MISSION
The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans is a year-round professional theatre company committed to producing captivating, exciting, and moving plays with a major focus on the works of America’s greatest playwright, Tennessee Williams.
In the city which Williams called home and from which he drew abundant inspiration, The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans will engage our community and cultivate its relationship with Williams.
We will accomplish this by mounting performances of well-known and rarely produced Williams plays, contributing to the scholarship of Williams and New Orleans, and educating our community onstage and off with unique and stimulating programming.
TWTC’s statements on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion & Native Land:
TWTC believes that an inclusive experience is the only worthy approach to theatre. Drawing audiences from all walks of life is therefore necessary to our principles and our survival.
So how can we serve an audience in a truly inclusive way?
We are dedicated to furthering diversity in casting and hiring practices. Since our very first season, we have been actively conscientious in presenting Williams’ work alongside artists who have traditionally been overlooked. We have sought meaningful contributions from Black, Latin, Indigenous, Asian- American, and other communities of color and have endeavored to purposefully represent the LGBTQIA+ community, which has provided the world with thousands of its most brilliant artists who for centuries were forced to live their lives in shadow and peril. We strive to share their brilliance. This is central to our mission.
Finally, equity in opportunity—both for artists and audiences is the engine that makes a more artistically robust and socially just society. Without uplifting others, we cannot hope to exist.
We acknowledge that New Orleans is a majority Black city and that we perform on land once home to Chitimacha and Chahta Yakni Choctaw people. Our work and practices must always contribute to the healing of injustice, and never to aggravating historical injuries.