Wendy Wasserstein
| Wendy Wasserstein | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 18, 1950 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | January 30, 2006 (aged 55) New York City, New York |
| Alma mater |
Mount Holyoke College City University of New York Yale University |
| Child(ren) | Lucy Jane Wasserstein |
| Related to | Bruce Wasserstein (brother) |
| Information | |
| Magnum opus |
The Heidi Chronicles The Sisters Rosensweig |
| Awards |
Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1989) Tony Award for Best Play (1989) |
Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 – January 30, 2006) was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.
Wasserstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Morris Wasserstein, a wealthy textile executive, and his wife, Lola (née Liska) Schleifer, who moved to the United States from Poland when her father was accused of being a spy. Wasserstein "once described her mother as being like 'Auntie Mame'". Lola Wasserstein reportedly inspired some of her daughter's characters. Wendy was the youngest of five siblings, including brother Bruce Wasserstein, a well-known investment banker.
Her maternal grandfather was Simon Schleifer, a yeshiva teacher in Włocławek, Poland, who moved to Paterson, New Jersey and became a high school principal. Claims that Schleifer was a playwright are probably apocryphal, as contemporaries did not recall this and the assertion only appeared once Wasserstein had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
A graduate of the Calhoun School (she attended from 1963 to 1967), 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 in 1973, and an M.F.A. in fine arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1976. In 1990 she received an honoris causa Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Holyoke College and in 2002 she received an honoris causa degree from Bates College.
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