Born in 1951 in New York, Timberlake Wertenbaker is a British writer. She grew up in Basque Country, in France--which she attributes as a factor in her emotional reticence as well as her thematic interest in displacement. Many of her plays deal with characters who are breaking boundaries or forced into new cultural situations. As a child, she developed a love of literature, language, and writing.
While living in Greece as a young adult, Wertenbaker discovered her love of plays and theatre. She began writing, and when she moved to London, she worked with several small playhouses before becoming the resident writer for the Royal Court Theatre from 1984-1985. She has also been active on several committees, such as the English Stage Company and PEN. For a year (2005-2006), she taught at Georgetown University.
In 1988, Wertenbaker earned her first major success with Our Country's Good, an adaptation of Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker. It premiered at the Royal Court before transferring to the West End and then Broadway. Wertenbaker won an Olivier Award, and was nominated for a Tony in 1991.
Following this success, the anti-Thatcherism playThree Birds Alighting on a Field won the Susan Smith Blackburn prize in 1992. This play also inspired many critics to compare her to Caryl Churchill, another daring and boundary-smashing British female playwright. She has won or been nominated for several awards, including a Writer's Guild Award for Jefferson's Garden, an examination of Thomas Jefferson as both the author of the Declaration of Independence and a slave owner--and the continuation of slavery even after the American Revolution.
Timberlake Wertenbaker's plays are marked by multiculturalism and discoveries of identity. Many of her protagonists are English, but they find themselves confronted by diverse voices and cultures that challenge them to reconsider their own place in the world.
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