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              <td><p><img src="images/twilliamspic1.jpg" alt="Tennessee Williams" width="152" height="211" /><br />
                  <a href="index.html" class="twnav">Home</a><a href="about.html" class="twnav">About the Festival</a> 
				  <!--<a href="../twilliams/schedule.pdf" class="twnav">Schedule</a></p>-->
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                <a href="hotels.html" class="twnav">Hotel Information </a>
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                <p> <a href="sites.html" class="twnav">Historic Sites</a><a href="contact.html" class="twnav">Contact</a> <a href="sponsors.html" class="twnav">Sponsors</a><a href="photos.html" class="twnav">Photos</a></p></td>
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            <td width="613" height="407" valign="top"><img src="images/festivalheading.jpg" width="597" height="78" alt="15th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival" /><br />
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                      <td valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><h3 align="left" class="style2">Historic Sites </h3>
                        <p class="style1">Since  America&rsquo;s great Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright 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, many  local sites are infused with layers of history.</p>
                        <p class="style1">On front porch stages, Brick, Blanche, and  Baby Doll still reflect Clarksdale&rsquo;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 the  BBC documentary being recorded here in 2008.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The festival is sponsored by Coahoma Community College,  3240 Friars Point &nbsp;Road, </strong>(an extension of Clarksdale&rsquo;s Delta Avenue) that  is located via a four-lane boulevard (3 miles) north of Clarksdale. The festival&rsquo;s literary  conference opens on CCC&rsquo;s main campus in <strong>Whiteside  Hall</strong>, a two-story state-of-the-art academic facility facing Friars Point  Rd. Parking is available around the Pinnacle, a large circular building visible  from Friars Point Road  and located a short walk from Whiteside Hall.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The Georgia  Lewis Theatre  on the CCC campus </strong>hosts  the festival&rsquo;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 and  engraved trophies for themselves. Prizes are awarded for winners in monologues  and scenes from Tennessee Williams plays as well as the popular  &ldquo;Stella-Calling&rdquo; contest. Coordinating the competition and acting workshops are  veteran theatre professionals. Winners are honored at a Saturday evening finale  dinner/dance where they recreate their performances, enjoy a barbecue supper,  interact with theatre professionals and dance to live music by a Mississippi  Delta blues band.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>Oakhurst Middle School located on West Second  and Riverside -&nbsp; </strong>across the Second Street  Bridge from downtown Clarksdale, hosts Friday&rsquo;s live drama  performances on its renovated auditorium stage.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>During registration, the festival  distributes a Walking Tour (self-guided) map of Clarksdale&rsquo;s historic district, which is the  neighborhood where Tom Williams spent his childhood. Porch plays are presented  in this area with the audience sitting in lawn chairs. Some of the significant  sites include:</strong></p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>St. George&rsquo;s Episcopal Church and  Church Office &ndash; 106 Sharkey Avenue (</strong>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 rich stained glass windows including two  dedicated to Reverend and Mrs. Dakin and large signature windows:&nbsp; the Good Shepherd and St. George behind the  altar. The church hosts an organ recital and open house in the former rectory at  each festival. In 2008 Clarksdale  dedicated a &ldquo;Walk of Fame&rdquo; bronze sidewalk plaque honoring Tennessee Williams outside  the church office. The former rectory is also a National Literary Landmark.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The Cutrer  Mansion &ndash; 109 Clark Street &ndash; </strong>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&rsquo;s historic  district and hosts an open house during the festival. The showplace residence  where the era&rsquo;s cotton-wealthy &ldquo;jet-setters&rdquo; lived with Italian gardeners,  French chefs and entertained lavishly with masked balls and house parties, was  a site visited frequently by young Tom Williams with his grandfather on parish  calls. It is considered to be Tennessee&rsquo;s  &ldquo;Belle Reve&rdquo; &ndash; the lost ancestral home of Blanche and Stella in <em>A Streetcar Named Desire</em>. 