Candles To The Sun
by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Ensemble Member
Steven Fedoruk

Spring 2008

Eclipse Theatre's 2008 Season: Celebration Series part I began by honoring the life and work of Tennessee Williams and opens with the Chicago premiere of Candles to the Sun. Before he became famous as Tennessee, Thomas Lanier Williams wrote Candles to the Sun, his first full-length play. This piece first opened on March 18, 1937, and was produced by The Mummers, a semi-professional and socially aware theatre troupe in St. Louis. Set during the great Depression in the Red Hills coal mining section of Alabama, Candles to the Sun deals with both the attempts of the miners to unionize and the bleak lives of their families. About the premiere, the St. Louis Dispatch said, "Williams is revealed not only as a writer of unusual promise but one of considerable technical skill." Recent Jeff-award winning director Steven Fedoruk who directed Eclipse's hit production of Blues for an Alabama Sky will return to direct Williams rarely produced piece!