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
thinking class long
What I loved about the acting class was that you got to think all day long about a person that wasn't you, and figure out why they were sad and what they wanted, what they dreamed.
mother talking phones
I love to work, although sometimes I can spend whole days doing nothing more than picking the lint off the carpet and talking to my mother on the phone.
enlightening kind playwright
It was kind of enlightening to become a playwright.
destiny giving smoking
That's what I like about [smoking] . . . taking a drag off of death, Mmm! Gives me a sense of controlling my own destiny. What power! What exhilaration! Want a drag?
play done ifs
That was always my inclination, to start on a new play before the other one gets done, because at least you'll have something to go back to if that play gets trashed.
novelists poet copyright
But here's the thing: what you do as a screenwriter is you sell your copyright. As a novelist, as a poet, as a playwright, you maintain your copyright
cast until
You can't just go in there and open your mouth until the cast and director feel comfortable with you.
bereft high
Then, when I was a senior in high school, I was kind of bereft and she put me in an acting class.
methodist university
Then I went off to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. They had a really wonderful theatre department.
coin people raised sides society survive
I think that people have to be able to see two sides of the coin to survive because it is a racist society and yet you're being raised by racists.
girl goes grade lives sixth suburbs swing wrote york
I wrote a play in sixth grade called Swing High, Swing Low. It was about Dolly, a girl who lives in the suburbs and goes to New York to be an artist.
class cue high knowing light production remember worked
I remember not knowing what a cue light was because I'd never worked in a production that was high class enough to have a cue light.
class helped high liked movement
The class I liked the best, that I think helped me the most, was my movement class because when I got out of high school, I was very hunched over.