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.  After heading the list of Mississippi&rsquo;s 10 Most Endangered Historic Buildings,  the Cutrer Mansion was renovated extensively.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The Clark House &ndash; </strong>Next door to the Cutrer  Mansion, the magnificent mansion was  built in 1859 by Clarksdale founder John Clark,  and today has been renovated into a residence inn by California developer Charles Evans. It has  hosted receptions and porch plays during the Williams Festival.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The Barr-Brewer Mansion &ndash; 91 John  Street</strong> &ndash; 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. Its fabled reception rooms have hosted  numerous receptions during the festival, and its magnificent columns define a  stage for porch plays.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>Porch Play Settings &ndash; High drama  unfolds on front porches with the audience sitting on lawn chairs. </strong></p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>91    John Street &ndash; The Barr/Brewer  Mansion</strong></p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>235 Clark Street &ndash; </strong>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. Four generations of the Ross  family have lived in the historic turn-of-the-century residence.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>203 Court Street &ndash; </strong>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 student drama class  theatrical presentations including performances by Clarksdale  and Hernando High Schools.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>415 Court Street</strong> &ndash; The &ldquo;raised cottage-style&rdquo;  Clark/Williams/Mayfield home was built in 1894 and is the second oldest  residence in Clarksdale.  It also was the home of Tennessee&rsquo;s  best childhood friend, Phil Clark. Mrs. Pauline Clark served Coahoma County  in the state Legislature. Renowned theatre director Elia Kazan and actress  Barbara Bel Geddes visited in the home before her role on Broadway as Maggie in  &ldquo;Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.&rdquo;</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The Tennessee  Williams Park &ndash; </strong>Located  at the foot of Court Street, the park was developed by Clarksdale&rsquo;s  Board of Mayor and Commissioners and features an angel statue reminiscent of  the signature set piece from <em>Summer and  Smoke, </em>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&rsquo;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 was once a playground for Tom Williams and  his friends, Eddie Peacock, Phil and Charles Clark.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>501 First Street</strong> &ndash; The law office of Chapman, Lewis,  and Swan facing First Street was the former Peacock residence &ndash; home of Tom&rsquo;s  friend Eddie Peacock and his sister, &ldquo;Baby Doll&rdquo; Peacock &ndash; a name he borrowed <em>for&nbsp;  27 Wagons Full of Cotton </em>and the movie, <em>Baby Doll,</em> starring Carroll Baker that was filmed in Benoit, Miss.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>Clarksdale Station &ndash; </strong>The  renovated historic passenger depot located at Issaquena and Blues Alley has  hosted barbeque suppers and festival finales for the Student Acting  Competition.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>The renovated Art Deco  Greyhound Bus Station </strong>&ndash;  on Issaquena and Third Street  serves as a Downtown   Information Center  and home of the Clarksdale Revitalization Board. The setting has also hosted  events for the Williams Festival.</p>
                        <p class="style1"><strong>Uncle Henry&rsquo;s Place on Moon Lake  - &nbsp;</strong>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 drams including <em>Summer and Smoke, Eccentricities of a  Nightingale, The Glass Menagerie, Battle of Angels, Orpheus Descending, A  Streetcar Named Desire, This Property&rsquo;s Condemned</em>, and others.</p>
                        <p class="style1">Uncle  Henry&rsquo;s Place is 30 minutes north of Clarksdale.  For the most direct route from Memphis, exit U.S. 62 at the U.S. 49 turn to  Helena, Ark; exit U.S. 49 at the Moon Lake sign, cross a bridge leading to Moon  Lake and Uncle Henry&rsquo;s is on the left behind a circular drive.</p>                        
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        <td height="20" colspan="2" bgcolor="#55403F"><div align="center"><span class="style3">The Tennessee Williams Festival is sponsored by <a href="http://www.coahomacc.edu" target="_blank" class="style3">Coahoma Community College</a></span> </div></td>
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