Wasserstein said she wasn't trying to discredit feminism, which she regarded as a life-changing inspiration, but to write what seemed most truthful for her character. However, she wanted to open eyes to the trap of trying to "have it all."
"The women's movement, the movement that said, 'Your voice is worthwhile,' is the only reason I feel like a person," Wasserstein told People magazine in 1990. "But what still needs to change is that women shouldn't beat themselves up for their choices -- for being a mother or a single mother, or being a playwright, or being beautiful or not being beautiful. It's important that there isn't one ... slot."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday February 16, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Wasserstein obituary -- An obituary of playwright Wendy Wasserstein on Jan. 31 in Section A stated that she dedicated the play "An American Daughter" to columnists Michael Kinsley and Frank Rich. It was dedicated only to Kinsley.
Her career took off in 1977 with "Uncommon Women and Others," begun while she was earning her 1976 master's degree at the Yale School of Drama. It assessed the glowing yet uncertain hopes of a group of friends during and after college at Mount Holyoke, the elite women's school where Wasserstein, the youngest of four children in a wealthy, high-achieving New York family, earned her bachelor's degree in 1971.
"When we're 25, we're going to be pretty ... incredible," says Rita, one of the play's brainy and attractive collegiate clique. "All right, I'll give us an extra five years for emotional and career development. When we're 30, we're going to be pretty ... amazing." By play's end, six years after graduation, the former dorm mates have gotten an inkling that the path to fulfilling careers and relationships may not be quite so easy, and the timetable for an incredible life has been pushed back to 40 or 45.
The show was noteworthy for its cast of future stars who were then unknown: Glenn Close, Jill Eikenberry and Swoosie Kurtz (Meryl Streep, Wasserstein's friend from Yale, took over for Close when the play was redone for a PBS broadcast in 1978).
"My life has been more amazing than I thought it would be," Wasserstein told the Independent of London in 1996. "I've been inordinately lucky."
Besides being an industrious writer, Wasserstein was an avid traveler and socializer, and a woman whose need to nurture led her on an eight-year journey through fertility treatments that culminated in motherhood at the age of 48. She was known for her self-deprecating humor, sharp wit and an enthusiastic, outgoing nature that came across in her numerous lectures and TV talk show appearances, in addition to her plays and her frequent essays for newspapers and magazines, which are collected in the books "Bachelor Girls" and "Shiksa Goddess (Or, How I Spent My Forties)."
