https://tennesseewilliams.net/In 2021 Tennessee Williams’ scholar Kenneth Holditch approached us with a hard drive. Ten years earlier, Kenneth’s friend Anthony J. Herrera (As The World Turns’ James Stenbeck) filmed hours of conversations exploring Kenneth’s lifetime study of fellow Mississippian Tennessee Williams. Spanning the entirety of Williams career, their talks focus on Tennessee’s time in New Orleans. Herrera died in Buenos Aires in 2011, before the film could be completed.

Kenneth asked us to retrieve the footage, and over the next year producer Jarret Lofstead worked closely with Dr. Holditch to preserve his work for future scholars and fans of Williams. Featuring archival photography and materials from The Historic New Orleans Collection, the New York Public Library, Getty, the Jack Robinson Archive, et al, Tennessee Williams’ New Orleans featuring Dr. Kenneth Holditch was a pleasure to put together.

Kenneth Holditch died in 2022. The current runtime of 42:37 covers the entirety of Tennessee Williams’ adult life; an additional 4 minute segment focusing on Williams’ childhood in the Delta remains unfinished. The film is still in-progress as we seek finishing funds, but if we learned one thing on this project, you better not wait.

Tennessee Williams’ New Orleans was made possible in part by the generous support of The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival and a version screened there in March 2022.