Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams

Mother of Invention Theatre Company will celebrate the 100th year since Tennessee Williams' birth with the seldom seen Small Craft Warnings, opening at Theatre Row's Studio Theatre on 19 Feb 2011, following previews from 15 Feb, and running through to 27 Feb 2011.

Small Craft Warnings is an intimate look at a lonely and disparate group of working class people - among them are a compassionate middle-aged heart patient; a desirable beautician; her ne'er-do-well live-in lover; an alcoholic who lost his license to practice medicine but still does; A woman who risks becoming the target of wrath when she flirts; the short order cook who follows her around; and two gay men - a washed-up screenwriter and the young man bicycling from Iowa to Mexico that he picked up on the road. They are a motley crew of lost souls rejected by "normal" society who come together to cobble a kind of family for themselves, but on this particular night, that family is torn apart forever.

A poetic and forceful glimpse at emptiness, solitude and perception, Small Craft Warnings first premiered in New York on 12 Apr 1972 at the off-Broadway Truck and Warehouse Theatre.

Directed by Austin Pendleton, Small Craft Warnings features Adam Dodway, John Greenleaf, Jason Jung, Tammy Lang, Ross Kramberg, Austin Pendleton, Eddy Lee Priest, Gina Stahlnecker, Joe Ulam and Jeff Ward.

2011 marks the 100th year since the birth of American born playwright Tennessee Williams. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for 'A Streetcar Named Desire' in 1948 and for 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' in 1955. In addition, 'The Glass Menagerie' (1944 in Chicago, 1945 in New York) and 'The Night of the Iguana' (1961) received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. His 1952 play 'The Rose Tattoo' received the Tony Award for best play. In 1980 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.

Director Austin Pendleton has directed at The Pearl, Toys in the Attic (in 2007) and Vieux Carre (in 2009). Recently in New York he's appeared in 'Mother Courage' (with Meryl Streep), 'Romeo and Juliet' (with Lauren Ambrose), 'Limonade Tous Les Jours' (by Charles Mee), 'Love Drunk' (by Romulus Linney) and 'Another Vermeer' (by Bruce Robinson). He is also a playwright of 'Orson's Shadow,' 'Booth' and 'Uncle Bob' all of which ran off-Broadway.