Marguerite Duffy, known professionally as Megan Terry, was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre artist.
17 Facts About Megan Terry
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Megan Terry used this technique to create her 1966 work Viet Rock, which was both the first rock musical and the first play to address the war in Vietnam.
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Megan Terry was born, as Marguerite Duffy, to Marguerite and businessman Harold Joseph in Seattle, Washington.
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Megan Terry first showed an interest in the theatre after attending a play at the age of seven.
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Megan Terry was not pleased by her interest in theatre.
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Megan Terry has credited their influence, as well as the 1951 closure of the Seattle Repertory Playhouse under pressure from the House Un-American Activities Committee, for her later use of political commentary on stage.
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Megan Terry went on to earn a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada, where she received certificates in theatre directing, design, and acting.
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Midway through her degree program, Megan Terry was forced to return to Seattle when her grandfather became seriously ill.
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Megan Terry finished her degree at the University of Washington, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Education degree in 1952.
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Megan Terry chose the name Megan because it was the Celtic root for Marguerite, and Terry in homage to the nineteenth-century actress Ellen Terry.
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Megan Terry faced backlash for the edginess of her earliest plays, Beach Grass and Go Out and Move the Car.
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Megan Terry became increasingly frustrated with creative and political restraint in the Seattle theatre community, and decided to move to New York City.
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Megan Terry moved to Minnesota and became the writer-in-residence for Minneapolis' Firehouse Theater, where she had previously been a Rockefeller Fellow during the development of Keep Tightly Closed in a Cool Dry Place.
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Megan Terry did return to New York City to develop new plays such as Changes at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, St Hydro Clemency, and Massachusetts Trust, all directed by Tom O'Horgan.
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Megan Terry took a stronger interest in women's issues after the production of Approaching Simone and began working to increase the visibility of women in theatre.
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In recognition of her achievements and innovations in the theatre, Megan Terry was elected to lifetime membership in the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1994.
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Megan Terry died in Omaha, Nebraska on April 12,2023, at the age of 90.