Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier Williams, a.k.a. Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), was born in Columbus,

Mississippi on March 26, 1911 and was a major playwright during the mid 20th century.

His father, a traveling shoe salesman and an alcoholic, and his mother, a borderline

neurotic, often had violent arguments. The tensions that Tennessee experienced because

of this shaped who he became and was an inspirational force in his future plays.

At age 16, Tennessee placed third in a literary essay contest which marked his first taste

of fame. And a year later he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales. By

then his family had moved to St. Louis, Missouri and he had come back from an inspiring

trip to Europe with his grandfather. He attended Soldan High School and University City

High School before entering into the University of Missouri. There, he saw the play

“Ghosts” by Henrik Ibsen which may have piqued his interest in drama, but it wouldn’t

be until he saw his “Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!” played out on the Garden Players

community theatre in Memphis that he would fully fall in love with theatre. He later

transferred to Washington University in St. Louis and then to the university of Iowa

where he graduated and presented “Spring Storm” despite criticism from a professor. His

last schooling was at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York City.

In 1939, Tennessee received a $1000 Rockefeller grant and produced “Battle of Angels”

which was a flop but he later said it would have gone to his head if it had succeeded.

Some of his future successes included “The glass menagerie” in 1945,“A Streetcar named

desire” in 1947, “Cat on a hot tin roof” in 1955, all of which won acclaimed prizes and

have clearly distinguishable elements of his personal life. After losing his lover, Frank

Merlo in 1963, he began getting tired of broadway and tried writing. Though he wrote

some great works, nothing surpassed his previous accomplishments and he died in 1983.
David Garrick

David Garrick, an English actor, was born in 1717 in Hereford. He received his education

at Lichfield Grammar School and then at Samuel Johnson's Edial Hall School by court

mandate with his brother and lifelong aide, George in 1736. David showed an interest for

the theatre then and took part in the school’s production of “The Recruiting Officer” by

George Farquhar as Sergeant Kite. The school soon closed, and his next time on stage

would be a small role in 1741 incognito while replacing a sick actor in “Harlequin

Student: the fall of pantomime with the restoration of drama” in the Goodman’s Fields

Theatre.

While working as a wine merchant, he wrote “Lethe: or Aesop in the shade” in 1740

which was produced at the Theatre Royal at Drury Lane. After this and his performance,

he became more engrossed in the theatre and was known to frequent it and theatrical

circles. Finally he got a full part in “Oroonoko” by Thomas Sourtherne and success soon

followed. Next was “Richard III” which he had received coaching for by Charles

Macklin. Here, he established a new calm and easy manner of acting, something

completely new for that time period. He maintained that manner through his many

following performances including King Lear, a total of 18 roles within the 6 month

period.

Success continued until he was able to buy Drury Lane in 1747 and he began

reintroducing Shakespearean plays, 24 in total, and other works in danger of dying out to

contemporary audiences in the new style of acting. This influenced the actors themselves
and their way of acting. He also slowly set new standards for audience behavior in his

theatre. Just about until his death in 1779, he was expanding his acting repertoire.

Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski

Constantin Stanislavski, born on 1863, was