Wendy Wasserstein has died

That's a circle for me.

It was a review of a Wendy Wasserstein piece in the online New York Times that literally sucked me into Abuzz. There was a little ad at the end of the review - "do you want to talk to other people who found this article interesting", something along that line - I clicked on yes, and found myself at Abuzz.

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I think this was the piece

click

From the NYT's:

Interesting.

I knew she was fighting cancer, but she was (was?!) pretty much the impersonation of indomitability, got an incredulous "What?!" out of me when I saw the news item.

Thinking of her daughter a lot, too.

I find this news devastating, partly for the purely self-centered reason that I'm the same age as Wendy Wasserstein, but mainly because I admired her work so much. With her death coming so soon after August Wilson's (and both of them much too early), we've now lost two of the best American playwrights in less than four months.

I remember seeing "Uncommon Women and Others" off-Broadway in 1977 (five years after graduating from a college that has a lot in common with Wasserstein's alma mater, Mount Holyoke, where "Uncommon Women" takes place), and being blown away by the fact that someone was writing plays about people I knew. Since then, I think I've seen every play she wrote, right up to her last play, "Three", which was produced at Lincoln Center last fall. They varied in quality, but at the end you always walked out of the theater with something to think about.

Ms. Wasserstein formed a part of my world view. The world is a poorer place without her.

I was coming back to post about the recognition *click* I always got from Ms. Wasserstein's work.

Then I realized that she's the reason I met the other 3 who've posted to this thread.

Thank you, Wendy!

The title of Wendy Wasserstein's last play is "Third" (not "Three", as I incorrectly stated in my previous post).

(What's happened to the ability to edit our posts?)

Wow.

Thanks to Wendy for that from me, too.

I always felt that Wendy Wasserstein was speaking for me and to me. It's a very sad day.

I am certain that she has inspired many young people to support and become involved in theater. That's something to hope for anyway.

The most stunning fact in the article for me was this: "When Ms. Wasserstein won the best-play Tony for "Heidi Chronicles," it was the first time a woman had won the prize solo." What an astonishing statement. If I knew that at the time, I'd forgotten it. By the way, the only other woman playwright who has achieved that was Yasmina Reza for Art in 1998.

Listening. I read about her, but never saw or read the plays. Liked interviews of her, though I don't remember them in detail.

Oh, my. The last line of that really got to me.

Thanks for posting it, flyboy.

At the danger of outing myself as a barbarian, I must confess that this is the first time I hear Wendy Wasserstein was ever alive. But judging by my high regard of those I see mourning for her in this thread, I probably ought to put her on my to-read list. Can you recommend any particular favorites to start with?

I met her a few times at receptions and she appeared to be one of the warmest individuals I ever met. Her almost perpetual smile seemed to be totally sincere.

The over used expression "I'll really miss her" really is fitting, for I'm sure she had many fine plays left in her. I saw everything she wrote that was put on in N.Y. and enjoyed just about all of them. One of my favorites "Miami" never got beyond workshop status. It was a charming musical memoir of her vacations in Miami as an adolescent.

You met her, flyboy, wow. Very nice tribute, indeed.

And I can so see how she and ehBeth are spiritual twins.

"The Heidi Chronicles" is probably the most HER -- I dunno if you'd like it, though. It's sort of the "Our Bodies, Our Selves" of theater.

(Note, I've only ever read her plays; I know I never saw one on Broadway, not sure if I've ever seen one in any other medium.)

A sad loss indeed... a few years back when The Sisters Rosensweig (spelling?) was playing in New York I was fortunate enough to see it with my niece. It also had the gift of the wonderful actress Madeline Kahn, another talent gone too soon.

Thomas, I just thought of something, you like "Sex and the City", right? It's widely held to be inspired by/ in the vein of/ an updating of Wasserstein's work, so maybe it would be up your alley.

Sounds promising, Sozobe. Another promising title is the one I just found while surfing around on Amazon.com. Oxford University Press published a semi-tongue-in-cheek book series on the seven deadly sins. Wendy Wasserstein contributed the issue on 'sloth'. Since I'm deeply into sloth myself,this title is seriously tempting me. Does someone in this thread have an opinion on it?

Thanks for the tip, Thomas. I haven't read "Sloth" (the book) myself, but I'm also deeply into sloth (the behavior), so I just put a reserve on the book at the New York Public Library's website. I'm #6 on the reserve list; I'd be curious to know how many holds there were on the book a couple of days ago.

If anyone's interested, of the companion books in the "Seven Deadly Sins" series that are listed on the NYPL's website, there are two holds on "Envy", one on "Greed", and -- surprisingly -- none on "Lust".