Beth Henley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Becker Henley (1952-05-08)May 8, 1952 (age 72) Jackson,Mississippi |
| Education | Southern Methodist University (BFA) |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1981) |
| Parents | Charles B. Henley (father) |
Elizabeth Becker Henley (born May 8, 1952) is an Americanplaywright,screenwriter, and actress. Her playCrimes of the Heart won the 1981Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1981New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and a nomination for aTony Award. Her screenplay forCrimes of the Heart was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Henley was born in 1952 inJackson, Mississippi. She was one of four sisters. Her parents wereCharles B. Henley, an attorney, and Elizabeth Josephine Henley, an actress. Henley attendedMurrah High School in Jackson, followed bySouthern Methodist University, where she was a member of the acting ensemble.[1] While at college, Henley completed her first play, aone-act piece entitledAm I Blue. She graduated from Southern Methodist in 1974 with a BFA.[2] From 1975 to 1976, she taught playwriting at theUniversity of Illinois (Urbana) and the Dallas Minority Repertory Theater.[1]
In 1976 Henley moved to Los Angeles and began work on her playCrimes of the Heart.[1]
For many years, Henley dated actor, writer and directorStephen Tobolowsky, whom she met while they were students at Southern Methodist University. Their relationship ended in 1988.[3]
Crimes of the Heart was Henley's first professionally produced play. It opened at theActors Theatre of Louisville in 1978, where it was declared co-winner of a new American play contest.[4] The play then moved to New York and was produced by theManhattan Theatre Club.[5]Crimes of the Heart won thePulitzer Prize for Drama in 1981 as well as the award for Best American Play of 1981 from theNew York Drama Critics' Circle.[6] The play also earned Henley a nomination for aTony Award, and her screenplay for the film version ofCrimes of the Heart was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay.[5] Henley has stated that growing up with three sisters was a major inspiration for her playCrimes of the Heart.[7]
Henley's first six plays are set in the Deep South: two in Louisiana and four in Mississippi, where she grew up.[8]
Henley adapted her 1984 playThe Miss Firecracker Contest into a 1989 film starringHolly Hunter entitledMiss Firecracker. Henley's playRidiculous Fraud was produced at theMcCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey in 2006. Her playFamily Week was produced atMCC Theater, New York City in 2010, directed byJonathan Demme.
The themes in her plays often consider the importance of love, the contrast between family love and romantic love,[9] how family and society define and confine her female characters,[8] and the alienation and suffering of the human condition. Characters in her plays may seek happiness but are betrayed by modern civilization.[10] Henley's work suggests the influence of Freud'spsychoanalytic theory. HerSouthern sense of the grotesque and absurd experienced in daily existence have caused her to be compared to otherSouthern writers such asEudora Welty andFlannery O'Connor, or to be considered part of theSouthern Gothic tradition.[10]
Her plays written in the 1980s have been characterized as naturalistic portrayals of the relationship between the inner self and the world,[11] and her characters often are outsiders and nonconformists unable to share their feelings and experiences.[1] Her plays of the 1990s, includingAbundance, the first play not set in the South, are considered more experimental than her earlier work.[12] Henley applies new techniques and styles in these plays.[13] Her playRevelers employs some older and traditional theatre techniques.[1]
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