WENDY WASSERSTEIN

THE HEIDI CHRONICLES

AMERICAN DRAMA
UPV/EHU
WENDY WASSERSTEIN (1950-2006)
LIFE

• family background as a source for stage material

• the influence of her mother, Lola Wasserstein, a non-conventional woman and mother
• her mother “didn’t cook… She didn’t clean. I never saw any evidence of laundry… Lola sort of operated in a
different sphere.” (qtd. Craig 184)

• went to the women’s college Mount Holyoke (South Hadley, MA), the oldest member of the
historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the
Northeastern United States (B.A.)
• took writing classes at City College (NY) (M.A.)
• graduated from Fine Arts by Yale School of Drama (M.F.A.)
• gave birth to a daughter in 1999 when she was 48 years old
CAREER

• Her first play: Any Woman Can’t (1973) - a farce on one of her major themes—a
woman’s attempts to succeed in an environment traditionally dominated by men
• Two other early works are Uncommon Women and Others (1975; revised and expanded,
1977, based on her undergraduate experiences at Mount Holyoke) and Isn’t It Romantic
(1981), which explore women’s attitudes toward marriage and society’s expectations of
women
• By the mid-1980s, Wasserstein wrote for television as well as articles and essays for
magazines
• I was seeing a lot of plays in which I found the image of women disturbing again. I was
beginning to feel like I felt at Yale. It’s not that there were not good plays…it’s just that I
felt again that the image of women was not being fully represented. So I thought, I can
either go out to drinks with my friends and get angry about this, or I suppose I could
write a play, which is always harder.

• The other thing was, I was beginning to think, Well, what’s happened to feminism – to all
the political commitment?... Because I actually have always had an interest in history…
in how we got from the past to the present, when everything seems to be breaking down
(qtd. Craig 191)
• The Heidi Chronicles (1988)

• The Sisters Rosensweig (1992) continues the theme of how women’s independent life

choices have alienated them from men

• later plays: An American Daughter (1997), Old Money (2000) and Third (2005)
• INTERVIEW WITH W.W.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wendy+wasserstein+youtube&sca_esv=ec20631805f8be26&rlz=1C1CHBD_esES978ES978&sxsrf=ACQVn0-gnbVAmYd8gRO-
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• THE H.CH. TRAILER

• https://www.google.com/search?
q=Heidi+Chronicles+youtube&rlz=1C1CHBD_esES978ES978&sca_esv=ec20631805f8be26&cs=0&biw=1920&bih=953&sxsrf=ACQVn08hQ42m9fytzZ2JdZKI99AOg
HWN6g
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THE HEIDI CHRONICLES

• received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989
• brings the public closer to the situation of an independent woman trying to define her
identity as a woman in a world full of contradictions and obstacles
• combines seriousness and subtle humor
• covers the development of the heroine from 1965 to 1989, showing typical elements of
the feminist movement in that period
THE HEIDI CHRONICLES

• Settings
• Themes
• Characters
• Interpretation, scene by scene
A RUNNING ANTHEM FOR THE FEMINIST AND CIVIL
RIGHTS MOVEMENTS THROUGHOUT THE 1970S

• What you want, baby, I got it
• What you need, do you know I got it?
• All I'm askin' is for a little respect when you
get home
• …
• I ain't gon' do you wrong while you're gone
• Ain't gon' do you wrong 'cause I don't wanna
• …
• I'm about to give you all of my money
• And all I'm askin' in return, honey
• Is to give me my propers when you get home
• …
• Ooh, your kisses, sweeter than honey
• And guess what? So is my money
• All I want you to do for me, is give it to me
when you get home
 RESPECT

• Otis Redding, 1965 • Aretha Franklin, 1967

• https://www.youtube.com/watch? • https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=211_7MctF50 v=A134hShx_gw
WORKS CITED

• Carr, Helen. “A History of Women’s writing.” A History of Feminist Literary Criticism.

Ed. Gill Plain & Susan Sellers. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge UP, 2007. 120-137.
Print.