Synopsis

“One of Tennessee Williams’ most subtle and tender works, Summer and Smoke explores the conflict between the hedonistic body and the lofty spirit. Set in Mississippi, Alma Winemiller, the minister’s daughter, has grown up loving the boy who lives next door: John Buchanan, the doctor’s son, is a wild, adventurous, mischievous pleasure seeker. He spends the hot Mississippi summers drinking, gambling, and romancing. His only religion is the anatomy chart on his wall, and what it teaches him about man’s needs: food, truth, and lovemaking. Alma, on the other hand, is quiet, eccentric, and high-strung. Her name means “soul” in Spanish; she aspires to lofty spiritual goals, and holds to strong moral standards. Despite their differences, John and Alma are magnetically drawn to each other, and the spiritual and physical romance that almost blooms between the two of them is among the most engaging, romantic, and heartbreaking love stories in Williams’ canon.”

Sensory-Friendly Performance: Saturday, November 6 @ 2pm

There will be a Sensory-Friendly performance of Summer and Smoke on Saturday, November 6 @ 2pm. An adapted performance of Tennessee William's Summer and Smoke to foster a more welcoming and comfortable arts experience for people with sensory processing disorders, developmental differences, autism, or others who feel limited by the traditional theater set up. 

More information about the Sensory-Friendly performance.

For special accommodation request or more details, please contact Alyssa Embry at [email protected]

Dramaturgical Note 

     When Summer and Smoke first performed in 1948, the play took place right before the United States entered World War I. The characters, unknowing they are at the cusp of a war, America, especially in the South, were still getting over the Civil War. Ever since the South’s defeat, there was this collective victim mentality that their way of life has been stolen from them. As the turn of the century ushered in business expansion, social reforms, and became more industrial, the South retaliated on any changes that they considered a threat to their Southern way of life. One person in particular who perfectly illustrates this idea is Edwina Dakin Williams, Tennessee Williams’ mother. Edwina had been known by others to be insufferable and puritanical, but disguised her hostility with Southern charm. Although Tennessee Williams admitted that Alma was his favorite female character that closely resembled him, Alma is really an amalgamation of himself, his sister, and more importantly, his mother. Edwina, like Alma, lived in a rectory, had a minister for a father, played piano and sang, was obsessed with her reputation of being a proper Southern lady, and thought of sex as a vulgar and disgusting thing. Her strict pious lifestyle and loyalty to Southern ways led to the downfall of Rose (Tennessee Williams’ sister) and left Williams with a lifelong battle with depression, anxiety, and an internal conflict of body versus spirit.

     Summer and Smoke is not only a great poetic play that gives us a peek inside Tennessee Williams’ own heart and mind, but it is also a great play to reflect on this idea of “clinging on to the past.” Edwina’s need to conform to a past societal expectation rather than supporting change and nurturing individuality left her children feeling caged, never living up to the expectations set upon them. Tennessee Williams understood this when he observed that Edwina “embodies all the errors and mistakes that her time and background could produce. She is virtually a monument of them,” which led to his conclusion “something has to break and damn soon, or I will.” Tennessee Williams was breaking down ideologies of the past that were caging him and his sister, and that mindset was our approach since the beginning of rehearsals. How do we break down Summer and Smoke and make certain amendments in order for the play to work for a contemporary audience? We can acknowledge Summer and Smoke as a tremendous work of art, while acknowledging the problems that exist in adapting a classical play and making it appropriate for an audience watching now.  

      This process we all undertook was not done to silence Tennessee Williams nor to commandeer his play, but to tear down ideologies of the past that are still caging in, physically and emotionally imprisoning certain people and communities today. How do we not look back and romanticize that past, but instead, move forward, and make room for progress.

By Adan Sanchez, Dramaturg

Director's Note

 "It has become a sort of concrete truth that I am Blanche, but I am much more like Alma, peeking through actual and metaphysical curtains, spying on the things I want to love and to feel and to have, but afraid to get much farther than the porch.”-Tennessee Williams

My first exposure to Summer and Smoke was in directing class almost exactly 10 years ago at Virginia Tech. However, I chose not to direct it because, in truth, it intimidated me. I’m typically not one to shy away from a challenge but Williams’ attachment to Alma was so strong that I feared doing it justice. At the time, I didn’t quite grasp the beauty and pain that went hand-in-hand in both Alma and Tennessee’s lives and how they would inevitably come to influence my own. It wasn’t until the past few years, after much life experience of love, loss, and grief, that I chose to revisit it and discovered its grip, deep within my soul. I realized how illuminating it was to me as a young woman all those years ago and even after all this time, how deeply affected I felt by Alma’s inescapable fate and how I longed to help share her story, through her lens. 

For centuries many expectations have been thrust upon women and our worth is often measured by our relationship to those around us. We are constantly scrutinized for our morals and our choices, our modesty or our boldness, and our lives are often defined by what others want for us, instead of what we want for ourselves. The world cannot handle us at our worst but always expects us at our best, and Alma, along with women in this play are the manifestation of that reality. In fact, so many of these characters long to be someone society doesn’t want them to be. A feeling Williams knew all too well. 

