Megan Terry

MEGAN TERRY
Born: Seattle, Washington
July 22, 1932

Principal Literary Achievement
In her plays, Terry takes an autobiographical and biographical approach which includes her views on war, religion, politics, and women in society from a feminist perspective.

Biography
Megan Terry, who is an astonishing and internationally known playwright and writer, has created over sixty plays. Often, she is referred to as the Mother of American Feminist Drama. In 1994, Terry was elected to lifetime membership in the College of Fellows of American Theatre for outstanding service to the profession of theatre practitioners on a national context.

Terry, whose name at birth was Marguerite Duffy, was born in Seattle, Washington on July 22, 1932. She fell in love with theatre at the young age of seven because of her parents, Marguerite and Harold Duffy. It was at that time, she believed that she was destined for a career in theatre arts. She began by performing theatrical productions in her neighborhood and school, serving as an actor, designer, director, writer, and a set carpenter.

While Terry was in high school, her parents divorced and she moved in with her grandparents. It was during this time when she would have the opportunity to be an intern with the Seattle Repertory Playhouse. She worked closely with Florence James, the director of the playhouse and an actor by the name, Burton James. Mr. James also influenced the political views that Terry would soon possess and later write about in her theatrical pieces.

When Terry enrolled into the University of Washington, she continued working at the Seattle Repertory Playhouse until 1951, when a committee by the name, McCarthyism accused the playhouse of performing un-American activities and closed the playhouse down. Due to this narrow-minded event, it opened up Terry’s heart to realize the true power behind theatre and it sparked her passion even further.

During her sophomore year, Terry transferred to the University of Edmonton, located in Canada. There, Terry studied technical direction and set design, skills that would later influence and affect her theatrical writing. However, at the end of the school year, Terry transferred back to the University of Washington and Seattle. Upon her return, she began becoming involved with the Cornish School of Allied Arts, where she had the opportunity to develop a playhouse. It was at this playhouse where she was able to premiere several of her published theatrical works.

Though she was thrilled with her works being produced, she felt a little discontent with the cultural value and acceptance of her work in the Pacific Northwest, so in the 1950’s she moved to New York City. It was during this time when she changed her name to Megan Terry. By the early 1960’s, Terry had written several more plays, but again she became discontent, this time with the commercial theatre in New York.

In 1963, with the help of several other producers, actors and writers in New York, Terry established the Open Theatre. It was during this time when several of her plays, including Calm Down Mother (1966) premiered.

The techniques that Terry used in her writing and plays were defined as defining the experimental theatre. Terry decided to begin including rock music into musical comedies as well as beginning to experiment involving the audience in the performance, which is said to have never been done before.

Her musical piece, known as Viet Rock (1966) is considered one of the classic pieces during the era. It also was known to be one of her best theatrical works and is considered to be the first rock musical. It was also said to be the first drama about the Vietnam conflict. The musical is also regarded as Terry’s “transformational drama” due to the postmodern technique.

The Magic Realists (1969) was considered to be another beginning of Terry’s experiment into postmodern techniques, which involved dream sequences and included songs.

