Not about Nightingales

Not about Nightingales

Not about Nightingales is a play by Tennessee Williams that was written in 1938 for the Group Theatre in New York City but was rejected and remained unproduced until 1998.cite news |last=Wolf |first= Matt | url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E7DF1E3CF932A15757C0A96E958260 |date = 1998-04-21 | title = ARTS ABROAD: Finding Out How Tennessee Williams Got That Way | publisher = The New York Times | accessdate = 2008-03-22 ] The play is a 18-character socially-minded drama set in "a dynamite-proof, escape-proof" U.S. island prison that follows the conflict between prison convicts, guards, and a sadistic warden named Boss Whalen. "Not about Nightingales" may have been rejected by the Group Theatre because of economic reasons (it had a large cast and a "complex physical design") or thematic ones (the play had homosexual undertones; Williams biographer Lyle Leverich wrote that "nightingale" was the playwright's "private code word for sexual liaison or desire.")cite news |last=Gussow|first= Mel | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E7DD113CF932A25755C0A961958260|date = 1997-06-11 | title = First Production for an Early Williams Play | publisher = The New York Times | accessdate = 2008-03-22 ] [cite book |last=Leverich |first=Lyle |title=Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams |year=1995 |publisher=Crown |location=New York|id=ISBN 0-393-31663-7 p. 404.]

No further attempts were made to produce the play until 1989, when actress Vanessa Redgrave, while preparing for a role in an 1989 revival of the playwright's "Orpheus Descending", read an introduction to that play in which Williams "spoke admiringly of ["Nightingales"] and 'the violence and horror' that it exposed." She said later that she became "determined to find it" and contacted Williams' then-literary executor, Maria St. Just, who "was able to unearth the manuscript." In the mid-nineties, Redgrave brought it to the Royal National Theater in London, where Trevor Nunn agreed to direct the play after making some minor revisions. His production of the play opened on March 5, 1998 with Vanessa's brother Corin in the role of Boss Whalen. It was critically well-received and transferred to Broadway the next year. The production opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre on February 25, 1999 and was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play.

Awards and nominations

Tony Awards
*Tony Award for Best Play
*Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Corin Redgrave)
*Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Finbar Lynch)
*Tony Award for Best Scenic Design (Richard Hoover) WINNER
*Tony Award for Best Lighting Design (Chris Parry)
*Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Trevor Nunn)

Drama Desk Awards
*Outstanding Play
*Outstanding Actor in a Play (Finbar Lynch, Corin Redgrave)
*Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (James Black)
*Outstanding Director of a Play (Trevor Nunn) WINNER
*Outstanding Set Design of a Play (Richard Hoover) WINNER
*Outstanding Lighting Design (Chris Parry) WINNER
*Outstanding Sound Design (Christopher Shutt) WINNER
*Outstanding Music in a Play (Steven Edis)

References

External links

*ibdb title|id=6609|title=Not about Nightingales


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