Kristine Thatcher
Encyclopedia
Life
Thatcher, born Margaret Schneider, began acting at 16 with a small professional company in her hometown, Lansing, MichiganLansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
. She went on to work at regional theaters across the country. Her first husband was actor Tim Thatcher. In 1985, while married to her second husband, actor Tom Blair, she met her future and third husband when she was cast opposite him in a production of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago.
In the late '70s and early '80s, she acted and directed with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Repertory Theater, founded by Mary Widrig John in 1954, as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, is now located on the east bank of the Milwaukee River in the Patty and Jay Baker Theater Complex at 108 E Wells St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is home to an eleven member Resident Acting Company...
. She volunteered to write a show based on the poet Lorine Niedecker
Lorine Niedecker
Lorine Faith Niedecker was a Wisconsin poet and the only woman associated with the Objectivist poets...
's life and work. The result was her first full-length play, Niedecker.
She has taught at Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
, Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. The college has 1,500 students representing 47 states and 78 countries....
. Although long associated with theatre in Chicago, she was been the artistic director of the Boarshead Theatre in Lansing, Michigan 2005 until 2009. She has since started her own professional theater company called Stormfield Theatre, which focuses on new works and works by living playwrights.
Awards
Among Friends (winner of the 1997 Scott McPherson Memorial Award), Emma’s Child (winner of the 1995 Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeSusan Smith Blackburn Prize
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is for English-language women playwrights. Named for Susan Smith, alumna of Smith College, who died of breast cancer.-Winners:* 1978-79 Mary O'Malley* 1979-80 Barbara Schneider...
, a 1997 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 1997 RESOLVE “Award for Excellence in the Arts,” the 1997 Cunningham Prize for Playwriting from DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
, and the 1997 After Dark Award for Outstanding New Work), Voice of Good Hope (nominated for 2000 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work).
Works
- Under Glass (1991)
- Emma's Child (1992)
- Apparitions (1993)
- Voice of Good Hope (1997)
- Emily's Child (1998)
- Among Friends (1999)
- Voice of Good Hope (2000)
Reviews
Niedecker, Kristine Thatcher's earnest low-key drama celebrating the life and work of the late poet Lorine Niedecker, contemplates the artist with such intense reverence that its subject emerges an almost saintly symbol of integrity, simplicity and devotion.