• Richard Wright
• Beth Henley
• Tennessee Williams

Richard Wright, 1908-1960. Born outside of Natchez, Mississippi.

Featured items, left to right: Native Son, a play / Paul Green and Richard Wright (1941), Broadside from original production of Native Son at Broadway’s St. James Theatre (1941), Program from the production of Native Son at The Davidson Theatre (1942), Lobby card for film adaptation of Native Son (1951)

Richard Wright collaborated with Paul Green to adapt his 1940 novel Native Son for the stage. Orson Welles directed the play which opened on Broadway in 1941. Wright also wrote the screenplay for the 1951 French film version. Canada Lee was set to reprise his theatre role as Bigger, but when failing health and South African custom problems caused him pull out, Wright stepped in to play the lead character.

Beth Henley, 1952-. Born in Jackson, Mississippi.

Featured items, left to right: Spiral notebook with conceptual notes for Crimes of the Heart, Photocopied page of dialogue from Crimes of the Heart, Crimes of the Heart / Beth Henley. Dramatists Play Service (1982), Crimes of the Heart / Beth Henley. Viking/Penguin Books (1982), Beth Henley’s Film Production Folder for Crimes of the Heart (1986).

From conceptual notes through drafts of scripts for both the stage and screen, the Beth Henley Collection preserves the complete creative writing process for this author’s first professionally produced play. In 1981, Crimes of the Heart won both the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best American Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Five years later, Henley received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Tennessee Williams, 1911-1983. Born in Columbus, Mississippi.

Featured items, left to right: A Streetcar Named Desire / Tennessee Williams. New Directions (1947), Lobby card from film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Annotated film script of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), with notes by agent Audrey Wood

Tennessee Williams collaborated with Elia Kazan and Oscar Saul to adapt his 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire for movie cameras. A financial and critical hit, the 1951 film won four Academy Awards and catapulted the young Marlon Brando to stardom. The 1955 Pulitzer Prize winning play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was itself an adaptation of a Williams’ short story set on a Mississippi Delta plantation. On display is agent Audrey Wood’s copy of the script with handwritten notations reflecting the struggles between author, agent Audrey Wood, and director Elia Kazan on the timing of the climax and ambiguity of Brick’s character.