Historic Sites

Welcome to the 16th celebration of America’s great Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who spent his childhood in Clarksdale and later transformed many of its sites and citizens into legendary settings and characters still dominating center stages around the world, exclaim festival organizers preparing for the Sept. 26-27, 2008, event.

On historic front porch stages, Brick, Blanche, and Baby Doll still reflect Clarksdale’s influence on this literary genius, and the reason for its selection by the U.S. Postal Service to host the Tennessee Williams postage stamp unveiling in 1995 and this year’s prestigious documentaries being made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and White Crow Productions.

The 2008 celebration is focusing on his great Delta plays with special emphasis on Orpheus Descending with its blues musician hero, Valentine Xavier, linking literature with Clarksdale’s other great title as the birthplace of Mississippi Delta blues.

Exploring the blues component will be Harvard scholar Nick Moschovakis of Washington D.C., author of Tennessee Williams’s American Blues and a talk about Clarksdale’s blues history and current status by Jim O’Neal, a founding editor of Living Blues magazine.

Acclaimed blues musician Charlie Musselwhite, a multiple Grammy nominee and winner of 18 Blues Music Awards, will add icing to the cake with his gift to the festival – a performance at the Friday night reception at the Barr/Brewer Mansion.

The festival is sponsored by Coahoma Community College, 3240 Friars Point Road, which is located via four-lane boulevard (3) miles north of Clarksdale at 3240 Friars Point Road, which is an extension of Clarksdale’s Delta Avenue. The festival’s literary conference opens on CCC’s main campus in Whiteside Hall, a two-story state-of-the-art academic facility facing Friars Point Road. Parking is available around the Pinnacle, a large circular building, located a short walk from Whiteside Hall and visible from Friars Point Road..

The Georgia Lewis Theatre on the CCC campus hosts the festival’s acclaimed Student Acting Competition on Saturday with students across the state of Mississippi competing for $2,500 in cash prizes for their school drama departments. Prizes are awarded for winners in monologues and scenes from Tennessee Williams plays as well as the popular “Stella-Calling “ contest. Coordinating the competition this year as well as directing acting workshops for students and teachers will be veteran East Coast director/actress Erma Duricko. Winners are honored Saturday evening at the Depot Blues Club in Clarksdale Station where they give their presentations, enjoy a barbecue supper, and dance to the Wesley Jefferson Blues Band.

Oakhurst Middle School, located on West Second and Riverside – across the Second Street Bridge from downtown Clarksdale, will host Friday and Saturday’s literary conference continuation as well as live drama on its renovated auditorium stage. Performing there Friday will be Broadway stars Tammy Grimes and Joel Vig.

During registration the festival distributes a Walking Tour (self-guided) map of Clarksdale’s historic district which is the neighborhood where Tom Williams spent his childhood. Porch plays are presented in this area. Some of the significant sites include:

St. George’s Episcopal Church and Church Office – 106 Sharkey Avenue (former rectory where Tom Williams lived with his mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, his sister, Rose, and his grandparents: Rose Dakin and the Rev. Walter Dakin, rector in Clarksdale for 16 years) while his father, Cornelius Williams, a traveling shoe salesman, was on the road.  Featuring miniature flying buttress, the 100-year-old brick structure is an architectural gem with exposed interior beams, gleaming altar brass, and numerous brilliant stained glass windows including two dedicated to Reverend and Mrs. Dakin; and large signature windows: the Good Shepherd and St. George behind the altar. The church will host an organ recital by church organist David Williamson Saturday afternoon during the festival. A Clarksdale “Walk of Fame” bronze plaque honoring Tennessee Williams also will be dedicated in the sidewalk outside the former rectory.

The Cutrer Mansion – 109 Clark Street – The Italian Renaissance residence built in 1916 by Blanche Clark Cutrer  (only daughter of Clarksdale founder John Clark) and her attorney husband John Wesley Cutrer, anchors Clarksdale’s historic district and will host a Friday luncheon during the festival. The showplace residence where the era’s cotton-wealthy “jet-setters” lived with Italian gardeners, French chefs, and entertained lavishly with masked balls and house parties was a site visited frequently by “Tom” Williams with his grandfather on parish calls. It is considered to be Tennessee’s   “Belle-Reve” – the lost ancestral home of Blanche DuBois and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. Today the structure is the centerpiece of the Coahoma Higher Education Center, an artistic and educational conference center for classes and cultural events for Coahoma Community College and Delta State University. Once heading the list of Mississippi’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Buildings, the Cutrer Mansion has been renovated extensively.

