Editor: Keith Davis Writers: Shana Gulko '00, Dave Maley Publisher: Office of Public Information Volume 22, No.15   April 10, 2000

Tennessee Williams’s ‘Summer and Smoke’ Is Next Ithaca College Theatre Production Ithaca College Theatre will conclude its 1999–2000 season with a staging in Clark Theatre of Summer and Smoke, Tennessee Williams’s dark tale of passion and lost innocence. A preview performance will be presented on Wednesday, April 12, at 8:00 p.m. Regular evening performances will run Thursday through Saturday, April 13 to 15, and Tuesday through Saturday, April 18 to 22, at 8:00 p.m. In addition, there will be a matinee performance on April 22 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets will go on sale at the Ithaca College box office starting April 10, with prices ranging from $3.50 to $9.00. The box office is open from noon to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. For reservations or for more information call 274-3224. The struggle between darkness and light, spirituality and the senses, and love and lust is familiar territory for Tennessee Williams. Summer and Smoke’s Alma Winemiller, the sheltered daughter of a small-town southern minister and his unbalanced wife, brings Blanche DuBois from Streetcar Named Desire and Matilda from You Touched Me to mind. Like those other Williams heroines, Alma is attracted to the thing that has the potential to destroy her. Set in a small Mississippi town in 1916, Summer and Smoke tells the story of Alma’s conflicted passion for John Buchanan Jr., a hedonistic and wayward young doctor. In her search for spiritual and lasting love, Alma finds herself pitted against John’s sensuous nature, and the turbulent relationship becomes an emotional battle of wills that irrevocably alters each of them. Williams identified strongly with the conflicted young woman he created. "The character I like most is Miss Alma," Williams once said. "She really had the greatest struggle. Alma went through the same thing I went through — from puritanical shackles to complete profligacy." Summer and Smoke premiered in Dallas in 1947, and in 1948 opened on Broadway, where it ran for 102 performances. In 1952 it was revived at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York, a production that cast Geraldine Page as Alma, a role she brought to the screen in Paramount’s 1961 film version. The cast for Summer and Smoke includes Kip Garwood ’00 as John Buchanan Jr., Allison Nega ’00 as Alma, Mika Duncan ’00 as John Buchanan Sr., Billy Zavelson ’00 as Reverend Winemiller, and Esther Ammon ’00 as Mrs. Winemiller. The artistic team includes director Greg Bostwick, scenic designer Sergio Villegas Parada ’01, lighting designer Christopher Daly ’01, costume designer Greg Robbins, and sound designer John Bracewell. Katherine Leeman ’00 is the stage manager and McBrien Dunbar ’00 is the technical director.

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