Talk To Me From Wnyc

Tennessee Williams, perhaps best-known for his plays "Streetcar Named Desire," "The Glass Menagerie," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," is the author of a "massive body of work," in the words of N.Y.U. drama professor Joe E. Jeffreys. On the occasion of the centennial of Williams' birth—the playwright was born March 26, 1911—Jeffreys hosted the first of a three-part series at Manhattan's Museum of Arts and Design entitled The Kindness of Strangeness. (Williams fans will recognize the title of the panel from an achingly memorable line delivered by Blanche DuBois in the playwright's "Streetcar Named Desire.") The memory-strewn afternoon included words from Williams' agent Mitch Douglas together with Williams' friends David Schweizer and Jeremiah Newton. Later in the day, the actress Charlotte Moore, who worked closely with Williams, also spoke. The author of 30 full-length plays, 70 one acts, as well as short stories, poetry, occasional pieces and novels, Tennessee Williams is a giant among American writers, and