INSPIRED WORK

While great art stands the test of time, great artists survive not only by how their work is viewed over the years but also how their work influences other artists and audiences, sometimes even beyond their own lifespans. In a sense, they stay living--if you define living as the ability to interact and affect the thoughts, emotions and actions of others, which is the ultimate connection we all strive for in our daily lives. Artists of all stripes manage this neat trick. Just recently, sitting in Starbucks (yes, Starbucks!), upon hearing Ella Fitzgerald singing over the sound system, my mood and rhythm were changed entirely, my brain connected with the lyrics she sang, and, yes, at least for that moment, Ella was still with us. I've often found that upon viewing a Monet, a Van Gogh, a Gauguin--alright, gang, fill in your favorite here!--I am transported to another place. For those who favor the time-continuum theory, it's an example of recognizing a connection that exists in time, going beyond the merely linear. And certainly this is true of great writing, wherein our minds become hospitality suites for the words and imagination of some of the great literary lights, who live as long as we provide them hosting space in our heads. Thus we continue to rally to thoughts and emotions engendered by the works of Ibsen, Chekhov, and Shakespeare.

Certainly, Tennessee Williams manages to affect us in this way and continues to do so as we approach the centenary of his birth this coming March. Works like Streetcar, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana, Summer and Smoke, and many more continue to fill theaters across the globe, while some of his lesser-known works continually pop-up like amazing gifts, often receiving more positive responses than they did in their initial productions in his own lifetime. But also of late, he has stimulated more creativity in the theatrical community, inspiring another generation of writers to explores his themes, his characters, and his poetry to create new work that is at once both original and tinged with the poetry, magic and humanity that one finds in each piece of Williams' work.

This weekend, a special opportunity to see and feel this influence will be available to New Yorkers when Blue Roses Productions, that sterling group devoted both to the works of Tennessee Williams and the development of work by new and gifted playwrights, will present a wonderful 90-minute bill at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex on West 36th Street. Tom's Children is a splendid collection of work inspired by Williams' poetry, with each playwright creating a new piece from their own imagination (versus adapting the poetry literally into a stage tale). The result is a refreshing, powerful and often humorous assortment of plays that take the audience through many realms while maintaining that wonderful sense of humanity (and sometimes inhumanity) that is the cornerstone of the master's work. Erma Duricko, artistic director of Blue Roses, conceived, curated and directed the bill, assembling work from such gifted playwrights as Kara Lee Corthron, Richard Cottrell, Gary Giovannetti, Dawson Moore, Craig Pospisil, Tom Matthew Wolfe and John Yearley. All have distinct and distinctly different voices, yet their work is of an unusually high quality. (I can say this becau