In Approaching Simone: A Drama in Two Acts (1970) she tells the life and story of philosopher Simone Weil, who at the age of thirty-four committed suicide by the act of starvation in protest to World War II. Also, during the 1970’s she wrote several plays that dealt with family, gender, and societal issues. The plays include, Hothouse, The Pioneer, American King’s English for Queen’s, and Goona Goona. In American King’s English for Queen’s (1978) Terry demonstrates the sexism she perceives in the English language. In Goona Goona (1979) Terry allows for audiences to view certain abuse that occur in families.
Megan Terry’s works have had the opportunity to be performed in many different countries. She has won many prestigious awards; the Dramatists Guild Annual Award, an Obie Award (for Approaching Simone in 1970), and the ATA Silver Medal. She has received several fellowships, including a grant from Yale, Guggenheim, and from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Currently, Terry lives in Omaha, Nebraska and has lived there since 1974. She is highly involved with the Omaha Magic Theater, a company of artists who are dedicated to creating new American musical plays and other theatrical works.
Analysis
For long time theatre practitioner and feminist, Megan Terry has centered her career on the history of humankind through creating extraordinary theatrical pieces and musicals. Each piece is vastly different in its way and each piece share a common substance that is instantly viewed as a feminist quality. Terry is greatly influenced by culture, politics, and religion in her theatrical works. With that, she also highly intrigued with the use of imagery and she uses imagery to her utmost advantage when telling a story. Through her work, it becomes apparent for the readers and the viewers to acknowledge that she is a person of many words. She speaks fact and with that, comes her heartfelt compassion, which is also conveyed in her theatrical pieces. When one reads a theatrical piece by Megan Terry, he or she cannot help but be intrigued by the powerful words that come through, sometimes meaningless to some readers, but to others the words that are read reveal reality in its nature. It is revealed to the viewer that Terry truly is in love with the work that she possesses.
In Approaching Simone, Terry approaches a feminist theme by telling the life, in detail, of the great philosopher, Simone Weil. Weil begins as a young child on the verge of killing herself on multiple levels due to the society that she was bestowed upon. She was a female of great masculine traits and believed from young age she could do any form of work that a man could do. Throughout the theatrical piece, Simone is struggling to adapt with religious views, specifically Christianity. Though she believes in God, she does not believe that following the path through baptism, which in the piece is said to complete the union with Christ, is her way of becoming closer to God. It becomes apparent that Weil is struggling with God and faith, because of the tragedy of war that has been bestowed upon France. In effort to understand the concept of war, she begins a journey through spirituality. Through this journey, she begins a protest that will hopefully allow women to become frontline nurses in aid of the injured soldiers. Simone, however, in the midst of aiding and fighting in war, commits a dreadful suicide by starvation in protest of the war.
With Babes in the Bighouse (A Documentary Fantasy About Life in a Women’s Prison), (the title says exactly what the piece is about); the life of women in a women’s prison. Terry continues on with a feminist approach to theatre. This theatrical piece is centered on strong dramatic imagery. The environment of the production is based on the “walks” of the characters and each character has a specific walk to her nature. The “walks” from each character change throughout the piece to signify another female prisoner and are used to describe the characteristic traits of each female. Another dramatic image in the piece is that of the “imposing of wills”. This form of imagery is used to create tension, such as a push or pull situation. The most profound form of imagery in the piece is that of what could be referred to as, “The Hole”, which can be represented as solitary confinement. With the strong and dignified imagery, the piece opens with five female prisoners and the warden of the prison, each allowing for the reader or audience a sense of who they are. The play ends with a musical piece of the women dressed in her favorite “fantasy” and they wish to be pardoned from their criminal records, suggesting that they did nothing wrong.
Viet Rock (a folk-war movie), is regarded as the first recognized theatrical statement about the Vietnam War. Terry takes the reader and the audience on a journey through a time of war; once more in the need to stop war. Also within this piece, Terry takes a feminist approach, by incorporating women, who commit suicide in protest of the war. Viet Rock is an emotional journey, with comic and dark value, which when being performed must be played well or the story will not be accurate. Just like the other theatrical pieces, this too begins with a musical piece that describes in brief detail of the damages that the war caused for Vietnam and America. The play as a whole, describes the life of eight American soldiers who begin by knowing nothing about war, in fact, they seem to still be in a childlike state, being nurtured by their mothers. The reader and/or audience are taken on a journey intimately through emotion, by using dialogue that is addressed to the audience throughout the theatrical piece. At the end of the play, every character dies and the beginning musical piece that is used, “Viet Rock” ends the piece.
Terry is widely known and recognized for her use of feminist theory in her theatrical pieces and she uses women in her pieces often by displaying them as heroines and sometimes uses men to portray females, but not in a negative way. In her pieces, one can sense that she is observing and writing what is fact between the relationships of men and women. Her use of political and religious undertones, allows for more truth to shine through, in hopes to allow readers and viewers to understand the capacity of what both have brought into society; whether it to be good or bad.
The characters that are used in Terry’s theatrical pieces are acid strong and whenever performed, should be approached with such dignity. Her character Simone is one of great pleasure; she is thought of as a throwback to the Greeks, who possesses physical, spiritual courage and intellect while she undergoes internal and political conflicts. Her female characters in Babes are used as sex objects, but are vastly different in each formation that takes place during “the walks”. The characters in Viet Rock are consisted mainly of male, but again, taken upon a feminist perspective as merely children who are bleak, but yet still come out acid strong.

