Dr. Rebecca Basham

In playwriting circles, Rebecca Basham, assistant professor of English at Rider, is making an impact.

Since her graduate school days at the University of New Orleans, Basham has written plays that have received critical acclaim. One of her works, “Lot’s Daughters,” a story of two young women who fall in love in Appalachia during World War II, won the Sundance Award in 2000 for best new play, after being showcased at the Kennedy Center as part of the American College Theatre Festival.

“Lot’s Daughters” premiered at San Francisco’s Diversionary Theater in 2001. In November, it ran at Monmouth University as a production from its department of music and theater arts. This month, it ran at the Downtown Arts Center in Lexington, KY, as part of Act Out Theater.

“The inspiration came when I was reading the Old Testament to write my master’s thesis on the Wife of Bath,” said Basham, who teaches playwriting and screenwriting, literature and psychology, honors, Gender Studies and American Studies courses at Rider. “It struck me as so unfair that we were never given the names of Lot’s wife or his daughters. We were only given their father’s or husband’s name. They had no purpose or identity other than as the property of Lot. I wrote this play to give them faces and voices.”

Basham’s fifth play, “Wrinkles,” a lesbian comedy, received the Best New Play Award by the San Diego Theater Critics Circle last January. She is also recipient of the Michael Kanin National Playwriting Award, the William Morris Agency Award, and the Jane Chambers National Playwriting Award for “Lot’s Daughters.”

This semester, Basham is teaching a course on the Bible as Literature and Philosophy with Dr. Richard Burgh, chair of the philosophy department, in Rider’s Baccalaureate Honors Program (BHP).

Writing has shaped her approach to teaching, noted Basham, who is inspired by the writings of Faulkner, Alice Walker, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. “I’ve learned that all of the ‘methods’ of writing don’t work for me, so why should they work for all of my students?” asked Basham. “I offer a lot of different ideas on the writing process to my students. I try to help them find the techniques and ideas that work best for them.”

Basham is currently working on her new play entitled “Echo,” a drama about sexual harassment. She plans to have it produced in New York and to also work on a non-fiction book. Her daily interaction with her students fuels her creativity.

“They are always the ones who are ready to try anything in a script and I love that,” said Basham. “Finding people that are willing to stretch themselves creatively is always invigorating. The act of finding new knowledge, that ‘a-ha’ moment, is what teaching is really about. It isn’t spoon feeding lectures or facts. It’s about figuring out the connections for yourself.”

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