The world premiere of “Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End,” which opened Oct. 9 and will run through Nov. 8, is part of an ambitious new project known as the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. The festival aims to showcase the wide range of new plays written by female playwrights. More than 50 theaters in the D.C. area are participating by staging world premieres in a six-week period as well as related special events, panels and workshops.
The Bombeck play, written by identical twins Allison Engel and Margaret Engel, traces the life of a humor columnist and author who penned thousands of “At Wit” columns for 900 newspapers, wrote a dozen books, and spent 11 years delivering clever commentaries on “Good Morning, America.”
Bombeck, who got her start at the Kettering-Oakwood Times and Dayton’s Journal Herald, died of complications from a kidney transplant in 1996.
One of her most quoted lines: “If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?”
In her hometown, Erma’s passion for writing is carried on through the University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop that has been held every other year for the past 15 years.
Teri Rizvi, founder and co-director of the workshop, was in the Arena Stage audience on Friday, Oct. 16, and said the sold-out audience gave the play a standing ovation. “When I heard about the show, my husband I jumped at the chance to travel to Washington, D.C., to see it,” Rizvi said. “Erma is a hometown treasure and one of the University of Dayton’s most famous graduates.”
Bombeck’s children — Matt, Betsy and Andy — participated in a post show talk-back titled “Remembering Erma: Memories from Friends and Family” after the Oct. 16 performance. Joining them on the panel were Erma’s long-time agent, Aaron Priest, and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel.
Rizvi found the show both funny and poignant. “Actress Barbara Chisholm brought Erma’s voice to life — a voice that helped other women find their voices,” she said. “The play also portrayed Erma’s tireless support of the Equal Rights Amendment. She certainly helped to bring that movement to the forefront of American life.”
Rizvi said Matt Bombeck told the crowd that the mayhem in the Bombeck house just happened. “We never saw the connection between what we did and the column,” he explained. “We never made that connection because we never read the column.”
Literary agent Aaron Priest said Erma “was a voice for a generation of people who didn’t have a voice at that time. She touched a nerve.”
About the playwrights
This is the second one-act play penned by the Engel sisters focusing on female humorists. In 2010, the two journalists brought syndicated Texas political columnist Molly Ivins to life in “Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins.” Kathleen Turner starred in the production on stages throughout the country; Barbara Chisholm, who portrays Erma Bombeck at the Arena, played Ivins in the Austin production directed by David Esbjornson. He directed the new Bombeck play as well.
The twins, who live at opposite ends of the country, have been writing long-distance together for years, even before fax machines, computers and Skype. “We would use typewriters and carbon paper and mail pages back and forth to one another,” Allison said. “It’s gotten much easier. Each of us take a crack at something and then send versions to each other and we meld them.”
The sisters have written three books together and also created “Food Finds” for eight years on the Food Network. Margaret lives in Bethesda, Md.; Allison lives in California.
Discovering Erma
The Engels, who grew up in a Cleveland suburb, have early memories of their mother holding the Cleveland Plain Dealer and shaking with laughter. “The only two words she managed to get out were ‘Erma Bombeck,’” Allison said. “We knew Erma was someone who made our mother laugh, and we also remember reading her. I remember being fascinated by her ability to be funny column after column.”
The idea for the play about Erma Bombeck came from Priest, Bombeck’s literary agent and friend. He approached the Engel sisters with the idea.
“We were thrilled because she had been such an icon,” Margaret said. “We worked on the play for four years. At first we considered having other people in the cast, but it works best as a one-woman show.” Their research uncovered a lot they hadn’t known about Bombeck.
“One of things we didn’t realize was that she spent two years going around the country stumping for the Equal Rights Amendment,” Allison said. “She was still writing when she and Liz Carpenter traveled together and went to states that had not yet ratified the amendment. She spoke to women’s groups everywhere and was very well-received.”
The sisters said that travel was a life-changing time for Bombeck. “She had such a national presence at that time and for her to do that on her own initiative was really something,” Allison said. “It has resonance today because the ERA coalition has started up again, and there’s a new push to get the amendment ratified.”
Choosing an Erma
The playwrights said they had the good fortune of having their Molly Ivins play run twice in Austin with actress Barbara Chisholm in the leading role.
“She’s a spectacular talent,” Allison said. “She’s very funny, warm and skilled. “
Coming to Dayton?
The playwrights said they’ve been in contact with the organizers of the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop and are hoping the new play will come to Dayton. They believe it’s a logical place for the show.
“So many people recall Erma so fondly and her story is so universal,” Allison said. “We’re hoping the show has a huge future ahead. You only have to say ‘Erma Bombeck’ and everybody lights up!”
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