Approaching Simone
First Published: 1970
Type of work: Play
A philosopher commits suicide at the age of thirty-four by starving herself in protest of World War Two.

Approaching Simone is one of Terry’s finest pieces of theatrical works. She won an Obie Award for the play in 1970. It infuses most of her major themes and captures life through song and dance. The play is also set in a variety of scenarios or actions that take place rather quickly. The play approaches the struggle with Simone’s dealing on war and Christianity, which Terry does extraordinary in capturing those struggles.

The play opens with a musical number entitled Desire and the character Simone, enters staring at the audience. After the musical number Simone is seen running, while her family, Mother, Father, and Brother are following. Simone is very young but is said to be speak as though she were nearly thirty years old.

Simone begins to run and she flings herself to the ground. As her mom yells for her to get up, Simone suggests that she should be allowed to help carry luggage. She is told that she is far too young and too little to help carry the luggage, but she continues to insist that she is just as capable as the others. Still as she lies in the snow, her mother and father insist that she is too young to carry such a load and tell her that she continues to drag on, that she will catch a cold or some form of sickness. At the lodge, Simone and her brother begin to play a game of Racine and each time one of them forgets a verse, then both of them would be slapped by one another. As a visitor enters the house hold, Simone’s young rebellious personality begins to shine through. She has given away her stockings because the worker’s children do not wear them and she is pouring sugar into an envelope to send to the soldier’s because they do not have any.

The next scene takes place on the beach where Simone is with her Father. She is gazing out at the ocean and the sky, and suddenly begins to scream in agonizing pain. She has developed a migraine, so her Father takes her home to sleep in the dark. As Simone is in her room, now at the age of fourteen; voices begin to enter from the chorus saying obscene lines such as, “You are ugly” or “You can’t do anything right, because you’re girl”. However, it is no ordinary scene, it is a dream sequence of Simone aging and progressing into an adult.

Simone is now thirty and in a bar with her friends, Albert, Simone Two, and Jean Paul, listening to the blues singer, Carolina. During this moment, she and her friends are discussing what is beginning to take place in Germany and how technology will drive people out of work. After Carolina is finished singing, she comes over to where Simone is sitting and asks her to dance.

In transition to another part of Simone’s life, she is now a teacher and is teaching to a group of students who want to become philosophers. It is clear that each student is intrigued by what Simone has to offer them and they take her courses because they know of her highly intellectual mind. Through her teaching style, she finds that in order to become somebody, one must be “printed” on paper. However, being the rebellious individual that she is, she printed her students work and was fired.

Heading into the end of act one, Simone now works in a factory and has become very frail. This is noticed upon due to a few former students who have gathered to visit her in the factory. The fatigue and the suffering that she has endured have left her mind in a bit of confusion, but it is during this scenario that Simone speaks of herself “among real men”.

In the beginning of the second act, Simone asks for a physicist and begins her speaking on her views on politics in society. The chorus enters and words of, “I see right through you” are being said, speaking of the hypocrisy that has taken place in the government. Simone begins to protest and speak of how personality has nothing to do with making a person sacred, but the faith of a person does.

