Pick Up The Heidi Chronicles: Uncommon Women And Others Isnt It Romantic Constructed By Wendy Wasserstein Available As Online Book

Women and Others was really good, It was refreshing to read a play with female characters written by a woman, That's the reason the monologues from this play are used so much in auditions, What's also really cool is the familiar names in the original cast, Picturing Glenn Close or Meryl Streep saying the lines makes the reading more vivid,

Isn't It Romantic didn't sit as well with me, but that was probably more my fault because I read the play in pieces over the course of a week.
The conclusion was however, very satisfying, and is again, a reason to read the works of female playwrights,

I really enjoyed The Heidi Chronicles, The play is filled with original characters and seems fresh and relevant twenty years later, The chronological vignette structure is a difficult one for playwrights to pull off, but Wendy Wasserstein executed it brilliantly,

Definitely read all three plays, in order, A play I read for my survey of theatre class, The Heidi Chronicles wasn't my favorite, I felt that it lacked any plot or much depth in character development, It tried to tell a moving story of how a woman grows up through thess trying to find a voice for herself, but I struggled to connect with the character at all.
It jumped around a lot and was pretty confusing, It won a Pulitzer Prize, but I am not sure why, Probably because it explored new issues and was controversial, And the movie is even worse with Jamie Lee Curtis, Avoid both if you can, Disclosure: My positive reviews of these plays is helped by the fact that I found a SIGNED copy of this book at the library book sale for fifty cents.
𝕊𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕖!

One of the things I like about these plays is that they are firmly realistic, They deal with real issues and choices of women from a particular moment in history, Wassersteins ear for dialogue is outstanding, even when slang changes with the times,

Uncommon Women gets brownie points from me because I attended the eventually coeducated college near Mt, Holyoke, so I was familiar with some references that shockingly havent changed in forty years and befuddled by the idea of formal teas, Its not the most focused play in terms of plot, but it does a great job showing the range of young women attending a prestigious college who struggle with the inevitable “what next”ness of college that still exists today.


Isnt It Romantic I actually want to see performed, because it seems really damn funny,

I struggled the most with the Heidi Chronicles, even though it is the most tightly written and characterdriven work, I think this is an example of when a work of art thats groundbreaking at the time of its creation doesnt seem unusual later because it causes a shift in the wider cultural landscape.
I did howl with laughter when WW basically predicted Sex and the City, In many ways, women are still facing the questions of how to live their lives in the ways that they faced in thes, and by now weve seen many introspective works by women on

these issues.
How much work, how much love, how much motherhood can one actually have at the same time Again, I think it probably comes to life when performed, and Id happily attend.
I didn't have great expectations for this collection of plays, I've always thought Wendy Wasserstein was overrated and I've really disliked some of her other works I hated "The Sisters Rosensweig, . . " What a pleasant surprise. I thought all three of these plays were beautifully constructed and interesting, Some cliches here and there and wow, these pieces are so so dated, But I think that that becomes almost charming, a la Thornton Wilder or William Inge, They are time capsules of a completely different, albiet not so long ago, era, I particularly liked "Isn't It Romantic" which I imagine is the least known of the three, Still though, I hardly think "The Heidi Chronicles" is worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, which it won, These plays are all about a subject dear to my heart: women struggling to figure out what they want and how to 'have it all', The dialogue reminds me of how much has changed one WASP character wouldn't hypothetically marry a Jewish character because 'there would be problems at the club' and how much is still the same tea at women's colleges, limiting and contradictory expectations placed on women, etc.
The plays must have seemed provocative and controversial at the time but now they are a bit musty, Still, we can't relegate them to the closet when so many of the issues Wasserstein raises are relevant now,

Wendy Wasserstein is amazing : All I have to say, is that I really want to direct this play, . . THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, and that's saying a lot because I shy away from realism like the plague, but, . . I love this play. I love it on so many levels, I love the characters the men, the women I love the structure I love its epic scope, . . and I love Wendy Wasserstein for writing this,


I reread this play with my students at SUNY Sullivan, as a part of our annual reading series to decide the next school year season, Our theme is the "Spirit of", I had remembered how much I loved this play and that I had wanted to direct it from my first reading in, and I wasn't disappointed in its rereading.
I also adored that the mixed age and gender of my students enjoyed the dialogue and the story, as well, When I requested this from the library I thought I was getting the play “The Heidi Chronicles” and I was, but I was also getting “Uncommon Women and Others” and “Isnt It Romantic.
” What a delightful combination! The first is a play fromthat I knew well then I did Hollys monologue in college, “Isnt It Romantic” I knew only from Wassersteins biography, “The Heidi Chronicles” Id heard of I dont quite live under a rock it won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony, but I havent seen a production of it.
“Uncommon Women” is dated, but its also still a wonderful piece of writing and Id love to see it staged again, “Isnt it Romantic” is fromand its about Janie and Harriet who have moved back to New York City after going to college, their parents and their lovers and their careers.
“The Heidi Chronicles” came to Broadway inand takes place in roughly chronological scenes fromtoand is about these years in the lives of Heidi Holland and Susan Johnston, their boyfriends, careers and families.
Its a great play with dialogue that jumps off the page, As one of the characters might say: "A!" I picked this up for my Modern Drama class in college, I had to choose a playwright we were not studying in class to read and write a paper about, My dad suggested Wendy Wasserstein for he thought she was up my alley, Oh, how I loved this play, I read all of her plays in print for my assignment, but the Heidi Chronicles is so true, so heartbreaking, and touched me in a way few authors are able.
It stands the test of time and does not date itself, I have given this to many friends during some tough times in their lives, "I hope our daughters never feel like us, I hope all our daughters feel so fucking worthwhile",

"No more master penises!",

"'I'm just not happy, I'm afraid I haven't been happy for some time, ' I don't blame the ladies in the locker room for how I feel, I don't blame any of us, We're all concerned, intelligent, good women, It's just that I feel stranded, And I thought the whole point was that we wouldn't feel stranded, I thought the point was that we were all in this together",

I really liked reading HEIDI CHRONICLES, even if some of the plays' politics felt dated and some of the comedy felt offthemark to me, Like, are we meant to laugh at the radical lesbian or with her The plays are really sharp, really funny, and persistently relevant, I appreciated the specificity of the characters and the settings: Seven Sisters and Ivy League soontobe graduates, navigating their lives as "uncommon women" in New York, Yes, it's akind of white Jewish feminism, with insufficient class critique, but those are the stories Wasserstein knows, not to mention ones that feel most familiar to me, and I'm grateful she told them.
The first time I read The Heidi Chronicles, I thought it read flat and couldn't see it at all, But it's one of those play where the more you become acquainted with, the more you like it, It feels like a real theatre students play, It is definitely the strongest of the bunch, but I much prefer 'Isn't it Romantic', because I like the characters more, Heidi is such a tough nut, They all have the same themes running through them, but man, she can write dialogue like a boss, She's a less wordy waspy Tom Stoppard, 'Uncommon Women and Others' is just, weird, I don't know why it's even a play, But I'm sure once I get more acquainted with it, I'll like it more, A form, A content. .