Five by Tenn is a montage of five Tennessee Williams one-act plays that looks life squarely in the eye, unapologetically. The unabated reality for each person in this diverse and colorful group of people is not always pleasant, sparking an array of raw organic emotions that encompass hurt, pain, betrayal, loss, failure, love, laughter, anger, bitterness, and loneliness. As in other Tennessee Williams plays, the people introduced here are experiencing varied states of deterioration, mentally, physically, and spiritually, in direct tandem with their immediate physical surroundings. What binds this distressed group of people together is the primal desire to truly live, and, with fortitude and strength, attempt to pull themselves out of the suffocating and drowning quicksand that threatens to engulf them. In their quest for redemption, each person goes on a personal and unique journey with unexpected twists, turns, highs and lows along the way, leading to valuable life lessons, which, if embraced, could potentially change the course of their lives forever, further confirming the reality that humankind is far more similar to each other than different.
—Ward Nixon,
Director
The story of Out of the Box Theatre is one of adaptation and survival. Since our founding in 2006, we have developed 21 productions, moved locations several times, welcomed new board members and lost others (including our founder, Scott Robinson), our family of actors and creative staff has grown, and our audiences continue to expand as our outreach to the community now includes, as well as our continued specific welcoming of senior citizens, ASL interpretations of our shows. Through the pandemic, we struggled to learn online streaming methods and produced four shows virtually to maintain and expand our audiences and have continued to receive grants from New York City, State, and other organizations.
This journey, as all such ventures, takes a village. I wanted to take this opportunity to specifically thank Halina Malinowski, our President, who has taken the reins of OotB and brought us to levels of organization, financial growth, and overall professionalism that have exceeded anyone’s expectations.
I chose these Tennessee Williams plays for this OotB production because of the opportunities they provide for our actors to portray the strength and humanity of a wonderful group of marginalized characters.
So many thanks to all who have made this production possible, and thank YOU, our audience members, for your continued support of OotB and without whom all of these efforts would be futile.
Tennessee Williams reveals so much about what it is to be human in this world. I hope you each take away something valuable from this production.
—Lin Snider,
Out of the Box Theatre Co. Artistic Director
