(Kate Taylor’s article appeared in The New York Times, 8/24; via Pam Green. )
ASHLAND, Ore. — Lisa Loomer has written plays about how women’s bodies are tortured in the name of beauty and about the relationship between white mothers and their Latina nannies in Los Angeles. Taking on the politics of abortion would seem right up her alley.
But when her friend Bill Rauch, the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, first asked if she would be interested in writing a play about Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case establishing abortion rights, she wasn’t so sure.
“My first reaction was: ‘A court case? I don’t know, that sounds kind of dry,’” Ms. Loomer said in an interview here. But the more she read, the more she realized how wrong she was. The story behind the case was bursting with dramatic potential.