Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Wendy

Wendy Wasserstein

I never met Wendy but we lived in the same city for all of her life and most of mine. I knew who she was; I knew her plays, her reputation and her face. She was someone from the crowd of theatre insiders, east-coast intellectuals, who pretty much dominated the theatre world in New York at that time and still do more or less. I produced one play off-off Broadway. It got pretty good reviews but the whole experience made me crazy, I was just too nervous when I knew a big critic was going to be in the audience, I would leave the theatre, go down the street and have a vodka martini then come back at intermission and listen to the comments of people as they went out side to smoke, or worse, to flee.
I never met Wendy Wasserstein but I feel like I’ve known her forever and it saddens me to know that she has died, leaving her young daughter behind. Life is a strange business – theatre is a strange and wonderful life and New York is the only place on the planet where the art and commerce of theatre work quite so well, giving voice to writers like Wendy Wasserstein and others, people brave enough to stay in the theatre through the first intermission.