Candles to the Sun

{{Short description|Play by Tennessee Williams in 1937}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

Candles to the Sun was the first full-length play written by Tennessee Williams{{Cite web|title=Candles to the Sun by Tennessee Williams|url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/tennessee-williams/candles-to-sun.htm|access-date=2021-05-04|website=www.fantasticfiction.com}}{{Cite journal|last=Radavish|first=David|date=2007|title=Regional Tensions in Tennessee William's Candles to the Sun and Spring Storm|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27784724|journal=South Atlantic Review|volume=72:3|issue=3 |pages=38–50|jstor=27784724}} to be produced.{{Cite web|title=Candles to the Sun|url=https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/7646/candles-to-the-sun|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Concord Theatricals|language=en-uk}} In 1939 Candles to the Sun was one of 4 one-act plays he submitted to the New York Group Theatres' American play contest, winning the $100 prize.{{Cite web|last=Associates|first=Casarotto Ramsay &|title=Tennessee Williams|url=https://www.casarotto.co.uk/clients/tennessee-williams|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Casarotto Ramsay & Associates|language=en}} The play is set in the Red Hills area of Alabama in a coal mining town. The story deals with the struggle of the miners to form a union while also highlighting the difficult lives of their families. The St Louis Star-Times critic Reed Hynds described the play as "an earnest and searching examination of a particular social reality set out in human and dramatic terms." It was premiered on March 18, 1937 by The Mummers, a socially aware and semi-professional theatre troupe in St. Louis, Missouri{{Cite web|title=Stageplays.com {{!}} Buy Plays, Find Plays {{!}} Every Play in the World|url=https://www.stageplays.com/|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Stageplays.com|language=en}} where it opened to rave reviews.{{Cite web|title=Candles to the Sun|url=https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/7646/candles-to-the-sun|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Concord Theatricals|language=en-uk}}