Margaret Edson
Margaret Edson (born 4 July 1961, Washington, D.C.) is an American playwright. As a child, she wrote and acted in amateur plays with neighborhood friend Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She graduated with a B.A. in Renaissance History from Smith College, and received a master's in English literature from Georgetown University. Her jobs have included being a bicycle shop sales clerk and a volunteer ESL teacher.
Edson's first play was Wit, first produced in 1995 at South Coast Repertory in California, about a John Donne scholar who is hospitalized for and dying of ovarian cancer. Edson did use her work experience in a hospital as part of the background in writing the play.[1][2] At the time of its first New York production in late 1998, Edson was a kindergarten teacher at Centennial Place Elementary School (Atlanta, Georgia). The play won her the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[3] The award brought her a large amount of publicity, including an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Edson has written a second play, Satisfied, whose subject is "country-gospel radio in Kentucky"--[2]still, as of April 2008, unproduced.
Edson gave the address during the commencement ceremony of 2008 at Smith College.
As of December 30, 2011 Edson teaches 6th grade social studies at Inman Middle School in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Peter Marks (18 September 1998). "Science and Poetry Face Death in a Hospital Room". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE6DB1630F93BA2575AC0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ a b Kevin Sack (10 November 1998). "At Lunch With Margaret Edson; Colors, Numbers, Letters and John Donne". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E1DE113EF933A25752C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
- ^ Alex Kuczynski (13 April 1999). "Teacher Turned Playwright Is Among the Winners of 22 Pulitzer Prizes". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E3DC1F38F930A25757C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
- ^ McGrath, Charles (16 February 2012). "Changing Gears but Retaining Dramatic Effect". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/theater/margaret-edson-author-of-wit-loves-teaching.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
[edit] External links
- Margaret Edson at the Internet Broadway Database
- Margaret Edson at the Internet Movie Database
- Margaret Edson at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Transcript from Edson's April 14, 1999 appearance on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
- New Georgia Encyclopedia
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