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MANY PEOPLE DREAM of making their passion a profession, but few find the time or the opportunity to focus on a pursuit they really love. Former advertising executive Marge Waterstreet, ’83, has put her love of drama center stage, writing 10 plays in six years.
And she’s done so under circumstances that are challenging, to say the least. In the decade after she graduated from the evening program, Waterstreet suffered a disabling back injury, was diagnosed with and successfully fought thyroid cancer, and developed three kinds of debilitating arthritis. And while her chronic health problems forced her to leave the corporate world, she has found a new vocation in playwriting.
It’s not surprising that Waterstreet would be drawn to drama. An avid patron of Chicago theater for decades, she has a writing background from her days as an advertising copywriter and later executive at Gambro and Azko Nobel, international manufacturing and technology companies. A self-described “workaholic,” Waterstreet took permanent disability leave in 1992 and sought what she called “a challenging and competitive hobby that I could do on my own but that would still involve other people.” The one rival to her passion for work had always been her love of theater, and playwriting seemed a natural choice.
Since then, Waterstreet has written works on a wide range of subjects, and several have been produced as staged readings or full performances. The first full production of one of Waterstreet’s plays, Familiar Faces, occurred in New York in 1997, four years after she began writing. A Matter of Scale, a one-act play depicting a weight-conscious woman’s conversation with her talking bathroom scale, was produced in New York, Chicago, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, between 1997 and 1999.
Perhaps her most ambitious script is The Rape of Nanking According to Winnie, a historical drama based on an American missionary’s efforts to protect 10,000 Chinese women and children from genocide at the hands of the Japanese army in 1937. Researching this topic turned out to be a huge undertaking, and Waterstreet credits two Chicago friends, reference librarian Krista Ovist and Ron Dorfman, A.B. ’63, with providing tireless assistance. The play was produced as a staged reading at three Chicago venues, and Waterstreet looks forward to a full production. “It speaks to so many people–all ages, men and women, members of different ethnic groups,” she said.
It’s a solid resume for any new playwright, and an astonishing resume for one who, because of severe arthritis, can only type for ten minutes each day. To compensate, Waterstreet develops vivid mental pictures of her characters and their interactions long before she begins writing.
Because health problems make even local travel difficult, the front room of her apartment remains virtually empty so actors and directors can stage readings and rehearsals of her work there. “I’ve been forced into an introverted lifestyle, but by nature I’m an extrovert,” Waterstreet said. “I’m a playwright versus being a poet or a novelist because playwriting is the most extroverted by far.”
Although passionate about playwriting, Waterstreet said she resists the temptation to channel her earlier drive for professional excellence into this new pursuit. “Whenever I start to get uptight about things, I tell myself, ‘Marge, this is just a hobby,’” she said. “It’s the process that I enjoy.”–Kelly Safreed Harmon
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