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Elizabeth Becker Henley (born May 8, 1952) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress. Her play Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1981 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and a nomination for a Tony Award.
Beth Henley (born May 8, 1952, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.) is an American playwright of regional dramas set in provincial Southern towns, the best known of which, Crimes of the Heart (1982; filmed 1986), was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jan 31, 2010 · Beth Henley reads from her essay from "The Play That Changed My Life". Courtesy of the New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend.Visit americantheatrewing.org
- 4 min
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- American Theatre Wing
Learn about Beth Henley, an American playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Crimes of the Heart. Explore her style, themes, and other plays, such as The Miss Firecracker Contest and Impossible Marriage.
Learn about the life and works of Beth Henley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Crimes of the Heart. Find out how she started writing, what themes and styles she explored, and what challenges she faced in the theater industry.
Crimes of the Heart is a play by American playwright Beth Henley. It is set in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in the mid-20th century. The play won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. In 1986, the play was novelized and released as a book, written by Claudia Reilly.
Beth Henley is a modern female Pulitzer prize-winning playwright who creates, according to one critic, “Southern-accented” dramas and preserves “regional voices on stage” (Lesniak 199). She has written plays that capture Southern life and help preserve Mississippi’s rich literary culture.
