The letter T proved to be challenging for me, primarily because I wanted to focus on a cool, long ago writer and somehow I found the name Theodosia to be so fascinating I had to find someone to feature. It felt like pure genius when I found my way to Theodosia Burr Allston. She was the daughter of a legend of my childhood, Aaron Burr, and was labeled a prodigy! The only problem is this: she died before she wrote anything. Her death remains a mystery so there is still some possibilities for a later series. Not sure what, but I’ve caught the Theodosia fever.
I found several other Theodosias including an Australian writer but after too many frustrating turns I googled “Theresa Writer” and found another quite unexpected writer to feature. Unexpected in that I have never heard of her. “Naturally” in that she is a playwright and currently at work. Imagine my surprise to discover she is the creator of the NBC television show Smash which my friends consistently recommend I watch, naturally.
This is how I found Theresa Rebeck and while her current fame might have caused me to not feature her today, I realized I needed to simply because even though she is out there creating actively, she is not a known commodity.
We know Spielberg is a part of Smash. Do most people know Theresa Rebeck is as well? No. Naturally we don't.
I say "Naturally" again because it fits and I also say naturally because she is a feminist and oh, so quotable as well.
Here, read what I mean, from her words:
“One of the other guests, an accomplished director (male, mid-50s), turned to me and said, “Maybe you can tell me. Why can’t women ever transcend their identities as women and just write as playwrights?” I said, “Do you mean, why can’t we write like men?” and he said No, that wasn’t what he meant at all. “Yes it is,” said his wife, but he persisted in his position and went on to explain that male playwrights somehow, innately, are able to transcend their gender and write about the human condition, while women playwrights, also innately, are not. As a side note, let me add, this gentleman had never seen or read any of my plays. I was merely the woman playwright who happened to be at the dinner table.”
And this quote, equally brilliant and once again, helping to share what being a feminist really means:
“I am a feminist in that I believe that women are as fully human as men and that their experiences are as worthy of representation, as universally significant, as men’s. I believe that the hero’s journey is both male and female. I believe that, as a rule, women are as deeply flawed as men are. I’m interested in writing about the way both genders make mistakes and the ways we grow, or don’t grow.”
Naturally I want to rush down to Samuel French and purchase a bunch of her plays and find a way to put one up.
I was frustrated in my research not to find anything about her earlier days. Mostly I just found long lists of accomplishments when what I want to know is “What makes her who she is?” and “Who impacted her life?” My features in this A to Z challenge are more social and less like the resume we are all sick of writing and reading.
Finally I found an interview at AllThingsGirl.com who at least focused a bit on who she was BEFORE she was Broadway Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter and friend-of-Steven-Spielburg-Television-Show-Creator. I learned she enjoys “inventing things” more than focusing on her interior life versus journaling. I learned her daily life unfolds, initially, like this: “My life is kind of boring. I get up in the morning and I write. Then I go to the gym. Then I come home and I write some more. Then my kids come home and I hang out with them.”
And then I discovered that, like me, she wrote when she was very, very young and just had a knack for it. She wrote about turtles who talked and ghosts who watched the Ed Sullivan show.
Now I want to start reading her novels. What about you? Do you see any of yourself reflected here in these quotes and in what you know about Theresa Rebeck?
I am glad I chose to stay with my gut on this letter profile. I still hope to find more Theodosias to feature in the future, but for today, Theresa has been just right.
This blog post is an entry in the A to Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sundays) I will be featuring a woman in literary history. If you click on the logo below, you will be introduced to the writing of more than a thousand bloggers writing on a wide variety of topics in April, all from A to Z!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again April 19, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
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