CCC, Tennessee Williams Fest Honored
with Top Award

Coahoma Community College and the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival are honored at the Mississippi Humanities Council’s annual banquet in Jackson Friday night with the MHC’s prestigious Partner Award. Recognized for 17 years of excellence that attracted the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) decision to record a documentary of the 2008 tribute to America’s great playwright, the festival was cited for its numerous collaborations, partnerships and volunteers who made it a success.

Among the volunteers attending the MHC banquet attended by 400 are (front row from left) Julia Mayfield Ott, Panny Mayfield, festival project director; Dr. Vivian Presley, CCC president holding the Partner Award; Robert  Rockett, CCC English instructor who received an MHC Outstanding Teacher Award; Laura Mayfield holding an  auction prize; Yvonne Stanford, CCC library director; and Shelley Ritter, Delta Blues Museum director; (back row) Vera Griffin, CCC English department chairman; David Jones and Glynda Duncan, CCC English instructors; Dr. Rosetta Howard, CCC academic dean; Teresa Williams; and Wanda Reed, CCC English instructor. Not pictured are Marilyn Starks, CCC director of federal programs, and  Mary Caradine, CCC librarian. The 2009 festival is scheduled Oct. 16-17 and updates appear on the CCC web site: www.coahomacc.edu/twilliams

Tennessee Williams Festival set Oct. 16-17
 
Celebration to continue focus on Mississippi Delta influences

CLARKSDALE - The 17th annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival honoring America’s premiere 20th century playwright and sponsored by Coahoma Community College will be held in Clarksdale Oct. 16-17, 2009.

“We are returning to our original October dates following last year’s September 26-27, 2008 celebration scheduled earlier because of major conflicts in October,” report festival organizers.

  The 2008 festival was recorded by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for a documentary to be broadcast to a radio audience of 13 million.

The 2009 festival will continue to explore influences of the Mississippi Delta on Tennessee Williams with particular emphasis on his early play, Spring Storm.

Written in 1937, Spring Storm with its setting in the Mississippi Delta, was unpublished and rediscovered in 1996 in the Harry Ransom Humanities Center at the University of Texas in Austin, and performed in Manhattan in 2004.
 
The drama has been described as a precursor of Orpheus Descending.

The multi-faceted Williams Festival includes a literary conference with top scholars giving presentations and leading panel discussions, film screenings, live dramas, receptions and porch plays in the historic district where the playwright spent his childhood, and an elite acting competition for high school students performing monologues and scenes from Williams plays.

The literary conference and acting competitions take place on the CCC campus with staged readings, live dramas, and receptions scheduled at Oakhurst Middle School and Clarksdale’s historic district including the Cutrer Mansion, St. George’s Episcopal, Clarksdale Station, and the renovated Greyhound Bus Station.

For additional information and background, visit the festival’s website: www.coahomacc.edu/twilliams or call CCC’s public relations department: 662-621-4157.

Thanks to Coahoma Community College and other organizations including the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Rock River Foundation, and other donors, the event is free an open to the public.

For more information, contact Panny Mayfield,
662-621-4157 or pmayfield@coahomacc.edu