Dramatist Guild Fund Honors Gretchen Cryer '57

Gretchen Cryer '57 and her son, Jon, at the gala.

October 28, 2015

Gretchen Cryer, a 1957 graduate of DePauw University and former president of the Dramatist Guild Fund, was honored by that organization at a New York City fundraiser Monday. The composer, lyricist and performer was recognized for her 10 years of service to the organization and dramatists across the country.

"Ms. Cryer, the mother of actor Jon Cryer, was given a standing ovation when she came to accept her honor," reports the Wall Street Journal's Marshall Heyman. "She recalled the first play she ever wrote, as a wee lass, called The King and the Fairy. She played the fairy; her brother, a baby at the time, played the king, 'a nonspeaking role.' "

Cryer recalls, "All he had to do was lie there while the fairy danced around. It was a two-hander, but a very subversive piece."

The piece adds, "Ms. Cryer, who had never seen a musical before meeting her collaborator Nancy Ford, explained that she loved her time as president of the DGF. 'It was very satisfying,' she said. For the last month or so, she has been performing a sequel to her canonical musical I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, for which she wrote the book and lyrics, at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, Calif., where it runs through Sunday. 'Now I can concentrate on my own work,' said Ms. Cryer, who turned 80 earlier this month."

Rachel Routh, a 2008 graduate of DePauw, is executive director of the Dramatist Guild Fund.

Read more at the Journal's website and at Playbill.com.

Cryer -- an English (literature) major as an undergraduate -- and her DePauw classmate, Nancy Ford '57, wrote and starred in I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, which was a late '70s sensation. Cryer was honored with the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress and the cast album received a Grammy nomination. Ford and Cryer have also collaborated on Now Is the Time for All Good Men, The Last Sweet Days of Isaac (recipient of an Obie Award for Best Musical), Shelter, The American Girls Revue and Anne of Green Gables, among others, and have recently completed a follow-up musical, Still Getting My Act Together.