The Parade
by Tennessee Williams
ENVIRONMENTAL THEATER
Journey to the beach for a moving, autobiographical one-act that traces the poetic contours of Williams’ first true love and heartbreak in Provincetown.
directed byJef Hall-Flavin
starringBen Berry As Don
PEREGRINE THEATER ENSEMBLE
Provincetown, MA
"...The Parade is a document of what [Williams] later called
that 'pivotal summer when I took sort of a crash course in growing up,'
a chronicle of how he 'had finally come thoroughly out of the closet.' "
- Randy Gener, The New York Times
About The Play
“LOVE IS LOVE NO MATTER WHAT FORM IT TAKES”
--THE PARADE
In The Parade, subtitled Approaching the End of a Summer, Don, a 29-year-old writer in a summer beach colony, is hopelessly in love with a young dancer named Dick. For Don, however, love may never be more than the sound of a parade in the distance. As August shines on monotonously, Don’s young confidante, Miriam, tries to cover her hopeless infatuation with Don with talk of German philosophers. Inevitable heartbreak shadows the action, like a sunset dipping behind the horizon or a chill in the evening air.
In 1940 Tennessee Williams spent his first summer in Provincetown. At age 29, he was living off a Rockefeller Foundation grant of $100 a month, writing poetry and plays and sharing rooms at Captain Jack’s Wharf. It was here that Williams fell in love, for perhaps the first time in his life, hopelessly, painfully, in love with a Canadian draft-dodger, a dancer who called himself Kip Kiernan.
As it was happening, Williams wrote about his affair in Shakespearean sonnets, explicit letters, and aching diary entries. His attempt at a play on the subject, titled The Parade, was drafted in 1940 and abandoned. Joe Hazan, Williams’ roommate at Captain Jack’s, kept the pages torn from Williams’ notebook. In 1962 the pages were returned to Williams.
While revising The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore for Broadway, Williams also revised The Parade with little expectation of performance. Until 1967, presenting gay characters onstage in a favorable way was illegal in America. Contrary to many critics who thought Williams hid his sexuality behind his female characters, The Parade -- which pre-dates much of his writing -- has an unapologetically gay central character.
Read more about the 2006 world premiere.
"As the summer approaches the end of the summer – have you noticed?
– The sunsets from the dunes become more spectacular than ever."
- Don, The Parade
About The Production
In 2006 the play premiered at the first TW Theater Festival in Provincetown. Ben Berry, who affectingly originated Williams’ autobiographical character Don, reprises the role. This year’s director, Jef Hall-Flavin, co-directed the original production with Eric Powell Holm.
The otherworldly beauty of the Provincetown dunes, where The Parade is set, casts a spell over the play. That’s where the 2015 production takes place.