The next few scenes are of Simone helping the men who are out of work due to the factory laying folks off due to war. In the factory, there is a protest taking place about whether a seven percent or fifteen percent increase should take place. Simone stands and addresses the crowd and speaks of the struggle between the conservatives and the innovators. She also addresses that the value of life has been forgotten. Before she is finished speaking, she is called a Trotskyite and the crowd surrounds to kill her. Simone is rescued by Pierre and another individual.

She decides to go to Spain where she believes that her hands will be more useful, but being a pacifist, she will not carry a weapon. She finds herself on the banks of Ebo River with the Anarchists on one side and the Fascists on another, with a rifle. During this moment, Simone is forced to lie on her back and shoot at an airplane overhead. After that moment of terror, another terror strikes, two soldiers come in dragging two dead priests making it over forty priests that have been killed by Simone’s military troupe. The Captain orders for them all to move on, but Simone stays behind to cook due the events that are taking place. During the preparation of cooking, Simone gets into an altercation with a woman laughing about the priest being shot. Simone is protest, yells that, “This isn’t our war. This is nothing but a war fought by Germany and against Russia. We’re fools and spawns”. Her anger has swarmed out of control and she hits a pot of oil that sills over onto her leg, causing it go on fire.

While healing in a bed, Simone speaks of work that does not involve war. She says that she would rather pick potatoes in a field than work an endless headache of war. After her healing, Simone continues to press on, searching for work. She has arrived in Marseilles to speak to a priest about getting work outside of Spain. While there, she is handed a passport by a priest and she asks the priest if she may ask him about Christ one day.

Simone returns to the priest and tells him that Christ came down and took possession of her, but she did not see him, it was the presence of love that she thought never existed. The priest asks her if she is seeking baptism, but she refuses because she believes that God has a better use for her.

Now in England, Simone finds herself once more in the eye of war, this time wanting to be a nurse on the field to aid the injured and hungry soldiers. However, she is turned away, though her idea of it was considered of value. As the end of the play is approached, Simone recites in a beautifully written monologue, that the war taking place meant nothing and it had no definable objective. With that, Simone had committed suicide by starvation in protest to the war that was taking place.

Babes in the Bighouse (A Documentary Fantasy About Life in a Women’s Prison)
First Published: 1974
Type of Work: Play
The life of women living in solitary confinement, restricted from sight of the world.

Terry began work on this piece after being asked by women and men in US and Canada prisons to write a play about life in prison. For this particular piece, Terry takes the reader and audience viewer on a journey through a female prison, but from a fantasy point of view. Terry and the colleagues that assisted her with this production developed a tape by going door to door; asking individuals on the streets what they thought went on in a female’s prison. Through all the replies, most of them were influenced by the cheap sex novels; therefore, the clothing is made up of corsets, spike heels, furs and feathers, and other various “sexual” items.

The play opens with Jockey, Ronnie, Champ, El Toro, and Kathleen, who are all prisoners in the prison. Each prisoner speaks about her life in prison trying to convince the reader or audience that she is innocent. Miss Schnauzer, who is the assistant to matron comes in and speaks about how the facility is now a place where women can be rehabilitated into a “proper lady”, while knowing for fact, that it is impossible.

As the scene shifts, the girls are now in the shower commencing amongst themselves, talking about the life they had before prison. While in the shower, El Toro makes jokes and winks at Champ to join her in a joke on Jockey. Both sneak up on Jockey and grab her breasts. In spite of this, the Matron hears the commotion and the girls react in a different manner, as though nothing has happened, yet Kathleen is taken to solitary confinement.

As the next scene progresses, the girls are in the sewing room working and whispering. However, the Matron has taken a dislike in the talking between El Toro and Jockey and orders them to get on the floor and scrub. El Toro develops an attitude with the Matron which causes the Matron to kick the bucket of water causing El Toro to become drenched in water.

