Still uncertain about her direction in life, Wasserstein almost went to law school, business school and medical school before deciding to try something she really enjoyed and entering the playwriting program at the Yale School of Drama. There, she studied no plays by women, nor did she meet a single woman director. Consequently, she devoted her entire playwriting career to exploring the lives of intelligent, talented women.
The production of her first play happened as serendipitously as her first playwriting course. From that time, Playwrights Horizons was her artistic home and she served on its artistic board.
Indeed, for Wasserstein, as for many of her characters, humor was a necessary bulwark against the disappointments of life. In a slightly different key, her one-act play Tender Offer, produced at the Ensemble Theater, explores poignantly the relationship between a girl and her father.
While Janie is the daughter of overprotective Jewish parents who desperately want her to get married, Harriet is the daughter of a WASP professional woman who encourages her to pursue her career.
In it appeared on TNT television. The play explores the wistful character of Heidi Holland, a witty, unmarried art history professor at Columbia University approaching middle age and becoming disillusioned with the collapse of the idealism that shaped the s. An episodic, seriocomic biography that spans twenty-three years, the play begins with a slide lecture in which Heidi affirms the neglect of women artists; it then skates back to a Chicago high school dance and on to college, where Heidi and her friends become ardent feminists and radicals.
Heidi, however, remains adamantly committed to the ideals of feminism and feels stranded. At her high school alumni luncheon, the climax of the play, she looks around at her materialistic, married friends who chose easier or different paths and delivers a long, impromptu confession concerning her feelings of abandonment and her disappointment with her peers. While it is clear that the play is not radically feminist, it is a mistake to read the ending so literally.
Heidi and her daughter become icons for future generations of women who will have a stronger sense of self in a more equal society. Wasserstein wanted to write a play that celebrated the possibilities of a middle-aged woman who, unlike her other protagonists, does not end up alone. In addition, each sister comes to terms with her Jewish heritage differently. Once the media exposes the fact that Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes, the great-granddaughter of Ulysses S.
Grant and the daughter of a conservative Republican senator, neglected to do jury duty, she is forced to resign as nominee for surgeon general. The most overtly political play of her career, An American Daughter was also her first play to move directly from the Seattle Repertory Theater to Broadway. While some critics felt the play lacked direction, others thought it cleverly combined the features of a social problem play, a comedy of manners, and a political satire.
Share Facebook Twitter Mendeley Reddit. A feminist theater scholar and critic sheds new light on the work of playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
Description Series Michigan Modern Dramatists. Yet while some of her comedies and witty dramas were wildly successful, packing theaters and winning awards, feminists of the era often felt that the plays did not go far enough.
Wendy Wasserstein provides a critical introduction and a feminist reappraisal of the significant plays of one of the most famous contemporary American women playwrights. Canning, University of Texas. Highly recommended. An American Daughter. The Sisters Rosensweig. Follow Playbill Now. Want Discount Tickets? All Rights Reserved. Powered by. The Heidi Chronicles Opened Mar 19, Excerpt from "Miami" Writer.
0コメント