"The Heidi Chronicles," Wasserstein's most celebrated play, ran for 622 performances and garnered the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for best play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize. The play traced a female art historian's journey towards establishing herself as an independent woman in a world where her peers were conforming to the 1960s and 1970s societal standard of settling down with men.
Wasserstein was selected as the Montgomery Fellow for Spring and Summer 2005. During her time at Dartmouth, she gave several talks and worked on writing her play, "Third," which students performed a reading of in April.
In developing the heroines of her plays, Wasserstein, a Manhattan native, drew on her own experience as a witty, educated woman who experienced romantic difficulties. Characters like Heidi embraced feminism yet struggled to balance these views with finding a male partner.
Among Wasserstein's 12 authored plays were "Uncommon Women and Others" and "The Sisters Rosensweig." In addition to her works for stage, she wrote three nonfiction books and a novel.
In an April 27, 2005 interview with The Dartmouth, Wasserstein discussed her new play.
"It's about a woman in mid-life who has a very clear political position and academic agenda, who comes to question a rigid point of view," she said, describing its themes as loss, mid-life and inspiration.
The play's protagonist is a tenured professor at a small New England college whose life becomes complicated after accusing a sophomore wrestler of plagiarism. The student, who the woman sees as the embodiment of the white male establishment, tests her liberal, feminist convictions.
First read at Moore Theater in the Hopkins Center, "Third" went on to debut at the in New York City at Lincoln Center this fall, and ran through Dec. 18. A performance of "The Heidi Chronicles" was held at the end of the summer in Moore Theater.
Wasserstein was supposed to teach a script-writing course in the theater department titled "Finding Your Voice as a Playwright" during the Summer term, but had to cancel. Changes in the rehearsal schedule for "Third" also forced Wasserstein to abandon her position as the summer term Montgomery Fellow.
Lillian King '07, who worked with Wasserstein as the assistant director for "Third," remembers her as a gifted playwright with a sharp sense of humor.
"All through the reading process she would rewrite lines on the fly, making them funnier and more important. She was an incredible storyteller, not just on the page, but in every encounter I had with her she made everyone around her quiet, waiting to hear more," King said.
Dartmouth was a familiar setting for Wasserstein, who attended Mount Holyoke College but recalled being bused to the College during its all-male days. She remembered attending a Simon and Garfunkel concert and going on dates here.
"It does feel great to be here. It feels like it's the right time," Wasserstein told The Dartmouth last spring. "Sometimes you come back to benchmarks in your life, and that's how I feel about New England."
After graduating from Mount Holyoke, Wasserstein attended graduate school for theater at Yale University.
At age 48 in 1999, Wasserstein gave birth to her daughter, Lucy Jane, born three months prematurely. Like her heroine, Heidi, she became a single mother late in life.
"My 50s are about being a mother and the joy of my daughter Lucy Jane and about loss. Real loss," she said in an interview with Time Magazine last year, recalling the recent deaths of friends and family members. "I think if you experience loss, you also on some level try to treasure joy."
Wasserstein is survived by six-year-old daughter Lucy Jane; her mother, Lola; a sister, Georgette Levis; and her brother, Bruce Wasserstein.
