“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” is absolutely something William Shuman need never worry about when he is on stage performing “En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams,” a new solo show presented as part of the NY International Fringe Festival. Mr. Shuman also penned the eighty-five minute piece with sensible and enlightening information about the idiosyncratic and fascinating author and playwright. He presents Tennessee Williams with style and grace

Thomas Lanier Williams, better known by his moniker "Tennessee Williams," is brought to life in En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams. This solo show, written and performed by William Shuman, is an homage to the master who gave us the indelible characters of Blanche Dubois, Maggie the Cat, and the fragile-as-glass Laura Wingfield-to mention a few. Even if you typically run in the opposite direction from one-person shows, you should really make the exception for this on

Here’s a question for playwright/performer William Shuman: What’s a genteel little play like yours doing in a place like the New York International Fringe Festival? The play in question is a one-man show called En Avant! An Evening With Tennessee Williams. It is a loving tribute to the great playwright, with none of the quirkiness or metaphysical meanderings associated with many of the Fringe offerings. Fans of Mr. Williams will find much to admire in this 75-minute monolog

Sit down and get comfortable as you listen to the life story of Tennessee Williams, delivered as a delightful front-porch chat that any Williams fan will appreciate. Writer-performer William Shuman has distilled Williams’s private journals into an illuminating solo piece that spans the late playwright’s whole career and touches on his struggles with alcoholism, drugs, depression and his own homosexuality. The show is peppered with beautiful quotations and interesting trivia.

"It's funny...I was born in Mississippi, raised in St. Louis, I spent my happiest days in New Orleans and Key West, and yet they call me Tennessee." So begins En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams, a solo show written and performed by William Shuman, directed by Ruis Woertendyke. The celebrated playwright, now dead 30 years and dressed in a white suit and blue shirt, pours himself a drink and reflects upon his family, his work, his love/sex life, and award-winning po