Myth as Public Dream: The Metamorphosis of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses

Abstract

It has been said that Mary Zimmerman, a playwright based in Chicago, improvises rather than writes her plays: early rehearsals start with readings of source texts and players' spontaneous characterizations. Collecting a core of talent around her, she participates almost as a collaborator. This approach might sound unusual compared to playwrights who devise a script before they cast and begin to direct, but ensemble theatre groups such as Lookingglass Theatre Company, which Zimmerman helped found in 1988, often work this way. Lookingglass has been piling up awards since its inception, many of them for Zimmerman plays. Members of the ensemble who have consistently worked with her include actors Doug Hara and Lisa Tejero, stage designer Daniel Ostling, lighting designer TJ Gerckens, sound designers Andre Pluess and Benn Sussman, music composer Willy Schwarz, and costume designer Mara Blumenfeld. The playwright has also been a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University and an artistic associate of Goodman and Seattle Repertory theatres since the beginning of her career. In 1998, Zimmerman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her creative work and in support of its continuation. Assured of a certain amount of critical attention and financial security by this prestigious award, she nonetheless elected to keep her tenured professorship.