The next day in the sewing room was much different; full of laughs, including the matrons. This scene begins to develop the lesbian tendencies that take place in the prison. Ox Tail and El Toro are poking fun of Matron One, who is crushing on Mrs. Snowden. Mrs. Beecroft, who is Matron One, is blushing, ask the girls to stop, but she is asked out on date by Champ after she is released.

Following, the Head Matron is submitting new inmates, while El Toro and Jockey are having an intimate moment with one another. Along with this, Champ and Cynthia are having an intimate moment. The dialogue indicates that sexual encounters will be taken place, but is soon interrupted by Matron, for she has seen one of the girls, Ronnie, with something in her cell. Ronnie is written up for having a salt shaker and all of the girls are forced to come out of their cell and strip to her socks and shoes, and then forced to wear a dress.

The girls quickly transform into a hat and an overcoat to resemble a man. They sing a musical piece that is known as the “Fight Depression” song. After the piece is completed, the girls begin discussing the times when they tried to kill themselves. El Toro tried to shoot herself and Ronnie said she never had enough pills.

The next scene is Kathleen receiving a medical examination and the sounds of Ronnie coming from solitary are heard. As Ronnie continues pounding and shouting, “Let me out”, the other girls continue on with their story of what really takes place in the prison. As each prisoner begins to enter the solitary cell, they all begin to sing about how Jesus had to walk alone and now they must do the same.

As the song concludes, the girls begin scrubbing the floor. Jockey, becomes angry because she thinks that El Toro is going to try and steal her lover from her. There is a small feud but Cynthia breaks in and takes El Toro out of the situation. In the cells, Kathleen, Ronnie, Champ, and Jockey are talking. Ronnie is in tears and is being comforted by Kathleen, but Champ and Jockey are poking fun of her, telling her that she needs to toughen up and call her a liar on multiple accounts of situations. It is revealed that Ronnie has a multiple personality disorder.

The next scene takes place in chapel with two ministers, and where they all begin singing Speak in Tongue. They all put on hats to show a character change. During the scene, all the girls collapse to the floor speaking in tongues while the ministers interpret what each one is saying.

As Act One comes to a close, the girls are being scolded for how lucky they are to be in a prison by the Matron. She tells them they are lucky to have been born in a time where their heads or hands would not get cut off for the crimes they have committed. During this, the girls begin to sing about how prison is the place to be and they have all they need. The act ends with the girls going back to the floor scrubbing.

Act Two, begins by introducing new female inmates and Ronnie, Jockey, and Kathleen sing a song about what they will do when they are released from prison. When the song ends, Matron One is caught by Matron Two and Three harassing an inmate for no apparent reason and they take Matron One to the Warden’s area with them to keep watch on the yard. In the Warden’s area, they speak about an issue Matron One had with the inmate. Matron One thought the inmate had a pillow under her shirt and began punching her because she did not “believe” she had one. The other Matron’s began telling her that it was not her fault.

The next scene continues to tell the stories of how the women came to prison, but each of them becomes bored, which develops into song being about boredom. As the song concludes, the girls are back to discussing the same situations as before. Ronnie suggests that prison is not boring and many women wrote while in prison.

In the next scene Jockey, Champ, and Kathleen are speaking amongst themselves. They are speaking about how the food is filled with drugs to keep them from being mean and are using them as lab rats. During the conversation it is revealed that Kathleen once had religion and had a lover that was female while married.

Ronnie begins to sing, Babes in the Bighouse. As the song concludes, the scene is now located in the warden’s area where Gloria Swenson (portrayed by El Toro) is being interrogated for her lesbian encounters in the shower.

The remaining bit of the act continues to tell the sordid lives of the ladies in prison and the piece ends in a musical number. The girls are dressed in her favorite crook or fantasy and are asking to be pardoned from the crimes they have committed.

Viet Rock (a folk-war movie)
First Published: 1966
Type of Work: Play
The life of American soldiers in battle during the Vietnam War.

