Not many people are aware of the friendship between Karen Kondazian and playwright Tennessee Williams.

Karen and Tennessee Williams

Kondazian would win many awards portraying the powerful, complex women Williams had created. As Serafina in The Rose Tattoo, she won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, portraying the secluded widow in the 1978/1979 revival at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. That February evening in ’79 when Williams attended the production, a young Christopher Reeve was in the audience, along with the great film director Richard Brooks (Sweet Bird of Youth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) who had directed two of Williams most famous films but had never met Tennessee in the flesh, until that evening.

Karen and Ed Harris in “Sweet Bird of Youth”

Tennessee gave a Q&A after the performance and was quoted in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner by reviewer Gardner McKay, thanking Karen for her “staggeringly beautiful performance”. Williams was so smitten by Karen’s performance in Tattoo, that the two became close friends, giving Karen his blessing to produce any of his plays during his lifetime. As a result, she went on to portray Princess Kosmonopolis in Sweet Bird of Youth (1980). Starring with her was a brilliant young actor named Ed Harris. She also acted and produced in the west coast premier of Williams’ Vieux Carre (1983), alongside the extraordinary Ray Stricklyn, who later took his character Mr. Nightingale from the play and created the memorable, award-winning one man show playing Tennessee Williams.