On Thursday, March 23, join the Key West Art & Historical Society, Tennessee Williams Museum and Fringe Theater as they together present “The Smoke & Sizzle of Tennessee Williams” as part of the annual month-long Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration. The event takes place from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Little Jazz Club Room, 821 Duval Street.

Tennessee Williams, one of the leading American playwrights of the 20th century and a resident of Key West for more than thirty years, has often been called the “national poet of the perverse.” Being an exceedingly sexually active man all his life, he delighted in incorporating sexual tension and lustful attraction into numerous plays, short stories, screenplays, and poetry, considering it beautiful.

“The Smoke & Sizzle of Tennessee Williams” reading will explore these themes in his short works. Readers from Fringe Theater and the Key West Poetry Guild include “Tortuga” Jack Hacket, Wilhelmina Lopez Martin, Diane May, Keith Dempster, Judith Ciscernos, Mark Watson, Cricket Desmarais, Malcolm Willison and several others. Selections from “The Rose Tattoo,” “Turning Out the Bedside Lamp,” “Mornings on Bourbon Street,” “Summer and Smoke” and additional evocative works will be featured during the program.

Emceeing and assisting in the coordination of the event is Vicki Boguszewski, the Poet Jah Love, from the Key West Poetry Guild. She has previously acted as emcee and lead poet for the 2022 Womenfest “Key West Women & Words” poetry event and a Key West Sidewalk Poem Bike Tour.

Tickets are required to ensure seating at the venue. The ticket price includes a glass of prosecco or house wine. Little Jazz Club Room’s full food menu will be available during the performance. Doors to the venue will open at 5:00 p.m. with the readings beginning promptly at 5:30 p.m. A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to Project Lighthouse in Tennessee Williams’s honor.