An American Daughter - Acting Edition (Acting Edition for Theater Productions) - Softcover

Wendy Wasserstein

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9780822216339: An American Daughter - Acting Edition (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822216337 ISBN 13: 9780822216339

Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1999

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Lyssa Dent Hughes is the privileged, well-educated daughter of a Republican senator. She is the wife of a professor and the owner of a lovely house in Georgetown. She is also the president's nominee for Surgeon General. When the media discovers that once, long ago, she failed to respond for jury duty, this relatively minor misstep is portrayed as a serious moral lapse. A good friend uses the incident to make a point, scarcely thinking of the implications, and Lyssa must suffer the consequences. From that moment on, Lyssa Dent Hughes sits helplessly as the press investigates her family and friends, shattering her privacy, her career, and her world. Wendy Wasserstein's trenchant humor and sizzling dialogue combine with biting political commentary to produce a masterful, and topical, drama.

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From the Inside Flap:

Pulitzer-Prize winner Wendy Wasserstein spins a comic and moving tale about the pitfalls that await political appointees. As a respected health crusader and devoted wife and mother, Dr. Lyssa Hughes seems perfect for the role of U.S. Surgeon General, until a chance remark at a fashionable brunch sets off a media feeding frenzy.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring David Birney, Anna Gunn, Jamie Hanes, Gregory Itzin, Michael Malone, Kevin McCarthy, Mary McDonnell, Claudette Nevins and Denise Nicholas.

About the Author:

Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 - January 30, 2006) was an award-winning American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She was the recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Morris Wasserstein, a wealthy textile executive, and his wife, Lola Schliefer, Wasserstein was one of four children, including brother Bruce Wasserstein. Her maternal grandfather was Simon Schliefer, a prominent Polish Jewish playwright who moved to Paterson, New Jersey and became a Hebrew school principal.

Wasserstein earned a B.A. in history from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, an M.A. in creative writing from City College of New York, and an M.F.A. in 1976 from the Yale School of Drama, where her classmates included the future playwright Christopher Durang. In 2002 Wasserstein received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College.

Wasserstein's first production of note was Uncommon Women and Others (her graduate thesis at Yale), a play which reflected her experiences as a student at, and an alumna of, Mount Holyoke College. A full version of the play was produced in 1977 off-Broadway with Glenn Close, Jill Eikenberry, and Swoosie Kurtz playing the lead roles. The play was subsequently produced for PBS with Meryl Streep joining Eikenberry and Kurtz.

In 1989, she won both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for her play, The Heidi Chronicles.

Her wry, smart, and often highly comical plays, which explore topics ranging from feminism to family to ethnicity to pop culture, include The Sisters Rosensweig, Isn�’t It Romantic, An American Daughter, Old Money, and her most recent work which opened in Fall 2005, Third, [1]. In addition, she wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film, The Object of My Affection.

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