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
bereft high
Then, when I was a senior in high school, I was kind of bereft and she put me in an acting class.
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.
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.
badly job nihilism taught time
I think I had a job in a children's theatre. I taught badly because I was into nihilism at the time and that's just not where you go with teaching.
cast until
You can't just go in there and open your mouth until the cast and director feel comfortable with you.
methodist university
Then I went off to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. They had a really wonderful theatre department.
thinking people world
I find it fascinating to think about what the world is going to be like when people won't talk anymore.
new-york fun too-much
Part of that is that New York has proved to be too much fun for me to live and work; I love New York so much.
play faults too-short
My fault now is making my plays too short.
art play art-is
The most glorious thing about working in the collaborative art is when you have somebody like Susan Kingsley or Kathy Bates who are better than your play.
people mind genius
There are probably brilliant people, geniuses, alive today who don't even know how to say, "Hello, how do you do?" because their minds are absorbed with electronic images.
theatre raises
I tried to start a theatre in LA and failed miserably, but I was probably not meant to raise money
lying class movement
In movement class, you had to lie on the floor and get your alignment in to pass the class