Seasoned Dunwoody Troupe Performs Tough Love and Tennessee Williams

The dramatic troupe at Dunwoody United Methodist Church is serious about theater — so serious that its core members have spent a full year studying the intense Sanford Meisner “in the moment” acting technique.

Tonight through Sunday, the drama group at will put their Meisner acting lessons to good use while also paying tribute to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tennessee Williams. The troupe will perform six short plays by the famous Southern playwright who was born March 26, 1911 (and died on Feb. 25, 1983).

Dunwoody-area theater lovers may not want to miss this drama group’s “Mister Paradise by Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Scenes.”

“Tennessee Williams is always the opportunity to do some hard work, because he’s very difficult and challenging,” said Robert Edwards, DUMC’s performing arts director who leads the acting troupe. “I wanted this group of actors to sink their teeth into something that would be worthy of the work they have done over the course of a year.”

Audience members will sit right up on stage, in close proximity to the actors. Most of these short plays to be performed are just 10 minutes long and feature two characters; one piece has three. All were written between the 1930s and the 1950s. They are little-known works by Williams, who is better known for his many powerful full-length dramas that include “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), and two Pulitzer Prize-winners: “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1948), and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955).

Williams wrote the title work, “Mister Paradise,” in 1939. It’s about a reclusive poet (described as a “strange little man”), and an ardent fan who wants to help him resurrect his career. Other pieces being dusted off and brought to life include “Adam and Eve on a Fairy Boat” (1930s), “The Lady of Larkspur Lotion,”  (1940s) and “Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen” (1950s). 

At the time of his death, more than 70 of Williams’ one-act plays remained unpublished. “The Lady of Larkspur Lotion” of 1942 was among his best-known one-acts. It features a heroine Williams chose time and again: the fallen Southern belle. In this case, the belle has turned to prostitution and the lotion she needs is a lice treatment.

Williams himself considered his early short plays among his best works. In a letter written in the early 1950s to stage and screen director Elia Kazan, Williams said: “I don’t write with the effervescence that I used to. It comes harder. The peak of my virtuosity was in the one-act plays, some of which are like fire-crackers in a rope.”

As director Robert Edwards points out, Williams was often quoted as saying that all his work was essentially rooted in the same theme: “the destructive impact of society on the sensitive individual.”

Indeed, the themes and subject matter put forth this weekend by these Dunwoody players are not suitable for all ages. Consider this show to carry a PG-13 rating at least, said Betsy Wallace of Dunwoody, who along with husband Chris Scislowicz has acted with the DUMC drama troupe since Edwards launched it eight years ago with Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

“There are some pretty heavy themes such as prostitution, alcoholism, most of the vices you can think of,” Wallace said. “But that’s Tennessee Williams for you.” She and Scislowicz will perform the final scene, “Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen,” which contains some “real agony and is about a couple dealing with the very essence of their relationship, which is pretty dysfunctional,” Wallace said. “They love one another, but she’s not sure she wants to be with him.” Enough said; we shouldn’t give too much away.

How does she enjoy both tough weekly acting lessons and performing alongside her real-life mate?

“When Chris and I agreed to give theater a try, I don’t think either of us realized what it would mean to us or how much we would enjoy being partners in this experience,” Wallace said.  “It's made for shared discussion, lots of debate, numerous ‘aha!’ moments and memories we wouldn’t and couldn’t trade.”

Wallace said she appreciates that a church-based drama group can “push the envelope,” adding it’s all because of artistic director Edwards.

“We don’t shy away from the heavy stuff,” Edwards said. “Our aim is to do productions that reflect the real world. Much of what we do is secular, but everything we do has a moral tale. Thankfully, this wonderfully supportive church can handle somebody coming out in a bathrobe and talking about relationships and cruelty and marital discord and sexuality and power.”  

Still, lighter fare is also a regular offering, and the core group of about 10 players expands significantly when musicals are staged twice a year. Coming up in July: “The Light in the Piazza.” In the past, Edwards has mounted such crowd-pleasers as “Guys and Dolls” and “High School Musical.” The latter drew audiences of up to 700, he said.

This weekend’s Williams tribute will be a much more intimate affair, but it looks to be quite worthy of your leisure time.

“Mister Paradise by Tennessee Williams: A Collection of Scenes” will be staged at 7pm today and Saturday, and 3pm Sunday at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, 1548 Mt. Vernon Road. All tickets: $10 at the door.  Mature themes. www.dunwoodyumc.org, 770-394-0675, ext. 106.