I began devising dramas for my dolls and playmates before I
knew that plays and authors existed. When I was 5, I saw my
first Shakespeare and had some sort of conversion experience.
My family accepted that I was 'the kid who loves Shakespeare'
and indulged me. Around 12 I had a vivid 'dedication dream'
where my favorite dead playwrights came and 'called' me, saying
that I was meant to be of their company. Most everything I wrote
while in school got put on by and for my classmates, and a couple
were published. I had no idea that play writing was so difficult
as to be impossible for a female until I got to college c.1959
and my professors and textbooks and the theatre department directors
told me so. I was daunted for almost a decade after this. I
got back into writing in the late 60's when anti-Vietnam and
Women's Movement activists needed scripts that expressed feelings
outside the Mainstream, and encouraged me to write skits and
(more importantly) docudramas for them to perform. I don't really
LIKE skits, but it was a dirty job and Somebody had to do it.
(8/13/05)
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