Washington College Drama Presents Two Tennessee Williams One-Acts

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College will offer two rarely staged one-act plays by Tennessee Williams on Thursday through Saturday evenings, April 14-16 at 8 o’clock in Tawes Theatre.

Drama professor Timothy Maloney chose the two plays—“This Property is Condemned,” and “The Gnadiges Fraulein”—to mark the 100th anniversary of Williams’s birth (March 26, 1911). They offer “an excursion into a part of the dramatic world of Tennessee Williams that is often overlooked,” says Maloney.

Williams is remembered for his 1940s masterpieces “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But for most of his career, the playwright was drawn less to realism and more into what he called “personal lyricism,” a style that sought to reveal the interior life of characters, often through visual symbols. “It’s the outcry of prisoner to prisoner from the cell in solitary where each is confined for the duration of his life,” he said.

“This Property is Condemned,” first produced in 1942, contains just two characters, a 16-year-old boy named Tom (played by Washington College sophomore Nick Pace) and a wildly precocious 13-year-old girl named Willie (senior Emmy Landskroener).

“The Gnadiges Fraulein” is a slapstick tragic-comedy set in a run-down boarding house. The cast includes Washington College students Stephanie Brown, Katie Muldowney, Nina Sharp, Nick Pace, Mike Zurawski, and Antoine Jordan. The play combines elements of most of the genres in 20th Century American theatre: vaudeville, burlesque, musical circus, and the drama. It first opened in New York in 1966 with a star-studded cast and closed after seven performances. Reviewers dismissed it as further evidence of Williams’s steady decline. But Maloney sees it and “This Property is Condemned” as examples of “the extraordinary effort of a probing master artist to challenge, shape, and deliver his art to a needful public.”

Both plays in “An Evening of Tennessee Williams One-Acts” are directed by Maloney, with sets by Associate Professor Jason Rubin. Reservations are encouraged; call the box office at 410-780-7835 or e-maildrama_tickets@washcoll.edu. Tawes Theater is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Washington College Offers "Theatre in the Classroom" Summer Grad Course

Chestertown, April 7—Washington College will offer "Theatre in the Classroom," a graduate course in education this summer, taught by drama professor Timothy Maloney. The course will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Tues. and Thurs., from June 5 to July 24.

Theatre in the Classroom will focus on developing methods of integrating performance techniques into the regular curriculum in any content area and exploring interdisciplinary planning and teaching strategies. "Theatre can be used in any discipline—from biology to physics to history to literature," Maloney says. Students will work on developing techniques of both scripted and non-scripted performance as a means of presenting content material and of engaging their own students in active, creative encounters with that material. Maryland is among the states that have drafted or completed arts education standards. Professional development such as that offered by Theatre in the Classroom is key to the success of those standards.

The class is grounded in Harvard professor Howard Gardner's work on the variety of forms of intelligence, which has helped legitimate arts as integral to learning. "In his study of the many forms in which intelligence can be expressed and developed, Gardner points to the practical utility of using the arts in enhancing individual performance," says Maloney.

Using theatre in the classroom can increase students' ability to understand material by engaging their imaginations. "Reading alone might distance students from the material," Maloney says. "Theatre is particularly apt for classroom use because it is an innate human activity—it's intrinsic in humans to make theatre , to make language that expresses the human condition in the present."

Washington College offers courses leading to masters degrees in English, history, and psychology. Those who are pursuing a graduate degree in education elsewhere should contact their schools to determine whether Theatre in the Classroom fulfills degree requirements. Graduate tuition and fees at Washington College are $770 per course. For more information about Theatre in the Classroom or other graduate courses being offered this summer, call the Washington College Office of the Registrar, 410-778-7299.