Wendy Waserstein and Heidi Holland Compared
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Heidi Holland; Who is She?
According to some, "the voice of a generation" echoes through the pen of playwright Wendy Wasserstein. More specifically, her plume speaks for the generation of women who were first caught up in the women's liberation movement (Kumar). Too educated and too driven to be satisfied as housewives and mothers, they didn't yet know that family and career are not necessarily mutually exclusive. These "first-wave" feminists created, new definitions of what it meant to be "liberated," (Carlton). As a generation, they forged bonds of friendship while staying together into uncharted territories. Their concerns and questions are the themes that weave throughout Wasserstein's play. Exploring questions of identity in times of personal and social upheaval (just like Heidi Holland), Wasserstein's work is nothing if not autobiographical, heavily influenced by the details and dilemmas of her personal life. Fertility therapy, pressure to marry, having children, single parenting: all have been themes both in her creative work and her real-life plays. So life does indeed imitate art, as Wasserstein, follows in the footsteps of her famous heroine Heidi...