Washington, DC -- (SBWire) -- 01/28/2015 --Moon Lake Productions is presenting A House of Glass, a musical adaptation of the biographical notes of the brilliant Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams, controversial author and playwright, as played by phenomenal talent and local favorite Joshua Morgan, of the Helen Hayes Award™ winning No Rules Theatre Company.

A House of Glass runs February 5th through 8th, 2015 as part of Arena Stage's Kogod Cradle Series. The musical is directed by Matt Cowart, book and lyrics by Shelley Herman Gillon and Harriet McFaul Pilger, and music written by Paul Leavitt.

A House of Glass explores the transformation of shy, diffident Thomas Lanier Williams into Tennessee Williams - genius, addict, icon and iconoclast - and the demons that drove him, the angels that guided him. The time of the play spans the great arc of the writer's life, beginning in 1918, when Williams is seven years old, to 1981, two years before Williams' death, at the age of seventy-two, in 1983.

This musical play about the life of Tennessee Williams---the complex, driven, flamboyant and prolific genius who created many of the seminal works of the American stage and screen---explores his family archetypes, his agent and his longtime companion and how they gave rise to his indelible characters. A House of Glass also examines his sexual compulsion, his long, hard slide into addiction and his redemption through the power of his work.

The music, composed by Paul Leavitt, covers a wide range in the American canon, from ballads, ragtime, Dixieland, rhythm & blues and full-on Broadway musical numbers.

TICKETING INFO

Tickets may be purchased online at arenastage.com or by phone at 202-488-3300. Tickets are FREE for Arena Stage subscribers and members, and $10 for the general public. All seating is general admission and reservations are strongly encouraged.

BIOGRAPHIES

About Joshua Morgan
Joshua Morgan (Tennessee Williams) graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Judith Blazer's 2005/2007 company of the Artist's Crossing. Since moving to Washington, DC, from New York City, Joshua has performed at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co., Signature Theatre, Arena Stage, Theater J, Triad Stage, and others. As a director, Joshua directed three sold-out productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in NC and DC, received rave reviews for his work with Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s), and mounted the Washington premiere of Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated. Most recently he appeared in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre's production of Twelfth Night and will soon be starring in Rep Stage's production of The Piano Teacher, both in Washington. Joshua sits on the board of the Artists Crossing in New York.

About Harriet McFaul Pilger
Harriet McFaul Pilger (Playwright) is a novelist and actor. Her most recent novel, written with partners under their pen name, Ann Jenkins Lee, is Trumped, a Langley Chase Bridge Club mystery. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where she studied directly under Sanford Meisner, Harriet has just completed two terms as president of the Vienna Theatre Company. Recent roles include Eleanor in The Lion in Winter, Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias and Hannah Mandelbaum in Crossing Delancey. Harriet is a recovering attorney who used to put bad guys in jail. Harriet is a native New Orleanian who came to the Washington area to go to Georgetown Law School and forgot to go home. She is a member of the Authors Guild.

About Shelley Herman Gillon
Shelley Herman Gillon (Playwright) is a playwright whose recent works include Bulletins from FATLAND (http://www.fatlandtheplay.com/) produced by Horizons Theater in 2007, and Crawling from the Ashes, an adaptation of Julia Caswell Daitch's 9/11 memoir, staged at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater in 2009 as part of its Page-to-Stage Festival. Tom to TENN, a musical play about Tennessee Williams, with Harriet McFaul Pilger and Paul Leavitt is in development and Raised by the Radio was performed at Theater J as a benefit for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. While in her early twenties, Ms Gillon founded and directed an Off-Off Broadway company in New York and her early works were commissioned and produced by theaters in New Orleans, the town she calls her "country of origin". She has also contributed to five screenplays with Anna Filameno and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse where she studied with the legendary Sandford Meisner, Ms Gillon is also joyfully engaged as a communication and dialect coach. She works with non-native speakers in improving their writing skills and in accent reduction; and with actors in acquiring various dialects.

About Paul Leavitt
Paul Leavitt (Music and Lyrics) débuted as a concert pianist at age 15 with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. As a scholarship student he received a Master's Degree from the Juilliard School in piano performance. He was a laureate of the International Steinway Competition for Young Talents (1989) in Paris, France. A versatile musician and composer, Mr. Leavitt performs regularly in Europe and in the United States as a classical pianist. Leavitt performed his score for Tom to Tenn, a musical play about the life of playwright Tennessee Williams at the 2007 Page-to-Stage Festival of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The following year saw the first stage reading of the entire play at Metro Stage in Alexandria, VA in August 2008. Leavitt is the full-time Director of Music and Arts at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.

Contact:
Ann Harris
225-284-6322
press@ahouseofglass.com
http://www.ahouseofglass.com