Beth Henley
Beth Henley
Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henleyis an award-winning American playwright, screen writer, and actress. Her play, Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the 1981 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and a nomination for a Tony Award. Her screenplay for Crimes of the Heart was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth8 May 1952
CountryUnited States of America
dream writing creating
And all writing is creating or spinning dreams for other people so they won't have to bother doing it themselves.
pigs people watches
Somehow I got to be one of five or six actors that the directors would use as guinea pigs at this directing colloquium, where people pay to listen to and watch the directors direct.
play firsts lucky
My first few plays took place in the South and even The Lucky Spot was in the thirties but in Louisiana.
thinking play special
Plays are so much more special if they've never ever had a production, but I think you can really work on a play and make it better with each production.
beautiful swings people
Some really good things kind of swing both ways and I like to see people that can swing really, really, really sad and horrible and terrible and really, really, really beautiful and funny.
mother play community-theatre
I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, really in suburbia, so my mother was in community theatre plays
couple writing play
I did write a couple of original screenplays, but I'd rather write plays
school los-angeles restless
I was just restless with being in school; so I went out to Los Angeles.
writing screens
I love writing for the screen.
divorced wretchedness my-own
I just loved being divorced from my own wretchedness.
dog school college
The impetus behind going to graduate school was a year after graduating from college spent in Dallas working at the dog food factory and Bank America and not having met success in my chosen field, which at that point was being an actress.
smart character writing
But when I got to SMU and decided to take a playwriting class, I said this isn't a bad idea. IfI write characters, they could be as dumb as me, and I don't have to be very smart.
sister winter years
It's called Sisters of the Winter Madrigal. It was interesting for me to see it done after so many years; because I wrote it and I didn't realize what a rage I was in.
christmas writing school
The next thing I wrote was in a writing class at night school. It was about a poor woman who worked at a dime store and who was all alone for Christmas in Laurel, Mississippi.