New Dances Inspired by Tennessee Williams

Every year artists from across the country and the globe converge at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival to perform plays by Tennessee Williams and new work by contemporary artists that he has inspired.

This year, as part of Tennessee Williams' Circle of Friends, the Festival welcomes back accomplished choreographer and performer Carson Efird, who has been inspired to create dances based on two of Williams' one-act plays.

For the Festival's first season, in 2006, Efird created the dance-theater piece "The Road to Paradise," based on Williams' Provincetown letters, poems, and diaries. Since then she has continued to develop a collaborative process that interprets theatrical texts as narratives in movement. Working with dancers and original music, Efird brings stories to life through new shapes and sounds.

Efird's new work, "I Wish You'd Keep Still," is a pair of dances inspired by Williams' "Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?" and "Something Unspoken." Efird says, "In each play, Williams gives us potent words to embody as we allow the unspoken subtext of the play to reveal itself."

Both plays are about female relationships in which desire is silenced through sound -- a nagging mother, records, societal chatter, a telephone ringing -- and in both dances movement breaks through the sound, inviting the desire of the body to be heard.

The dances are choreographed and performed by Carson Efird, Katherine Ferrier and Courtney Greer, with original sound scores by Joe Westerlund, produced by the Efird Westerlund company of Los Angeles. The piece will also feature a group of local Provincetown women.

Carson Efird (Performer and Choreographer) is a dancing yogini from South Carolina. Her delightful dance "The Road to Paradise," based on Williams' Provincetown letters, poems, and diaries, was the first performance in the Festival's first season in 2005. Since graduating from Bennington College, her work has been presented in dance festivals and theaters across the country.

Joe Westerlund (Composer) is a percussionist, composer, improviser and vocalist who records and tours internationally with Megafaun, Califone and Gayngs, among others. He has collaborated with a wide array of artists including minimalist composer Arnold Dreyblatt.

The performance will take place at the Paramount at The Crown & Anchor, a popular nightclub in the heart of Provincetown well-known for its cabaret and theatre performances throughout the year.

The Crown & Anchor is a waterfront entertainment complex of bars, an inn, and the Central House restaurant, developed over the years since the original Central Hotel was built in 1836. According to David Kaplan, Curator of the Festival and author of Tennessee Williams in Provincetown, Williams stayed in the 'Presidential Suite' at the hotel with his mother in 1962 when it was the Crown & Anchor Motor Inn.

Jef Hall-Flavin, Executive Director of the Festival says, "We're thrilled that The Crown & Anchor is the Presenting Sponsor of the Festival and that they are also offering a special Central House Dinner & Show option to our patrons. When buying tickets, patrons can choose this option for an average of 20% off a great dinner."