Mary Jo Deschanel and Brad Greenquist in “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale,” the Tennessee Williams play that continues through Sept. 4th at Pacific Resident Theatre. (Photo by Vitor Martins) By Dany Margolies Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale,” has been said to be about good and evil, illusion and reality. Being by Williams, it’s poetic. But onstage at Pacific Resident Theatre, directed by Dana Jackson and with her thoroughly superb cast, Read More
Pacific Resident Theatre has become a classic in its own right. Celebrating their 30th season this year, the company has garnered close to two hundred awards since 1986. Recognized as one of the top regional theaters on the West Coast, they present works of the highest quality. Perhaps best know for their exquisite offerings of the plays that are not often produced, multi-awarded productions throughout the decades have included Ondine Read More
By 1959, successful playwright Tennessee Williams had earned two Pulitzer Prizes, three New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, three Donaldson Awards, and one Tony Award; he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979. His output was staggering, including nine apprentice plays, 29 major plays, 70 one-act plays, nine screenplays and teleplays, two novels, numerous short stories, and poetry. He was still turning out plays in 1983, Read More
CONGRATULATIONS! “Remarkable production...a rewarding revival” - LA Times “CRITIC’S CHOICE” "This richly atmospheric, emotionally rewarding revival holds our rapt attention. Williams devotees and newcomers alike should flock” - LA Times David C. Nichols With “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale,” Tennessee Williams’ 1951 revision of his earlier play “Summer and Smoke,” Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice continues its 30th anniversary season with a quietly remarkable production. Williams preferred “The Eccentricities Read More
THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE Ginna Carter gives quite possibly the year’s most brilliant dramatic performance as Alma Winemiller in Pacific Resident Theatre’s absolutely superb revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities Of A Nightingale, impeccably directed by Dana Jackson. 4 Broadway audiences first met Alma back in 1948 when Summer And Smoke introduced them to the Mississippi preacher’s daughter, but the small-town spinster he later recreated in Eccentricities, and indeed the play Read More
June 25 6:24 PM 2016 by Shari Barrett Celebrating their 30th season, Pacific Resident Theatre is presenting THE ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE by Tennessee Williams. Dana Jackson directs a cast that features Ginna Carter, Andrew Dits, Brad Greenquist, Mary Jo Deschanel, and Rita Obermeyer as the Winemiller and Buchanan family members. As in most of Williams' plays, the setting is the deep south where the steamy weather and repressed mores of the Read More
Total Theater Review "Director Dana Jackson deserves high praise for having put together this well-acted, handsome-looking production of Williams’s bitter-sweet but strong and compassionate rewrite of Summer and Smoke” - Total Theater Opened: June 18, 2016 Pacific Resident Theater has celebrated its 30th anniversary by mounting The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Tennessee Williams’s revision of his 1950s play Summer and Smoke. Williams has said that he preferred Eccentricities over Smoke because “it is less Read More
“…remarkable play that is currently being performed by the fine actors of the Pacific Resident Theatre.” - Santa Monica Daily Press “ Well directed by Dana Jackson.” A Nightingale Searches For Love By Cynthia Citron, - Santa Monica Daily Press Tennessee Williams apparently had a thing for nightingales. In 1938 he wrote a play about a true incident in Philadelphia wherein prisoners who had gone on a hunger strike were confined Read More
Eccentricities of a Nightingale Reviewed by Terry Morgan Pacific Resident Theater Through August 14
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Eccentricities of a Nightingale was Tennessee Williams’ 1951 rewrite of his earlier Summer and Smoke. It was supposedly his preferred version of the story, and one can see why. The main character of Alma is more clearly delineated, and the drama springs more from her choices than from fate. The current production at Pacific Resident Theater benefits from Read More
Scandinavian Autumn Em Svenninger as Ann in Autumn and Winter (photo by Vitor Martins) For all our vitality of our stage scene, Los Angeles craves more exposure to world theater. Most of what makes its way to us greatly expands our awareness of the limitless scope of imaginative enterprise. Expensive imports aside, addressing the work of major playwrights whose work is unknown to us in original local productions provides a welcome opportunity. Read More
All My Sons