Theater Spotlight of the Week: Anne Healy

by Shawn Parikh

UTA Department of Theatre Arts is opening The Heidi Chronicles this week, which is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize play by Wendy Wasserstein. Being such an influential and acclaimed play, I decided to feature the director, Anne Healy, who also happens to be a Theatre Arts Lecturer at UTA.

We first start off by talking about her career, coming to DFW, and what made her settle here and teach. She talks about why she has been attracted to college theater, and I ask her the advantages and challenges in teaching students as opposed to professional theater. I ask her if she feels college theater gets more freedom to produce certain works than professional theater. Having been a professor all over the Tarrant County region, I also get her opinion on the Fort Worth theater scene.

I ask her about The Heidi Chronicles and why this play about the baby boomers was chosen for this season. I ask her how the play will be relevant to an audience and how the students handled being transported to a different time period. I also ask her what she ultimately hopes the audience will walk away with after the performance.

The Heidi Chronicles runs only until Sunday, November 18 and tickets can be reserved by calling the Box Office at 817-272-2669.