About Nightingale

Vinsantos first became acquainted with Nightingale, when he was cast in a production of Tennessee Williams’ almost never staged semi-autobiographical blatant melodrama ‘Vieux Carre’, set in a dilapidated boarding house in the crumbling French Quarter of the late 1930’s. Reluctantly cast as Nightingale, through the rehearsal process he began to feel a deep connection to the character’s bleak and crass sense of humor. He felt intertwined with the desperation to create some kind of legacy that is the obsession of Nightingale. Vinsantos was in love with the character by the end of the run, Nightingale kept gnawing at him.

The following year, Vinsantos was commissioned to develop a series of filmed vignettes for the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Festival, that had gone virtual due to covid. At the piano, working with a masked filmmaker in the sanctuary of Peter and Paul in New Orleans’ Marigny, he channeled “a love letter” to Nightingale with original songs and monologues. Vinsantos knew then that this rich and dark material could be developed into a more fully realized work. Nightingale wasn’t just a bit character in a mostly unknown play, he had more to say, Vinsantos wondered what his back story was and what he might reveal about the years before his decline in the attic of that Italianette boarding house.

The following year, with the Tennessee Williams festival back to in-person events, he staged the first workshop of a longer version of Nightingale with a post-performance talk back moderated by David Kaplan, an honored fellow of the Williams world and a founder of the other major Tennessee Williams festival in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This workshop was staged in an 1830’s Creole cottage in the French Quarter rumored to be the setting for William’s tragedy ‘The Mutilated’, adjacent to Tennessee Williams’ final home. Later that year, Kaplan invited Vinsantos to perform excerpts from the work in development at the Provincetown Festival’s annual gala. The well-received performance encouraged him to continue researching and exploring the rich possibilities of the character and of a full-length performance..

In 2023, Vinsantos staged the second workshop of the concept musical as part of The Last Bohemia Fringe Festival, in the Twilight Room in New Orleans. This much anticipated and sold-out one night only performance premiered new songs and stories elaborating on the earlier version.  He continues to work on show development, not just music and stories, but also the aesthetics of the set, the costumes and overall art direction. Although the work has been nurtured in and by the community of institutions devoted to the work of Tennessee Williams’, the material seeks to free itself to move out into the world for a wider theater audience.