''The Magic Tower and Other One-Act Plays'' is a collection of 15 plays, seven of them previously unpublished, by American playwright

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

. Published by New Directions in New York City in 2011, Williams' scholar Thomas Keith edited the volume and provided the critical notes while playwright

Terrence McNally Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," ...

, winner of four Tony Awards, wrote the foreword. Ten of the plays, composed between 1936 and 1941, predate Williams' first public success in 1944 with ''

The Glass Menagerie ''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his Histrionic persona ...

'' and may be accounted apprentice works. Other plays collected here are one-act sketches or studies for later full-length plays: "The Pretty Trap" (1944) for ''The Glass Menagerie'', "Interior: Panic" (1946) for ''

A Streetcar Named Desire ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of person ...

'', "Kingdom of Earth" (1967) for ''

The Seven Descents of Myrtle ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', "I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays" (1973) for ''

Vieux Carré The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Squ ...

'', and "Some Problems for the Moose Lodge" (1980) for ''

A House Not Meant to Stand ''A House Not Meant to Stand'' is the last play written by Tennessee Williams. It was produced during the 1981–82 season at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago by Gregory Mosher and published for the first time in 2008 by New Directions.

''.

Plays

* "At Liberty" * "The Magic Tower" * "Me, Vashya" * "Curtains for the Gentleman" * "In Our Profession" * "Every Twenty Minutes" * "Honor the Living" * "The Case of the Crushed Petunias" * "Moony's Kid Don't Cry" * "The Dark Room" * "The Pretty Trap" * "Interior: Panic" * "Kingdom of Earth" * "I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays" * "Some Problems for the Moose Lodge"

Plays

See also