Although this play was written 73 years ago, these themes stand the test of time, which is why I desperately wanted to explore it. I have a passion for breathing new life into classics and I wanted to give new life, not only the women in this piece, but to every single character that Williams has brilliantly crafted. I want to lift their voices, so that they might resonate more truthfully with a modern audience and get a change to live again. It has been my greatest honor and pleasure to see these character come to life on this stage, beautifully flawed, and incredibly human. 

I dedicate this play to Margo Jones, a directing hero, whose life was tragically taken from her too soon. “The Texas Tornado” not only helped Williams get his start but was also the first director in the history of Summer and Smoke. She paved the way for women like me to be doing what I am doing today, and without her, Alma’s story and my own never would’ve crossed paths.

And to Tennessee Williams, I know you felt you were never finished writing Alma, and as your lives are inextricably linked, I hope her new life on the stage tonight finally brings you “the things you want to love and to feel and to have” at last.

-Sarah Elizabeth Yorke, Director

“Summer And Smoke” is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service on behalf of the University of South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
 

Welcome to the 2021-2022 OHIO Theater Season!

We are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back to live theater on the Athens campus. Having students back in the shops, studios, classrooms, and theaters feels like a rebirth after a long, difficult hiatus. We continue to navigate obstacles related to the pandemic, while simultaneously constructing new methods and practices. 

One such creation is Vibrancy Theater, a student-run theater focused on “uplifting and broadcasting the Black, Indigenous and People of Color in theatre at Ohio University and beyond.” You can support Vibrancy’s first fully staged production Absentia this fall. 

Tantrum Theater, OHIO’s professional theater, will feature two productions this season, bringing professional directors, stage managers, designers, technicians, and actors to work side-by-side with our students. Tantrum’s production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 will be the first in the state since its Broadway run.

As an audience member and supporter, you’ll engage with new students discovering their craft and advanced students designing their thesis productions. Thank you for taking this journey with us and helping celebrate what theater does best: reflect our changing times.

TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS

Men on Boats

By Jaclyn Backhaus

Directed by Shannon R. Davis

Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River.

Forum Theater

October 7-9 and 12-16, 2021 at 8pm

October 16 at 2pm

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

Summer and Smoke

By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Sarah Elizabeth Yorke

Summer and Smoke is a simple love story of a somewhat puritanical Southern girl and an unpuritanical young doctor. Each is attracted to the other but because of their divergent attitudes toward life, each over the course of years is driven away from the other. Not until the end does the doctor realize that the girl's high idealism is ultimately right, and while she is still in love with him, it turns out that neither time nor circumstances will allow the two to come together.

Baker Theater

October 28-30 and November 4-6, 2021 at 8pm

November 6 at 2pm

VIBRANCY THEATER PRESENTS

Absentia 

By Olivia Matthews

Directed by Tanisha Lynn Pyron

After living in the secluded Florida woods with only her father and pet rabbit Robyn, 20-year-old Esther Harris dreams of being reunited with her long-lost mother. When her father kills her beloved Robyn, Esther breaks out of their cabin in search of her mother and her old life. While they soon find each other, can the abandoned and abused Esther adjust to her new life with her mother?

Forum Theater

November 18-20 and December 2-4, 2021 at 8pm

December 4, 2021 at 2pm

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

First Year Graduate Directors’ 10 Minute Plays

The Hahne Theater

December 1-2, 2021

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

Everybody

By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Directed by Roberto Di Donato

In this modern riff on the morality play, Everyman follows Everybody (chosen from amongst the cast by lottery at each performance) as they journey through life’s greatest mystery—the meaning of living.

Baker Theater

February 17-19 and February 23-26, 2022 at 8pm

February 26, 2022 at 2pm

TANTRUM THEATER PRESENTS

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 

Music and Lyrics by Dave Malloy

Adapted from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Directed by Alan Patrick Kenny

Music Direction by Brent Frederick

An electropop opera based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation.

Forum Theater

March 24-26 and March 30-April 2, 2022 at 8pm

April 2, 2022 at 2pm

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

First Year Graduate Directors’ One Act Plays

Concord Floral 

Written by Jordan Tannahill

Directed by Molly Donahue

The Motherf*** with the Hat 

Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis

Directed by Adam Zarowski

The Hahne Theater

March 25-April 2, 2021

SCHOOL OF THEATER PRESENTS

28th Annual Seabury Quinn, Jr. Playwrights’ Festival

Two featured plays are produced in an intimate setting in rotating repertory. Other plays in progress are presented in semi-staged readings. Each performance is followed by a talkback with guest artists.

Baker Theater

April 16-23, 2022, titles and performance times TBA

Please join us for the entire season of live in-person theater. You won’t want to miss a minute!

Merri Biechler

she/her/hers

Director, Associate Professor of Instruction

School of Theater