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Elizabeth Becker Henley was born on May 8th in Jackson, Mississippi. Her parents were a lawyer and a political figure ( charels boyce Henley) and an actress(Elizabeth Josephine Becker Henley
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Beth Henley graduated from Murrah High School in Jackson. She grew up around the civil rights movement as a backdrop during her high school and college years
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She wrote her first one-act play, called Am I Blue as a class assignment during her sophomore year at Southern Methodist University (SMU)
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She worked as an actress at Theater Three in Dallas, Texas, as her primary career focus was acting
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soon then graduated from SMU with a bachelor's fine arts in theater
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Taught creative dramatic. At the Dallas minority repertory theater
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Attended and taught beginning acting and playwriting at the university of Illinois,Urbana Champaign
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Moved to los Angeles California to pursue acting but turn into writing after struggling to find good roles for southern women she began writing crimes of heart
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Co-winner of the Great American Playwriting Contest for her play Crimes of the Heart
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Crimes of the heart premiered at the actors theater of Louisville Kentucky she also received Susan smith Blackburn award nomination for the play
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The Miss Firecracker contest premiered
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Crimes of the Heart opened on Broadway (November 4th) and received a Tony Award nomination for best play
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Received the New York drama critics circle award for best new American play for crimes of the heart
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awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Crimes of the Heart, making her the first woman to win the award in twenty-three years
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The wake of Jamey foster was produced on broadway (first production in 1981)
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The debutant ball was first produced
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wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Crimes of the Heart starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and sissy spacek
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Co-wrote the screenplay for the movie True Stories with David Byrne and Stephen Tobolowsky
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Received an academy award nomination for best adapted screenplay for crimes of the heart( based on their film release nomination of the year)
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Her long term relationship with actor and director Stephen tobolowsky ended
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Impossible marriage was first produced
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The Miss Firecracker contest film adaptation (starring Holly Hunter) was released with the screenplay written by Henley
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Abundance was first produced (Costa Mesa, California)
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Control freaks was first produced
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Received the American theater wing award for distinguished achievement in play writing
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Received the Richard wright literary excellence award
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Joined the faculty of Loyola Marymount university (LMU) Los Angeles where she serves as a theater arts presidential professor.
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Ridiculous fraud was produced at the McCarter Theater
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Beth Henley has received the ATHE career achievement award
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The Jacksonian, an autobiographically influenced play set in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964, premiered in Los Angeles, where she is living now
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The world premiere of her play "Laugh" was produced by Studio Theater
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from 2024 to 2025. She is also working on three new plays: Myth Murder, Downstairs Neighbor, and The Unbuttoning, living in Los Angeles, where she is the President's Professor of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University.