In Viet Rock, Terry takes the reader and/or viewer on a journey through a time when war was constantly driving many American’s into a state of hatred. The play depicts American soldiers who are on their way to Vietnam and for many of them; this is their first time being outside of the country. As in most of Terry’s pieces, this one too begins with a musical number that describes the effects of what is taking place.

The play is opened by soldiers lying down on a stage into a circle that resembles a flower or a target. As the soldiers are lying on the floor, the song, The Viet Rock is heard. The Viet Rock, is about how every morning Vietnam is “rocking and rolling” due to the effects of the war. When the piece is finished, one soldier jumps up off the floor and instantly becomes the Sergeant.
The next scene or moment is of all the men up on their feet becoming an “US Government Inspected Male” which will grant them access to fight in the war. During this, two mothers, Mrs. Cole and Mrs. Sherman are waiting to hear the news of their children of whether or not they are accepted to go and fight. Mrs. Sherman believes that her son, Ralphie will be chosen automatically and Mrs. Cole believes that her son Laird, who has a speech condition, will not be chosen because he is not “strong” enough. However, the tables are turned when Laird is chosen and Ralphie has to go into the hospital for a couple of days. Another musical piece takes place and the women sing, Goodbye My Good Boy.

As the piece concludes, the Sergeant yells for all the men to fall into place. All of the soldiers are new and form an awkward line, which causes the Sergeant to become a bit hastier with them. The soldiers are ridiculed and told that they will be called “girlies” until they have proven themselves to be called “ladies”. As the scenario progresses, the soldier’s graduate to “ladies” status and the Sergeant sings War Au Go Go to them.

When the piece has concluded, the soldiers are now on their first mission. They are trying to hold back a riot that has taken place in protest of the war. The Head Protestor, who is a female, comes forward and yells out to the Sergeant, “You are under citizen’s arrest”. The Sergeant argues back with the protestor, meanwhile, three other female protestors step aside and pour gasoline on their bodies. They begin speaking to the soldiers and the Sergeant, begging them to end the merciless war. As the soldiers give their final answer, “We have a job to do”, the three women strike a match and light themselves on fire.

The next scene is of the soldiers on their journey to Vietnam. As the soldiers arrive, they are approached by the Lama, who greets them with women. As an orgy is taking place among the soldiers and women, the Sergeant spots in and begins yelling at the soldiers to pull their pants up because they have a job that has to be done. As the soldiers rise into a line, the women do the same and they begin to sing a marching song.

The last scene in act one takes place in the Senate Investigating Committee room. There is a press meeting taking place with two senators and twelve witnesses, none of which who have a name. Each witness is vastly different from the rest; Witness One believes that the atomic bomb should be taken into effect, while Witness Three, who is a prize fighter, seems to have been knocked around a too much, cannot gather his thoughts. Witness six, who has become outraged in the meeting, begins to stab people sitting on a nearby bench. The act ends with Witness Eleven and Witness Twelve, speaking of how love should be taking place, rather than war. The witnesses and the senators begin kissing and caressing one another. As act one concludes, they all begin to sing America the Beautiful.

Act Two opens with a soldier, his mother, and his girl writing to one another. During this moment, the three are writing and speaking about how life is treating them while the war is going on. As this moment is fast, the scene quickly turns into a field where the soldiers are now being required to train some South Vietnamese men, known as the Arvin Troops, how to fight like American soldiers. The men look like females and the America soldiers do not trust them for that reason and prefer not to train them. However, Jerry, an American soldier goes over the Arvin Troops and begins to teach them English. The Arvin Troops catch on quickly and Jerry, along with the other American soldiers becomes highly impressed with how fast they learn. As the American soldiers are teaching the Arvin how to shoot a gun, they quickly turn into the Viet Cong, killing the American soldiers. Jerry and another soldier are able to run away. As the bodies lie on the ground lifeless, the Sergeant discovers them and instantly blames himself for the tragedy. However, in the midst of the tragedy, he must look for new recruits.

