Abundance at South Coast Repertory

Beth Henley; dir: Martin Benson.

Authors

• Beth Henley
• Michael Roth

Playwright Beth Henley, most famous for her dark comedies about modern Southern women, won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for a Tony Award for Crimes of the Heart. She was also nominated for a 1987 Academy Award for her screenplay adaptation of the same play. A Mississippi native, often considered a writer of the Southern Gothic genre, her other plays include The Miss Firecracker Contest, Am I Blue, The Lucky Spot and The Wake of Jamey Foster. Henley's other screenplays include Miss Firecracker (adaptation of her play), Nobody's Fool, and the cult favorite True Stories, a collaboration with David Byrne and The Talking Heads. The Miss Firecracker Contest is scheduled for a revival on Broadway this year. Her latest play, The Jacksonian, played last year at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.