RP: TWO New Tennessee Williams Festivals!!!

RE-PRINTED from here: http://theweathercontinues.blogspot.mx/2015/04/two-new-tennessee-williams-festivals.html

Hi Carrie,

Having just seen that NYC is going to initiate a Tennessee Williams festival this fall, http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2015/04/tennessee_williams_theater_fes.html, I thought of you and your starting one for St. Louis, so felt I should get in touch with you.

If there is anything I can do that will be helpful, I will be happy to do so. I actually tried to mount a 100^th birthday party with performances, speakers, plays, and films for 2011 in Puerto Vallarta/Mismaloya, but ran into political troubles and got not too far (nor did I know what I was doing).

The hotel from filming The Night of the Iguana still exists in Mismaloya. One day, an old employee of John Huston gave me a tour: http://theweathercontinues.blogspot.mx/2014/03/my-visit-to-ruins-of-night-of-iguana.html

And although I seem to be resolving all my political troubles, they have continued and I believe the email address I gave you at the NOLA fest was since then SHUT DOWN, as was another of mine, but currently I have both scott@scottkenan.com (the www.scottkenan.com site is one I am locked out of changing, so it is over five years old now), as well as scottdkenan@aol.com.

I think I gave you the URL for my memoir, now published like a blog: http://laterdaysoftennesseewilliams.blogspot.com  and my blog and its mirror: http://scottkenan.blogspot.com and http://theweathercontinues.blogspot.mx.

For now, just a few observations:

Beware some of the Williams people and the continuing fight to cover up the real cause of Tom’s death and disbursement of estate. Sewanee/Episcopal Church holds rights – but only because of the cover-up – which I once tried to undo, but now gave up on that, but I will not lie about it.

Thomas Keith is the biggest enforcer for the Episcopal Church, and when he was hired by Alyson Books while they were committed to Walking on Glass: A Memoir of the Later Days of Tennessee Williams hard-cover publication spring 2010, to edit my memoir (which he did mostly rather lightly), he just pooped out about 2/3 the way through and the last third was highly slipshod, proving in MY mind that he knew they never intended to publish it. I have become aware of his BLOCKING the publication of other books as well.

And it was recently-deceased scholar Allean Hale who had MOST encouraged me in getting to the bottom of Tennessee's death and the disposal of his estate. You can see my recent Tribute to Allean here: http://theweathercontinues.blogspot.mx/2015/04/in-memorium-allean-hale-tennessee.html

The NOLA fest does not need permission for much from Sewanee, so can be rather neutral, while the Provincetown festival needs Sewanee’s cooperation because it is all about play performances. This is why I believe David Kaplan and Jef Hall-Flavin have always been completely cold to me – nothing personal, but they don’t want Thomas Keith to cut them out!!!

Others seem to be more or less intimidated by Thomas and his kind, so I will not comment on them. I AM especially fond of Kenneth Holditch, who is actually about Tenn’s 4^th cousin. And for comedy, you can’t beat the woman who runs the Columbus, MS festival – but after all these years, she hasn’t even MET Paul Willis who heads the NOLA fest!!!

I have the highest regard for Paul Willis – and enjoyed running into him so many times this year to tell him that.

Roy Rogers Oldenkamp

And I would recommend a couple of people as presenters. Roy Rogers Oldenkamp lives in Tennessee Williams’s old apartment in West Hollywood, and his friend lives in Gavin Lambert’s old apartment in the same building and between them own several of Tennessee’s paintings. Roy has long been in the media and had agreed to give a presentation at my aborted thing. It would be best to contact him via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roy.oldenkamp.

The other person is Rick McKay, of Broadway the Golden Age: http://www.broadwaythegoldenage.com/. I met Rick when he toured with his first movie in 2004, and his first movie is FULL of Tennessee Williams. I see he got his first new installment out last year, and has another due out in 2016.

And if you could get Alison Fraser (between acting stints), her recording with plenty of credit to David Kaplan, too, is AMAZING: http://www.amazon.com/Tennessee-Williams-Words-Alison-Fraser/dp/B00IBQ5OWY.

And Alison was also in the original production of In Masks Outragous and Austere:

Alison is third from right, and that tall black character in the back is Mac, said to have been based on me, and QUIET and observing. I am not quiet, today -- LOL!!!

Also, William Shuman was very much in contact with me when he wrote EN AVANT!: An Evening with Tennessee Williams. I don’t know his work, but he TOO lamented that the person who used to perform as Tennessee in years past at NOLA came off as a sniveling little queen. http://www.amazon.com/Tennessee-Williams-Words-Alison-Fraser/dp/B00IBQ5OWY.

So, anyway, I hope your early preparations are going well!!! I will publish this email on my blog – because this could all be for public consumption -- but I will NOT publish continuing conversation – unless you begin to channel Maria St. Just, nee Britneva!!!

Scott

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