Delta State University and the Coahoma County Higher Education Center (CCHEC) will offer a three-night Tennessee Williams workshop entitled “Searching for Big Daddy: Tennessee Williams, Tin Roofs, and the Mississippi Delta.” The workshop will be offered on Tuesdays, Sept. 27 – Oct. 11, from 6 – 8 p.m., in the Smart Lab, Rm. 301, at the Coahoma County Higher Education Center in Clarksdale.
Led by Don Allan Mitchell, assistant professor of English at Delta State, the workshop will focus on the play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of Williams’ best known works and his personal favorite. “Searching for Big Daddy” will entail short lectures, discussions, stage readings, and screenings of several different performances of the play to prepare its participants for the 19th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams festival that will be held October 14-15 in Clarksdale.
Mitchell is an avid fan and student of Tennessee Williams. Besides performing in a college production of a Williams play, he has studied Williams’ work through numerous college courses. Mitchell majored in drama at The University of Virginia and studied creative writing and poetry at Ole Miss. In 2006, he was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered about the proposed Mississippi state poem. From 2002 to 2005, he was the host of Highway 61, the Magnolia State’s longest running statewide blues radio program, on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Mitchell now resides in Cleveland with his family, and currently teaches modern drama and Blues literature courses at Delta State.
The CCHEC is an educational partnership between Delta State University and Coahoma Community College that offers educational courses and programs to the Delta region.
The cost of the workshop is $90. CEU credits are available for $15. To receive more details on this workshop or to register for the class, please contact Elizabeth Joel in the Office of Graduate and Continuing Studies at 662-846-4871 or ejoel@deltastate.edu.
