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The Tragic Story Of Margaret Holloway
“The Shakespeare Lady”
The story of Margaret Holloway is one of immense talent and severe mental illness.
Margaret was born to a minister and his wife in Georgia on Sept. 7, 1951. She attended Bennington College, with the help of a minority student placement program, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in drama. Margaret applied and was accepted into The Yale Drama School in 1974 during a time when Sigourney Weaver, costumer William Ivey, Meryl Streep, playwrights Christopher Durang, Wendy Wasserstein and Albert Innaurato were students.
Yale Alumni Magazine
“For nearly 20 years, Margaret Holloway ‘80MFA has been known to campus denizens as the “Shakespeare lady” who recites lines of Shakespeare or Chaucer for spare change. Holloway’s story has now been told in a short documentary, “God Didn’t Give Me A Week’s Notice,” which premiered at the York Square Cinema. The film was made by Richard Dailey, who knew Holloway at Bennington.
By the time Margaret finished her MFA at Yale in 1980, erratic thoughts, and behaviors associated with the onset of schizophrenia were beginning to show. Yale Drama School administrators were noticing these change
Especially after she handed in her master’s thesis, “God’s Smoke: A Thesis Production.” Margaret’s…