Tennessee Williams’ Garden District, two one-act plays, had their final showing Sunday to a sold-out Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre .

Both plays contained themes of homosexuality and human desire that were considered even more sensational during Williams’ time.

Lynda Clark, who played Violet Venable , and Jan Morgan, who played Cornelia Scott, were both featured guests in the plays.

Yamila Monge , a freshman in psychology, portrayed Sister Felicity in Suddenly, Last Summer.

“In the play, I was basically protecting [Catherine Holly],” Monge said. “Tennessee Williams always has this thing against the Catholic Church and I’m more of a metaphor than anything else.”

Playing the character had its trials and tribulations, Monge said.

“Personally, being a nun was kind of difficult because in real life I’m the opposite of a nun. I’m really loud and outspoken. Being more concerned and reserved, that took a lot of work,” Monge said.

Monge further detailed how she was able to collaborate with Lynda Clark.

“Just the way she prepares for a role, she becomes the person, like she feels the emotions and she expresses it in everything…and I just thought that wasn’t an easy thing to do,” Monge said. “I learned so much from what she had to offer and I’m glad I was able to work with her.”

Jaimie Harwood, a senior in English, explained how she had a similar experience as the character Miss Foxhill .

“Every scene I was in, Lynda was in,” Harwood said. “It was good to just watch her and her process. She put emotion into every second…and even little things throughout the process that she would tell us, like ‘Lines are the least important things that an actor does while onstage.’ It kind of struck a chord with me because I’m always big on lines. I need to learn my lines, I need to do them right.”

Harwood also gave credit to John McIlwee , the director.

Harwood said, “I love John McIlwee . He kind of gave us guidelines and let us go with it wherever we wanted to and if he needed to rein us in, he’d rein us in. He always told us, ‘You can do more, just keep going.'”

Before its premiere Sunday, the show entirely sold out.

Jillian Varner , a senior clerk for Ticket Central, said, “They weren’t sold out until probably sometime in the beginning or middle of October. But what happened was University Theatre sold a lot of seasons this year over the summer so a lot of the tickets were season ticket holders and we didn’t have very many individual tickets left available to sell for such a small theater.”

While the overall revenues have yet to be determined, it’s predicted they will be substantial.

Varner said, “I don’t know how much [total] we’ve made but we’ve sold out every show, or if not, we’ve had one or two tickets left for every show and [the theatre ] seats about 100 people.”

Tennessee Williams’ popularity as a playwright is one theory about why the show sold so well.

Monge said, “Tennessee Williams is a big deal and I think people are like ‘Oh, Tennessee Williams, let’s go see!’ and it wasn’t your ordinary play, so people are interested.”

The speculation of Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre being relatively small didn’t persuade Harwood.

“I mean it is a smaller theatre but I don’t know if that’s why it sold out though because it sold so far in advance,” Harwood said.

Harwood and Varner believed it could be chalked up to the presence of the featured guest artists.

“Lynda Clark and Jan Morgan could be why it has sold out. Since they’re so well known that they must have a following as well,” Harwood said.

Varner said, “I think it helps that they have two professional actresses in the show. I think that’s kind of a draw because it’s great to see students but it’s kind of cool to see professionals.”

Regardless, Garden District‘s final showing proved a success after the cast was showered with applause.

“I’m sad to see it go; it’s kind of bittersweet,” Harwood said. “But if you’re not good with goodbyes, then you shouldn’t be doing theatre.”