by Beth Riner, Messenger Staff Writer

No one’s more excited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Tennessee Williams Center than Professor Jim Crawford, theatre department chair at the University of the South.

This anniversary season, Crawford will direct “A Streetcar Named Desire” — It’s the first major production of a Tennessee Williams play in the seven years Crawford has been with the department.

“We haven’t done one of his major plays for a while,” Crawford said. “We’re hoping to have some conversations with people from the university and from outside the university about his importance to the nation and also to this place in particular because of the link we have to him.”

Although Williams didn’t attend the University of the South, his grandfather did.

“His grandfather was an Episcopal minister—a beloved and very progressive Episcopal minister in Mississippi,” Crawford explained. “He and his grandfather used to have a great relationship. Tennessee Williams had health problems as a child and was not very athletic. He used to follow his grandfather around on his rounds to the people of this small Mississippi town, and they just adored each other. When Tennessee Williams was a young man, his grandparents were the ones who sent him money saying, ‘keep working, we believe in you.’ And then years later when Tennessee Williams died, as a tribute to his grandfather, he left the royalties of all his plays to this college, and that paid for this building — the Tennessee Williams Center.”

The revenue from the generous bequest also pays for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference as well as the Young Writers’ Conference, the School of Letters, and The Sewanee Review.

“The fact that we have a playwright and a poet and fiction writers on staff has to do with Tennessee Williams and this bequest of his,” Crawford added.

“There’s something in the will about it being specifically for progressive and experimental writing which is one of the reasons writing continues to take hold here. What it does for us is that it gives us both a connection to classic American writing which Tennessee Williams represents and also the fact that he sent it forward with real instructions that it should be to the benefit of writers and young writers — which is really a beautiful connection to have.”

The upcoming anniversary season will mix both classic and progressive theatre.

“I feel like a theatre season — whether it’s your 25th season or not — should always have something that people haven’t heard of and something that people have heard of that you’re going to look at in a fresh way,” Crawford said. “This year, we’re doing A Streetcar Named Desire, which most people have heard of, and we’re opening with She Kills Monsters, which most people haven’t heard of and is a really exciting new play.”

Crawford is struck by the student energy and excitement coming into this anniversary year.

“I would say there’s a source of energy here which may partly be coming out of the worst of Covid,” he said. “This is the second fall in a row where we’ve had students arriving just bursting with creativity and energy. I am wondering if it doesn’t have to do with the fact that these are students who didn’t get to do as much theatre in high school. They’re arriving here with their engines revved up and ready to go because they’re so happy to be able to get out there and do it.”

Crawford is also excited about the addition of Elyzabeth Wilder to the department.

“This year for the first time, we have a fulltime professor of playwriting, which I feel like should have happened earlier, but I am delighted it’s happening now,” he said.

“It’s one of the reasons that we feel just full of energy going into exciting new places,” he said.

“She Kills Monsters” runs Oct. 4-8.

“It’s a play about grief, it’s a play about sexual identity, it’s a play about Dungeons and Dragons,” Crawford said.

Other performances during the 25th anniversary season include “DanceWise: Traces” Nov. 16-19, “A Streetcar Named Desire” Feb. 28-March 2; and the annual spring play (TBA) at Angel Park April 16-20.

Guest artists including Tim Miller, a queer solo performer, will be brought in throughout the year.

As always, there is no charge for tickets, but patrons are asked to reserve a seat online.

To reserve a seat for the upcoming “She Kills Monsters,” go to <https://eventbrite.com/e/she-kills-monsters-by-qui-nguyen-tickets-719393755087?aff=oddtdcreator;.

Performances are set for 7:30 p.m., Oct. 4, Oct. 5 and Oct. 7; 8 p.m., Oct. 6; and 2 p.m., Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, in the Proctor Hill Theater at the Tennessee Williams Center located at 290 Kentucky Ave., in Sewanee.