Pantomimes, especially Christmas pantomimes, are a large part of the English tradition, and she used to put on pantomimes as a child, "leaving the bear out front to entertain my parents while I changed the scenery."
Churchill began writing short stories as a schoolgirl, and spent one summer helping to paint sets for a summer theater. She did not "put the two things together"--writing and the stage--until her English studies at Oxford, her first play inspired by the need of a friend for something to direct. "It was a turning point. I realized I preferred things as plays. It has something to do with... liking things actually happening." Looking back, she now sees the relative paucity of women playwrights as related to the upbringing of girls, who are taught to avoid conflict, to be introspective rather than active. "That way of being lends itself much more readily to the letter, the diary--to the reflective form," she believes.
Marriage to David Harter in 1961 and the births of their three sons did not deflect her from playwriting, and a steady output of plays, at first most successfully for radio, kept Churchill busy.
This is a free page. This page contains 172 words. This
biography contains 2,849 words (approx. 9 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Caryl Churchill Access Pass.
