LINDSAY CROUSE
Name: Lindsay Crouse.
Born: 12 May 1948 New York City
Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American actress.
Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna Erskine and Russel Crouse,
a playwright. Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to
the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse. Her father, playwright
Russel Crouse, and his writing partner, Howard Lindsay, wrote much of The Sound
of Music. Their 1946 play State of the Union won that year's Pulitzer Prize
for Drama. Their last collaboration was Mr. President in 1962. "In our family,
the work ethic was held up as some kind of byword," Crouse says. "At any hour,
somebody's typewriter was going."
Crouse married another playwright, David Mamet, in 1977. Crouse caught Mamet's
eye in the hockey classic Slap Shot. When he heard she had a part in his play
Reunion at the Yale Repertory Theater, Mamet packed a bag and told a friend, "I'm
going to New Haven to marry Lindsay Crouse." When Crouse and Mamet married,
Crouse's mother took her aside and told her what Oscar Hammerstein had told her
when she married Russel Crouse: "A playwright's wife is the only woman who knows
how her husband feels when she's having a baby." They have two daughters
Willa and Zosia. They divorced in 1990. Crouse is presently married to Rick
Blue, a television director and editor.
Her brother is Timothy Crouse, author of The Boys on the Bus about political
journalism during the 1972 presidential campaign. Timothy Crouse also co-authored
a new libretto for the musical Anything Goes with John Weidman that opened at
the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on Broadway on October 19, 1987, and ran for 784
performances.
After graduating from Radcliffe in 1970, Crouse began her performing career
as a modern and jazz dancer but she soon switched to acting and made her
broadway debut in Much Ado About Nothing in 1972. She is best known for her
starring role in House of Games, the 1987 film directed and written by Mamet in
which she plays Margaret Ford, a psychiatrist who is intrigued by the art of the
con. "It's always hard to be directed by someone who's close to you," she
recalls, "because everybody needs to go home and complain about the director.
Everybody." Crouse was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her
role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart. Crouse is also known for role in the
fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she was a recurring supporting
cast member playing Professor Maggie Walsh. She is also notable for playing Lily
Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden, in the comedy classic
Slap Shot.
In recent years Crouse wishes she could make more movies but has concentrated on
the theater. "Once you get your driver's license, you end your film career,"
says Crouse. "Look at my generation. Great actresses like Glenn Close and Susan
Sarandon -- there's nothing written for anyone over a certain age." In 2007
Crouse opened a one woman show, The Belle of Amherst, about the life of Emily
Dickinson at the Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts. "You can't stop
and recite something. You have to keep the poetry very, very active, which is
pretty easy with Dickinson. She was striving so hard to understand what life was
about. It's very dramatic poetry in that way," says Crouse.
Crouse is a Buddhist and since 2005 has organized an annual Buddhist educational
program at a retreat at Windhover in Rockport, Massachusetts. "[Buddhism]
is not an exclusive club. It has something to offer everyone at all levels.
Buddhism is dynamic and has captured the interests of Americans. Even our
quantum physics validate ideas the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago," says Crouse.
The Gloucester Daily Times reported on January 10, 2008 that Lindsay Crouse had
brought Buddhist monk the Venerable Lama Marut to the Rockport Community House.
"It is truly rare in this country to encounter authentic Buddhist courses for
Americans that are so clear," said Crouse. Crouse said that Marut will speak
on the subject of emptiness. "For me this is one of the most exciting
teachings in all of Buddhism because it opens up a vista of possibilities," said
Crouse. "It means that our definitions of our self - including ugly, stupid,
victimized, depressed, bad at math etc. - don't exist permanently. They're just
ideas, or concepts in our minds. And through meditation and practice the mind
can change."
Name: Lindsay Crouse.
Born: 12 May 1948 New York City
Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American actress.
Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna Erskine and Russel Crouse,
a playwright. Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to
the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse. Her father, playwright
Russel Crouse, and his writing partner, Howard Lindsay, wrote much of The Sound
of Music. Their 1946 play State of the Union won that year's Pulitzer Prize
for Drama. Their last collaboration was Mr. President in 1962. "In our family,
the work ethic was held up as some kind of byword," Crouse says. "At any hour,
somebody's typewriter was going."
Crouse married another playwright, David Mamet, in 1977. Crouse caught Mamet's
eye in the hockey classic Slap Shot. When he heard she had a part in his play
Reunion at the Yale Repertory Theater, Mamet packed a bag and told a friend, "I'm
going to New Haven to marry Lindsay Crouse." When Crouse and Mamet married,
Crouse's mother took her aside and told her what Oscar Hammerstein had told her
when she married Russel Crouse: "A playwright's wife is the only woman who knows
how her husband feels when she's having a baby." They have two daughters
Willa and Zosia. They divorced in 1990. Crouse is presently married to Rick
Blue, a television director and editor.
Her brother is Timothy Crouse, author of The Boys on the Bus about political
journalism during the 1972 presidential campaign. Timothy Crouse also co-authored
a new libretto for the musical Anything Goes with John Weidman that opened at
the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on Broadway on October 19, 1987, and ran for 784
performances.
After graduating from Radcliffe in 1970, Crouse began her performing career
as a modern and jazz dancer but she soon switched to acting and made her
broadway debut in Much Ado About Nothing in 1972. She is best known for her
starring role in House of Games, the 1987 film directed and written by Mamet in
which she plays Margaret Ford, a psychiatrist who is intrigued by the art of the
con. "It's always hard to be directed by someone who's close to you," she
recalls, "because everybody needs to go home and complain about the director.
Everybody." Crouse was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her
role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart. Crouse is also known for role in the
fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she was a recurring supporting
cast member playing Professor Maggie Walsh. She is also notable for playing Lily
Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden, in the comedy classic
Slap Shot.
In recent years Crouse wishes she could make more movies but has concentrated on
the theater. "Once you get your driver's license, you end your film career,"
says Crouse. "Look at my generation. Great actresses like Glenn Close and Susan
Sarandon -- there's nothing written for anyone over a certain age." In 2007
Crouse opened a one woman show, The Belle of Amherst, about the life of Emily
Dickinson at the Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts. "You can't stop
and recite something. You have to keep the poetry very, very active, which is
pretty easy with Dickinson. She was striving so hard to understand what life was
about. It's very dramatic poetry in that way," says Crouse.
Crouse is a Buddhist and since 2005 has organized an annual Buddhist educational
program at a retreat at Windhover in Rockport, Massachusetts. "[Buddhism]
is not an exclusive club. It has something to offer everyone at all levels.
Buddhism is dynamic and has captured the interests of Americans. Even our
quantum physics validate ideas the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago," says Crouse.
The Gloucester Daily Times reported on January 10, 2008 that Lindsay Crouse had
brought Buddhist monk the Venerable Lama Marut to the Rockport Community House.
"It is truly rare in this country to encounter authentic Buddhist courses for
Americans that are so clear," said Crouse. Crouse said that Marut will speak
on the subject of emptiness. "For me this is one of the most exciting
teachings in all of Buddhism because it opens up a vista of possibilities," said
Crouse. "It means that our definitions of our self - including ugly, stupid,
victimized, depressed, bad at math etc. - don't exist permanently. They're just
ideas, or concepts in our minds. And through meditation and practice the mind
can change."