[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 12 (Monday, February 6, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      TRIBUTE TO WENDY WASSERSTEIN

 Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, on Monday, January 30, our 
country lost, all too prematurely, Wendy Wasserstein, a daughter of New 
York and one of our Nation's great playwrights and essayists.
  Wendy Wasserstein grew up in Brooklyn and Manhattan and was educated 
at Mount Holyoke College, the City College of New York, and Yale 
University School of Drama. She is best known for her 1989 Pulitzer 
Prize and Tony Award-winning play, ``The Heidi Chronicles'' and Tony-
nominated play, ``The Sisters Rosensweig''. She wrote most recently, 
``Third'', a play that opened in October at Lincoln Center for the 
Performing Arts. Her first novel, ``Elements of Style'', will be coming 
out in April.
  Throughout Wendy Wasserstein's career, she wrote with wit and an 
acute sensitivity to the challenges facing women negotiating the social 
changes of the last 40 years. She had the courage to dig deeply into 
her own experiences to write thoughtfully and compassionately about 
women, New York, and her Jewish roots.
  Wendy Wasserstein is best known for her work in the theater and 
literary world, but she cared deeply about progressive politics, 
advocacy for the arts, and worked to create richer opportunities for 
women in the theater. Having grown up attending theater and ballet 
performances on a weekly basis with her family, she also believed that 
all children should have the opportunity to be exposed to the arts. She 
gave back to the city that shaped her as an artist by making the 
theater accessible to New York's inner-city students through a program 
she instigated which is now called Open Doors. Through this program, 
she mentored students at the Young Women's Leadership School, a college 
prep public school in Harlem. She wrote of the program, ``* * * if a 
city is fortunate enough to house an entire theater district, shouldn't 
access to the stage life within it be what makes coming of age in New 
York different from any other American city?''
  On a personal level, she was described by her friend, New York Times 
editorial page editor Gail Collins, as: ``* * * a charter member of the 
company of nice women, a river of accommodating humanity that flows 
through Manhattan just as it flows through Des Moines and Oneonta, 
N.Y., organizing library fund-raisers, running day care centers, 
ordering prescriptions for elderly parents, buying all the birthday 
presents and giving career counseling to the nephew of a very remote 
acquaintance who is trying to decide between making it big on Broadway 
and dentistry.''
  We can only imagine what future gifts to the theater, journalism, 
literature and her community Wendy Wasserstein might have made. I am 
grateful for having known her, and I extend my condolences to her young 
daughter Lucy Jane and to the entire Wasserstein family. We have lost 
someone who loved New York with a big, big heart, and New York and our 
Nation loved her back.

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