Margaret Edson is an American playwright and public school teacher. Born in Washington D.C., she attended Smith College, Massachussetts and graduated with a degree in Renaissance history. She subsequently gained a Masters degree from Georgetown University in 1991. In 1995, her play Wit was produced by the South Coast Repertory (SCR) in Costa Mesa, California. The production won six 1995 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. It was subsequently produced Off-Broadway in September 1998 at the MCC Theatre, before opening at the Union Square Theatre in October 1998 for an 18 month run. The production won numerous awards from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, Drama Desk, Drama League, Dramatists Guild of America and Outer Critics Circle, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Wit was revived on Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2012. Cynthia Nixon starred as Dr. Vivian Bearing and the production received two Tony nominations for Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. The play was adapted into an HBO film by Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Made-for-Television Film in 2001.
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