The Barr/Brewer Mansion – 91 John Street – A short walk from the Cutrer Mansion is
the palatial residence of former Mississippi Governor Earl Brewer and  home today of Tami and Dr. Mike Barr. The Barrs have hosted the Friday night reception many times except the Year of Katrina when winds tossed a massive oak tree through the ceiling and demolished several columns. Live drama and music by acclaimed blues celebrity Charlie Musselwhite will mix magic and haute cuisine inside these fabled reception rooms reminiscent of Architectural Digest settings.

Porch Play settings: - High drams unfolds on front porches with the audience sitting on lawn chairs.

91 John Street - The Barr/Brewer Mansion

235 Clark Street – The double-galleried  home of Fran and Tom Ross, across the street from the Barr/Brewer Mansion, hosted the unveiling of the U.S. postage stamp honoring Tennessee Williams in 1995.

203 Court Street – The Victorian-style law office of attorney John Sherman on the corner of Court and Yazoo, faces the Coahoma County Courthouse, and serves as a stage each year for Clarksdale High School’s drama class theatrical presentations directed by Wanda Lee.

415 Court Street – The “raised cottage-style” Clark/Williams/Mayfield home was built in 1894 and is the second –oldest residence in Clarksdale and was the home of Tennessee’s best childhood friend, Phil Clark. Mrs. Pauline Clark served Coahoma County in the state Legislature. Renowned theatre director Elia Kazan and actress Barbara Bell l Geddes visited in the home before her role on Broadway as “Maggie the Cat” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

A number of other actors and theatre professionals visit Clarksdale Williams sites to prepare for their roles in Williams productions and to perfect their Southern diction. English actress Frances O’Conner spent several days in Clarksdale taping
local voices to prepare for her role as “Maggie” in the London West End production of  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Actors from France spent more than a week in Clarksdale preparing for Orpheus Descending with the leading man taking blues guitar lessons from master musician Johnny Billington to play on stage as Valentine Xavier.

The Tennessee Williams Park- Located at the foot of Court Street, the park was developed by Clarksdale’s Board of Mayor and Commissioners and features an angel statue reminiscent of the signature set piece from Summer and Smoke, a period play set in Clarksdale. The statue was a gift from the late Mary Jo McIntosh in memory of her husband, Bob McIntosh.The playwright’s brother, Dakin Williams, often gave poetry readings in the park. It also has been used for plays and the presentation of student acting trophies. The area once was playground for Tom Williams and his friends, Eddie Peacock, Phil and Charles Clark.

501 First Street – The law offices Chapman, Lewis and Swan facing First Street was the former Peacock residence: home of Tom’s friend Eddie Peacock and his sister, “Baby Doll” Peacock – a name he borrowed for “27 Wagons Full of Cotton,” and the movie, “Baby Doll” starring Carroll Baker.

The Depot Blues Club/Clarksdale Station is Clarksdale’s renovated historic passenger depot located at Issaquena and Blues Alley on the railroad tracks. It hosts a barbecue supper and festival finale for the Student Drama Competition.

The renovated Art Deco-style Greyhound Bus Station on Issaquena and Third Street  is the setting for Saturday night’s Ethnic Buffet- a showcase of gourmet dishes from Clarksdale’s diverse cultures: Lebanese, Italian, Jewish, Greek, Chinese, and African-American.

Uncle Henry’s Place on Moon Lake is linked historically with Tennessee Williams who visited there as a child frequently with his grandfather. The playwright later transformed the setting into the Moon Lake Casino in numerous dramas including Summer and Smoke and Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Glass Menagerie, Battle of Angels and Orpheus Descending, A Streetcar Named Desire, This Property’s Condemned, and others.

Robert Long and his family, descendants of the original owners of Uncle Henry’s, along with Sarah and George Wright, current owners, and members of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History are hosting a Jazz Brunch there at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, to unveil a state historical marker. They are inviting Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival participants to attend.

Uncle Henry’s Place is 30 minutes north of Clarksdale. For the most direct route from Memphis, exit  U.S. 61 at the US 49  turn to Helena, Arkansas;  exit US 49 at  the Moon Lake sign, cross a bridge leading to Moon Lake, and Uncle Henry’s is on the left behind a circular drive.