Marisa Wegrzyn (born 1981) is an American playwright based in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. She won the 2009
Wasserstein Prize for her play ''Hickorydickory''.
Early life
Wegrzyn grew up in
Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...
. Born to an anesthesiologist and former flight attendant, she began writing plays at 18.
While at
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
, Wegrzyn won the university's A.E. Hotchner playwriting award after finishing second the preceding year.
She came as runner-up as a freshman for ''Polar Bears on U.S. 41'', and was chosen to take part in the WordBRIDGE program. Hosted by
Eckerd College
Eckerd College is a private liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida. Founded in 1958, part of the campus is waterfront and beach on Boca Ciega Bay. Because of its location, Eckerd is considered a "beach school" and has its own student ...
in
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...
, is a two-week program with theatre professionals.
The next year, her ''Killing Women'', about female
hitmen
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...
, won the award and was produced by the University's A.E. Hotchner Play Development Lab.
After graduation in 2003, she was put in touch with the
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on ...
's director of new play development.
Career
Wegrzyn's
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
''The Butcher of Baraboo'' debuted by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2006 and ran again at the
Second Stage Theater
Second Stage Theater is a theater company founded in 1979 by Robyn Goodman and Carole Rothman and located in Manhattan, New York City. It produces both new plays and revivals of contemporary American plays by new playwrights and established wri ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
a year later.
The play went on to receive its West Coast premiere in San Diego, CA, in 2009 where it was then hailed by critics as a success. "With its acid blasts of humor and its carnival-fun-house vision of family values, Marisa Wegrzyn's "The Butcher of Baraboo" has a way of leaving people in stitches."-San Diego Union-Tribune
Wegrzyn's
one-act
A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in writi ...
''Psalms of a Questionable Nature'' played at
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
'
Lucid By Proxy in 2005 to a positive reception.
In June 2009, ''Ten Cent Night'' opened in
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
and was called a "delightful but messy romp".
She is currently completing two plays commissioned by Steppenwolf and
Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented student ...
.
Wegrzyn's comedy ''Killing Women'' will have its New York City premiere in a production that runs from May 13, 2010 - June 5, 2010 at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row. ''Killing Women'' will be presented by kef theatrical productions, directed by Adam Fitzgerald, and will star Lisa Brescia, Brian Dykstra, Autumn Hurlbert,
Adam Kantor
Adam Kantor (born May 27, 1986) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his roles on Broadway, most notably Mark Cohen in the closing cast of ''Rent'', which was captured in '' Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway'', Motel in the 2015 revi ...
, Lori Prince, and Michael Puzzo.
[TheaterMania Theater News ]
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She is a member of the ''Kilroys,'' the group that created the '' Kilroys' List'' for 2014 and 2015.
Wasserstein Prize
In 2009, Wergzyn won the third annual Wasserstein Prize for her play ''Hickorydickory'', which had not yet been produced. The award, named in honor of Wendy Wasserstein
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 fo ...
, is given to a female playwright under 32 who has yet to receive national attention. The award was presented by set designer Heidi Ettinger
Heidi Ettinger, also known by her former married name Heidi Landesman, is an American theatre producer and set designer. She studied at Occidental College and the Yale School of Drama. She was the first woman to win a Tony Award for set design, w ...
, a longtime friend of Wasserstein, on December 1, 2009 at The Players.
The script for ''Hickorydickory'', about a watch and clock repair shop in the Chicago suburbs where everyone comes in with a pocket watch saying exactly when they will die, was started in 2004. In addition to a $25,000 prize, the play will receive a staged reading at the Second Stage Theater.
References
External links
Chainsaw Calligraphy
– Wegrzyn's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wegrzyn, Marisa
Living people
1981 births
21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
Writers from Chicago
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
American women dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American women writers
People from Wilmette, Illinois