About The Director

Steven Simone-Friedland - Adaptation & Direction

Steven Simone-Friedland is an independent, freelance filmmaker residing in Los Angeles, California. He has directed, written, produced and edited a number of short film and television projects including [sic], Togetherness, and Sunday Cup of Coffee which was awarded the CineEast’s. Golden Eagle Award, the Herman Kass Fellowship in Filmmaking, the Rita Morrison Best Director’s Award, and the AMPAS Award in Motion Picture Production. As an editor, Steven edited the feature documentary, The Yes Men Are Revolting and Donner Pass, and the television pilots, Group & Techno 3. When not pursuing film & tv projects, Steven serves as series editor on such Bravo shows as Real Housewives of Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Orange County and Dubai, Vanderpump Rules, Below Deck, Family Karma, MTV’s Siesta Key and HBO’s Queen of Versailles Reigns Again. Steven’s Los Angeles theater directing credits include critically acclaimed productions of Ourselves Alone, Oleanna, Betrayal, Scenes of an American Life, and Imagining Rachel, which received its World Premiere at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Steven is a graduate from Northwestern University’s theater department and received his MFA in filmmaking at UCLA.

About The Performer

Rick Simone_Friedland - Concept & Performance

Emmy Award© winner, Rick Simone-Friedland, is known to television audiences for his work on, Married People, Just the Ten of Us, A Year in the Life, Life Goes On, KC Undercover, and as Joe Pistone in the Discovery Series Mob Scene. Theatre audiences may know Rick from roles in George C. Wolfe’s production of The Me Nobody Knows, Ken Page’s production of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, or as Bruno in The Theatre West production of Moose On The Loose. Rick recently completed filming roles in the films How Do You Fall Out of Love With Country Music, Boystown, and Some Sorta’ Queerar

About Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the Episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller fellowship in 1940 for his play BATTLE OF ANGELS, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and in 1955 for CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Other plays include SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE ROSE TATTOO, CAMINO REAL, BABY DOLL, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, ORPHEUS DESCENDING, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, and THE TWO-CHARACTER PLAY. Tennessee Williams died in 1983.

About The University of the South

University of the South - Tennessee Williams’ Estate

The University of the South, a national ranked liberal arts college and Episcopal seminary, is the beneficiary of the Tennessee Williams’ estate, including the copyrights to all his works. This gift was made as a memorial to Williams’ grandfather, the Reverend Walter E. Dakin, who studied at the University’s seminary in 1895. The Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund is used to support the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference, and the School of Letters. The Fund also supports scholarships for students who wish to pursue creative writing and fellowships which are granted annually to budding playwrights or authors. Those fellows include Ann Patchett, Claire Messud, Tony Early, and Mark Richard. The Tennessee Williams Center