THEATER: Pieces of Paradise is a benefit presentation of four lost plays by Tennessee Williams which were discovered in a trunk in 2000 and never produced in New York. The proceeds will benefit a legal fund for 13th Street Repertory (founded in 1972), which is struggling for survival against - you guessed it - real estate developers. It’s fitting that these plays should be chosen for the benefit, as Tennessee himself visited the theater when his play Outcry was produced and declared “that the future of the American theater lay in the small theaters of off-off-Broadway.” Martin Denton calls the four short works a “wonderful evening of undiscovered Williams.” in his rave review. (A final performance will take place on Sunday.) - John Del Signore more ›

But what we really want to know is what author Muriel Spark thinks. Read her Slate diaries from July 1996 and December 1996. more ›