As the Sergeant presses on, he awakens soldiers from sleep and as they rise, they are instantly dodging from bullets. Jerry is shot, lifted by a helicopter and taken to the hospital. A plane is sent for Jerry’s mother, so the body can be identified. As his mother approaches the doctor, the doctor informs her that he will be tagged with his identification. When she approaches a body of dead soldier and tag reads, Gerald Rogers Small, not Gerald Robert Small. The doctor comes to her and apologizes, but then there is a sound of a soldier calling for his mother. It is Jerry and as his mother approaches him, he dies.

The next scene is a Buddhist funeral and during the funeral a song is sung by a character named Seth. The song is called Men Die Young and is speaking about how men are dying very quickly and the love for them is fading fast. As the song concludes, a dream like sequence with Hanoi Hannah takes presence and speaks about how Asia, Africa, and Latin America can destroy the United States piece by piece. She also tells the American soldiers that they cannot protect their loved ones, from such a far distant.

As Hannah Hanoi concludes, the soldiers begin fighting the Viet Cong for an instant. A soldier takes out a guitar and they all begin to sing But I’m Too Far From Home. While the other soldiers fall to the ground crawling, a soldier by the name Joe addresses the audience speaking of how he is grateful of their fine citizenship and how he will fight for them any day. A soldier pulls Joe down and another by the name of Fred stands up and addresses the audience. He as well speaks about how he is proud to serve American and is then pulled back down to crawl.

The final scene takes place in Saigon Sally’s bar in Vietnam, where the soldiers are dancing and where Saigon Sally is singing a song called Anti-hero Baby. As the song a dance comes to an end, Sergeant, who is drunk, gets angry because some soldiers are poking fun of the president. As Sergeant continues in his drunken raucous, he eventually collapses into Saigon Sally’s arms. He asks her to sing another song and as she sings, there is a massive explosion and the bar is blown to bits, killing all of the American soldiers.

As the play ends, each character rise as angel and they sing in unison, Viet Rock.

Summary

Terry’s work has proved to be an essential part of feminist theatre and theory. She writes on a level of great altitude, describing in detail the lives of others through non-fiction and fiction. Using a musicality style, she keeps away from the normal “musical” spectacle, which allows for the pieces to be taken to new heights. She writes about historical events in her theatrical pieces of not only American history, but world history. Terry uses and incorporates characters that all have a prominent role in her theatrical pieces. When one views or reads her work, they will sense three essential aspects of life; religion, politics, and culture, which will allow for them to relate and understand the truth and value of life.

James Anthony Chapman

Discussion Topics

How can feminism be described in Terry’s work?

In Approaching Simone, Simone commits suicide due to the nature and content of the war. Do you think that her approach in protesting the war by committing suicide was in good faith?

Viet Rock is said to be a theatrical piece that would have excited Brecht. What would be the cause of this piece to excite Brecht?

Megan Terry is said to be the Mother of American Feminist Drama. Do you believe this to be true? Why or Why not? If not, then who do you believe could be considered?

In Babes In The Bighouse, Terry asks that men also portray the roles of the female characters. Why do you think that she calls for that in the theatrical piece?

Do you sense any form of homoerotic tendencies in the theatrical piece Viet Rock? If so, why and where do you sense it?


Bibliography

Betsko, Kathleen and Rachel Koenig. Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights.
New York, NY. Beech Tree Books, 1987.

Keyssar, Helene. Feminist Theatre. London. Macmillan Publishers, 1984.

Megan Terry. http://www.filmreference.com/film/88/Megan-Terry.html.

Megan Terry. http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/aww_04/aww_04_01188.html.

Londre, Felicia Hardison. ‘‘Megan Terry’’ in Speaking on Stage. Alabama.
University of Alabama Press, 1996.

Schlueter, June. Modern American Drama: The Female Canon. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses, 1990.

Terry, Megan. Plays By Megan Terry. New York, NY. Broadway Play Publishing Inc. 2000.
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