The Theatre of Tennessee Williams

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams brings together in matching format the plays of one of America’s most influential and innovative dramatists. Arranged in chronological order, this ongoing series includes the original cast listings and production notes for all full-length plays. Now available as a New Directions paperbook, Volume VI: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Short Plays, contains sixteen one-act plays in Williams’ early, more realistic style––eleven from the original 1953 edition of 27 Wagons, two added to the 1966 paper edition of the same title, and three added to the 1981 cloth edition of Volume VI. Not only were the short plays the necessary seedbed for many of Williams’ longer plays; they were also crucial experiments in both theme and style. Williams envisioned these short plays for small theatre productions, which he hoped would be “an irritant in the shell of their community.”