Actress Meryl Streep, known for her touching and genuine roles in such cinema classics as "Out of Africa" and "The Bridges of Madison County," will be the recipient of the Dartmouth Film Award in a tribute to her and her works on October 18 in Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins Center.
The event, titled "A Tribute to Meryl Streep," will include an on-stage interview of the actress and a screening of a compilation of her films.
Although Streep is a likely candidate for the award because of her work in cinema, her ties to Dartmouth extend a little deeper than past recipients.
Streep was, in fact, an exchange student here from Vasser College during the fall term of 1970 and is an honorary graduate of the Class of 1981.
She became one of the first women to take classes at the College and her enrollment predates the matriculation of women to the College in 1972.
Here at the College, she is fondly remembered by Professor Errol D. Hill, now John D. Willard, Professor of Drama and Oratory, Emeritus.
During her stint, Streep took a play-writing class taught by Hill.
Hill says Streep wrote a "respectable one-act play" in his course and she always seemed very serious about her drama studies.
After graduating from Vassar, Streep earned a master of fine arts degree at the Yale Drama School in 1975. At Yale, she became a star of sorts having starred in six of the seven plays presented by the Yale Repertory Theatre.
The summer of her graduation, she worked with the O'Neill Playwrights Conference.
Streep later moved to New York City, where she earned the coveted Outer Critics Circle Award in her first season. She was Tony-nominated for her performances in serveral one-act plays including Tennessee Williams' "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" and Arthur Miller's "A Memory of Two Mondays."
She also received accolades for her lead in Joseph Papp's Lincoln Center production of "Trelawney of the Wells."
Her theatre credits on and off Broadway include three Shake-speare-in-the-Park productions, the musical "Happy End," and an Obie-winning role in "Alice."
Her movie career began with a role in 1977 playing Jane Fonda's crony in "Julia." Later she starred opposite Robert DeNiro in Michael Cimino's critically-acclaimed film, "The Deer Hunter." The film chronicles the lives of five friends who are changed when three of them go off to war in another country.
With this role she garnered her first Oscar nomination (Streep is a seven-time Oscar nominated actress).
Streep later won her first Oscar in 1982 for her most noted film, "Sophie's Choice." She picked up a second Oscar for her riveting performance opposite Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer."
Her other Oscar nominated works include "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Out of Africa," "Silkwood," "Ironweed," "A Cry in the Dark," for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and, most recently "The Bridges of Madison County," in which she played Clint Eastwood's star-crossed lover, Francesca Johnson.
Streep's latest projects include "Marvin's Room," directed by Dartmouth's own Jerry Zaks, and the cinematic adaptation of Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres," which also stars Michelle Pfeiffer.
Streep's other works include "Manhattan," "The Seduction of Joe Tynan," "Postcards from the Edge," Falling in Love," "Plenty," "Heartburn," "She-Devil," which co-starred Rosanne Barr, "Defending Your Life" and "Before & After." She is currently filming in Ireland for her next movie, "Dancing at Lughnasa."
Born on June 22, 1949 in Summit, NJ., Streep is currently married to Donald Gummer and has one son and three daughters.
Admission to the tribute is $3 for DFS members and $10 for non-members. Students will be able to buy tickets starting Friday, October 3. However, students may only purchase one ticket per person.
The DFS marquee titled, "Shattering the Ceiling," which also celebrates coeducation at the College, includes both Streep's "Sophie Choice" and "Kramer vs. Kramer." The two films will play on Sunday, October 12.
