Williams and the University of the South.
  In 1983, following the death of the great American playwright, 
Tennessee Williams, the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, 
received the most generous bequest of the playwright in honor of his 
grandfather, Walter E. Dakin. Since then the university, known as 
Sewanee, utilizing the income from the bequest and subsequent revenues 
from the hundreds of productions of Tennessee's award-winning plays, 
has established the Sewanee Writers Conference, which supports the work 
of emerging writers in all disciplines. In addition, the university has 
constructed the Tennessee Williams Center, a monument to the vision and 
craftsmanship of the late playwright, where each year gifted young 
writers develop their talents aided by artists from all over the world 
who visit the center as Tennessee Williams Fellows in Theatre.
  This month, the Tennessee Williams Festival, an annual event 
featuring new works by established artists as well as students in the 
university, will present the premieres of two important theatrical 
productions.
  The first, The Poetry of Tennessee Williams, will bring to dramatic 
life the poems of the great playwright. In the poems, we often hear 
``Tom'' Williams at his most intimate and lyrical. Audiences will 
discover this powerful aspect of Williams' artistic life, very much the 
work of a master dramatist and storyteller.
  The second, The Cherokee Lottery, is adapted from the book of the 
same name by

[[Page E673]]

William Jay Smith, a former Consultant in Poetry to the Library of 
Congress and a student friend of Tennessee Williams at Washington 
University in St. Louis. This new work for the theatre commemorates one 
of the saddest and most shameful moments in American History: the 
``Trail of Tears'', the forced removal of the Native Americans of the 
Southeast to Oklahoma in the 1830's.
  Both works illustrate the commitment of the Department of Theatre 
Arts of the University of the South to further the legacy of one of 
America's greatest artists, Tennessee Williams.