Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, FCT Board of DirectorsNovelist / Playwright
A best-selling novelist and playwright. Her first novel "A Woman of Independent Means" was adapted by the author into a one-woman play and, following its Broadway premiere starring Barbara Rush, toured the country. The book was later adapted for a six-hour NBC miniseries starring Sally Field who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance. The play is performed every Mother's Day at the Fremont Centre Theatre by co-founder Lissa Layng as a tribute to her mother Rosemary Layng.
A later novel "Joanna's Husband and David's Wife" was adapted by the author as a two-character play which premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse and subsequently was performed in Dallas, Philadelphia, New York City, and, most recently at the Fremont in a critically acclaimed production starring Lissa Layng and Vaughn Armstrong. Hailey moved to Los Angeles in 1967 when a play by her late husband Oliver Hailey closed the premiere season of the Mark Taper Forum. She works as a community activist when she's not writing, currently serving on the board of Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace and on the Vestry of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City.
