The works of Tennessee Williams are a goldmine for veteran actors, and Guild Hall has a rich history of producing his plays. At one such event, here’s how it went for a reporter and Eli Wallach. How old am I? asked Eli Wallach playfully. The occasion was a staged reading of works by Tennessee Williams in 2011, his words from memoirs, letters, and scenes from his work, most memorably The Glass Menagerie, in honor of the playwright’s centennial year. 91, averred a reporter. With a smile, his finger gestured up. Meeting the challenge, the reporter counted to 95. His face glowed. That’s it. That great evening at Guild Hall, directed by Harris Yulin who also performed, featured Mercedes Ruehl as Amanda Winfield, and on May 16, just nine years and, in the time of COVID-19, a world later, that evening will be revived at a staged reading of “Portrait of Tennessee: The Words of Tennessee Williams,” this time on Zoom.

After reading Williams’ 1982 article, “The Man in the Overstuffed Chair,” Harris Yulin became interested in Tennessee’s “nakedly autobiographical family story” and thought it would be possible through his writing to give an idea of who he was when he started writing at 14 through his first success with The Glass Menagerie at 34.

Himself a veteran actor, known for movies, theater, and most recently for the role of Buddy Dieker on the series Ozark, Harris Yulin, safely distant on the phone, filled me in on what we share with Williams now in our current isolation, and the challenges of Zoom technology.

Yulin and Ruehl will be joined by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, outstanding as Alison’s boyfriend in HBO’s Girls. But in 2011, he starred as Tom, a stand-in for the playwright in Williams’ The Glass Menagerie in a fine Guild Hall production. As narrator of this memory piece—most of all a writer re-imaging his youth, Ebon Moss-Bachrach spoke William’s poetry, his translucent eyes reflecting thwarted hope and misery: Tom wants to please mom and help sis, he is not a bad person but emotionally frail as his sister is, he lets them down, taking his only way out when he can. This is a family story, a tragedy of the decline of Southern refined values, auguring the speed and flash of the American future.

Known now for her role in the series Fosse/Verdon, Tedra Millan made a big impression on Broadway in 2017, working with Kevin Kline in Present Laughter, and at last summer’s birthday tribute to Jules Feiffer in the staged reading of his play, A Bad Friend, at Guild Hall.

“Our rehearsals are mostly the attempt to deal with the technology,” said Yulin. “We’re not very acquainted with it, and limited with what we can do with it right now; we can cut from one person to another, but can’t fade out and fade in. We’re trying to do as well as we can and make it look interesting. Figuring out split screens takes time.” In preparing, Yulin said he watched his friend Stacy Keach perform in an interesting King Lear, using the same background in each space.

What does he hope for the special reading on May 16? “I hope Tennessee speaks for himself.”