Ojai author and playwright Robin Gerber recently returned from New York City where her play about Katherine Graham's tumultuous and consequential life was performed by the inimitable Sharon Lawrence. Afterwards, Robin hosted a panel discussion about domestic violence with Gloria Steinem.
It's been quite a journey for Gerber, whose one-woman work about Graham was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2017. It's been performed several times since with Lawrence on stage and Michelle Joyner directing.
Graham's husband Phil, publisher of the Washington Post, was a confidante and close personal friends to JFK and other men of power. He was also abusive toward Katherine; he was mentally ill and ended his life with a shotgun blast.
Graham, despite efforts by Washington Post board members to sideline her, went on to become a formidable publisher herself, publishing the Pentagon Papers and Watergate investigations. The deeply personal play bears witness to the tortured inner life of this remarkable woman, who went from abused spouse to become one the leading lights of the 20th century.
We talked about Robin's biography of Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie, her inspiring book on Eleanor Roosevelt's leadership wisdom, and her next project, about caretaking her husband through his Parkinson's experience. We also talked our shared experience with Cary Odes' standup comedy class.
We did not talk about Amazonian bio-char, Adelaide penguins or ancient flint-knapping technologies.
You can check out more about Robin and her impressive body of work at her publishers' - HarperCollins.com and on Facebook. Robin is a professional public speaker and her website is RobinGerber.com.
