Since Susan Dietz grew up in an era that celebrated female independence, most of her colleagues would likely be surprised to know she received most of her inspiration from men. And just as surprised were the 20 female students Dietz addressed last night during the final lecture of this semester's Women in Leadership Series. At her talk in Logan Hall, Dietz, a 52-year-old theater producer in Los Angeles, began with a quotation that she said has inspired her life: "Life is lived forward, but understood backward." That said, she chose to speak about her life from the beginning, highlighting the particular events that would inspire, press and cheer the audience. A crowning moment for Dietz occurred at the young age of 13, when she was the first girl to receive a Bat Mitzvah at her synagogue but was forbidden to read from the Torah scroll. Thinking she was a "second-class citizen," Dietz took with her a piece of advice from her grandfather, who said, "Susan, whatever you want to do you can do, but you will have to work really hard." "This was the beginning of my journey as a woman, as a professional and as a seeker of truth," Dietz said. Dietz's journey continued on to Penn, where she received a doctoral degree in Theatrical Literature and married her high school sweetheart. Soon after marriage, her husband left her, and, according to Dietz, she thought her life had ended. "When I was driving on an icy road, it seemed so easy to let go of the wheel and let it all go," Dietz said. Instead of quitting, though, she let the experience propel her into something she never would done before -- theater. "Theater changed my entire life," Dietz said. "It allows you to understand yourself in a way that you never thought possible." After achieving the role of the first daughter in Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, Dietz joined a local therapy group where most of the attendees were in their 40s, except for one other man. Within two days, the man asked Dietz to marry him. She didn't accept the invitation at the time but chose to move to New York with the man, who would later become her husband. Once in New York, she decided to stick with acting for a while before convincing herself that she should try her hand at directing in California. Dietz spent a few years teaching in Los Angeles and then quit to return to theater, where her first production was playwright Wendy Wasserstein's first play, Uncommon Women and Others. "I became the type of person that wanted to have it all," Dietz said. After reopening the Pasadena Playhouse -- which had been defunct for 12 years -- and turning it into a booming theater, Dietz had another nervous breakdown in 1990 and went through a seven-year period of what she dubbed "Theater Detox." At the urging of her husband, though, she finally returned to theater in 1997. Currently, Dietz is still trying to juggle her life. "I'm back in the place I love," she said. "It's very hard and very stressful. But the kids don't need me as much and my husband is very supportive of me." Bringing her life experiences to the females in the audience, Dietz urged the students to embrace theater. "Young people are gonna reinvent the wheel because the wheel really needs reinventing," she said.
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