New for the 2024-25 season, the Intiman will transform the Erickson Theater into a 21+, intimate cabaret venue with table and bar seating, cocktail lounge service, and the chance to enjoy a theatrical mix of one-person plays, drag and performance art, musical acts, and more, from Seattle and beyond.

The Cabaret Series includes Hotel Gatsby, featuring the Beauty Bois (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) and Triple Fire Sign: Justin Huertas in Concert (Nov. 4- 5), after which Portland-bred actor and writer Jacob Storms brings his solo show, Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams (Nov. 8-10) for the finale.

I had a chance to chat with Storms through email, excerpts of which follow.

On Tennessee Williams
I actually had no interest or knowledge of Tennessee Williams until a strange series of events took place back in 2012. After living in New York City for a couple years, I received an out-of-the-blue call from my high school, the Northwest Academy in Portland, Oregon, asking if they could fly me out to give a speech at their annual scholarship fundraiser.

I was more than happy to do so, and while I was back in Portland on this chance visit, my middle school called Da Vinci (a public arts magnet school where I really started to take acting seriously) was doing a fundraiser organized by Elizabeth Taylor's granddaughter, Laela Wilding, who was a parent at Da Vinci at that time. It was a screening of Tennessee Williams film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Taylor and Paul Newman. One of the founders of Da Vinci, Connie Cheifetz, heard I was in town, so they asked me to introduce the film screening and sing happy birthday to Elizabeth Taylor's ghost, because it took place on what would have been [her] 80th birthday.

The whole experience was very surreal, and the next day I walked into Powell's Bookstore with the intention of wanting to learn about the person who created the amazing work of art I saw the night before. As soon as I walked into Powell's, Tennessee's infamous memoir was on display, staring at me! What I did not realize until I saw the cover of the memoir was the shocking physical resemblance we shared!

I read the memoir over a couple days and really resonated with his love of humanity and feelings about society and culture, which were very close to my own feelings. It was at that moment I realized I needed to write a play about him in which I would play the part of Williams. As I learned more about him though, I realized there was this earlier period of his life that had never really been explored, which he glossed over in [his memoir]. Charles Busch, who I had become friends with in New York, really encouraged me to focus on that unknown period and gave me his copy of Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams by Lyle Leverich, which was the only authorized biography of Williams.

As I learned more about his younger years as an artist trying to make his way in the world as society was falling apart during World War II, I resonated with him his story even more, and my initial feeling of wanting to create a play about him was only reconfirmed.

On the hidden era
Learning about his struggles as a young artist made me appreciate his amazing success so much more. There are so many times he was promised great things that never came to pass in those early years I focus on (1939-45). Fortunately for him, and us, Williams was driven by a self-proclaimed "religion of endurance," which kept him going through those lean years, during which he experienced so many false starts in his professional life and some major personal tragedies, which could have easily derailed his trajectory. His friends at that time nicknamed him "Tenacity Williams," which sums him up perfectly.

On his inspirations
His relationship with his sister Rose is one of the main through lines throughout Tennessee Rising. It is also during the six-year period I cover that he meets many of the real-life figures who would go on to inspire some of his major characters, like Big Daddy, Maggie the Cat, Stanley Kowalski, etc.

His relationship with his grandparents is also something I was very excited to share with audiences, as it is often overlooked. He used to say his grandmother was the closest thing he had to God in his life. She got him out of many tough binds during the period of Tennessee Rising, when he was mostly broke and barely getting by. I have always been very close to my grandmother, so that was yet another parallel we shared. When Williams was growing up, his grandmother always used to tell him he was "born old" because of his old soul, and my grandmother's nickname for me was "Old Man," so you can start to understand why I wrote Tennessee Rising.

On working with director Alan Cumming
It was a dream come true working with Alan, who is someone I have admired for as long as I can remember. Alan is another fan of Tennessee Williams, so getting to work so closely with him to revamp the play - which I had already been performing for a year before he came on board - was more than I could have ever asked for.

Alan and I worked on the play over a six-month period in which we went through the script line by line and rearranged scenes [and] made cuts, and he had me expand certain scenes and add some new ones. When we got the revamped script on its feet, Alan had me put even more of my-self into my portrayal, which was exactly why I wanted to do the play originally, because it was such a personal story for me.

Alan's direction gave me permission to take even bigger chances and hone the play to the point that I could do it basically anywhere with very little needed to make it effective and enthralling for audiences. I have done the play for audiences as small as 30 people (Club Cumming in New York City) to as large as 700 people (The Theater at Innovation Square, a performing arts center in Rochester, New York) and all sizes in between over the years - and the play works, no matter the size of the venue.

On Tennessee's importance today
Williams's tenacity, refusal to conform, and endurance - in the face of personal and professional rejection, in addition to the societal chaos surrounding him, is something I think we can all be in-spired by and find comfort in. The parallels between what was happening during the period of Tennessee Rising and what we are living through today is shocking and will hopefully in-spire other young people who are struggling to see that surrendering is not an option and that we still can and must find ways to be creative and express ourselves, even when all hope seems lost.

On Storms's origins
I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon! I actually started as a visual artist - and always imagined I would pursue a career in illustration, until I got bitten by the acting bug in middle school. I always loved creative writing in middle and high school, and I even wrote a play in fifth grade for an end-of-year performance, much to the shock of my teachers. I wrote a role for myself in that play, so I realized when I set out to create Tennessee Rising that it wasn't my first time at the rodeo!

When I was 16, I was asked by a director at my high school, named David Wagstaff, if I would consider taking on the titanic solo play I Am My Own Wife, in which I would portray 35 char-acters. I took the leap and agreed to this crazy idea, and the experience of doing that play changed my life and helped me realize that a career in the performing arts was what I wanted to do with my life. Had I not had the amazing privilege of performing I Am My Own Wife when I was [that age], I don't think I would have written Tennessee Rising a few years later!

On the future
My performances with Intiman are part of a fall tour I have been on, which started a few months ago in Indianapolis, Little Rock, and Provincetown. After Seattle, I will be at the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia on November 21 and will be announcing more performances next year.

I have also adapted Tennessee Rising as a limited series for television, so one day soon we will get to see even more of this period of Tennessee's early life and the years beyond the period I cover in the stage version. Stay tuned!

See Tennessee Rising as part of the Intiman Cabaret at the Erickson Theater Nov. 8-10. Tickets are at https://www.intiman.org/cabaret