Margaret Edson has always had an appreciation for writing and an interest in words.

“Writing to some people is like a root canal,” said Edson, now an Inman Middle School social studies teacher. “It’s just agony, and it never was to me. The thought of trying to capture my ideas in writing was never burdensome, never an uphill task for me.”

As the daughter of a medical social worker and a retired newspaper columnist in Washington, D.C., Edson, never saw the appeal of keeping a journal or writing short stories or fiction of any kind; she was more fascinated by academic essays during college and graduate school. She didn’t see the value in creative writing until she had the idea to write a play, the same one that later won a Pulitzer Prize and was performed recently by the Grady Drama Department: “W;t.”

“I was thinking about [writing “W;t”] for a couple of years, but I had to organize my life… so I had space to write it,” said Edson. “And I just decided to do it. It was something I wanted to do, and so I decided to do it.”

The play “W;t” is about Vivian Bearing, an acclaimed English professor who is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, but as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have always directed her.

Edson initially had doubts about the quality of her play compared to others she had watched.

Edson said she sent her play to what felt like “every theater in the country,” 60 total. Expecting the worst, she was happy every theater did not reject the play outright.

“When theaters want to see more, they ask for a character list and a 10-page excerpt,” she said. “Picking only 10 pages of my play was one of the harder things I had to do.”

After all her work, one theater finally replied back with a “yes’’: South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Ca.

“It was an amazing feeling getting yes,” Edson said.

Edson’s play started going through live readings at South Coast.

“You would think that for new plays the theater would put the new actors to read and put their best actors for Shakespeare,” Edson said. “But this theater was different, they made sure they put their A-team on the new plays, and Shakespeare could handle himself.”

Originally, “W;t” was a two-act play, but after going through the rehearsal process for its world premiere, Edson had to edit her two-hour play to less than 90 minutes.

“Cutting down the play I worked so hard on was such a horrible experience,” Edson said.

After eliminating parts of her play, she also decided to make “W;t” a piece with no intermission.

“A play with no intermission is a stylistic choice that I am glad I made,” Edson said. “About halfway through, there is no sense that the play is going anywhere, but then once the perimeter is sealed and the momentum is going through the evening, the audience is really able to share the generation of energy that leads toward ending her redemption.”

Once “W;t” finished its run in California, Edson went on a search to find another theater to show her now critically-acclaimed play, but no one would pick it up. Two years later, her high school friend, who happened to be assistant directing a play at Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn., introduced the piece to another director, and “W;t” finally had the chance to be shown on the East Coast, this time at Long Wharf Theater.

“It was a very successful production there, and the New York Times, for some reason, decided to review this production in New Haven, which they don’t usually do,”  Edson said. “But, they went, and they reviewed it the weekend it closed, and it was a glowing review, and obviously what they were trying to say was ‘let’s move this play.’”

Even with such an incredible review from the New York Times, it was still another year before the play was finally picked up in New York, at what Edson described as an “off-off Broadway” theater, with only 90 seats. The play truly took off when the New York Times reviewed the show again, and it became a ticket to get in New York.

“W;t” was shown in Union Square in 1999, with 500 seats this time. “W;t” won the Pulitzer Prize that April, and ran for another year before finally getting to Broadway in a 2011 revival. In 2012, “W;t” was nominated for a Tony as “Best Revival of a Play.”

Throughout all of “W;t”’s success, Edson worked as a teacher, discovering her love of educating children while volunteering as a tutor at a public elementary school. At the same time, she earned her graduate degree at Georgetown University.

After writing her master’s thesis about one of the children she was tutoring, Edson became an elementary school teacher. She taught English as a second language for five years. She then taught first grade at a low income school in Washington before coming to Atlanta and teaching kindergarten at John Hope Elementary School prior to moving on to Inman as a sixth grade social studies teacher.

“Ms. Edson was always really excited about everything, and it always made her class really interesting and fun,” said Elias Podber, one of Edson’s former students from Inman.

Despite “W;t”’s success Edson said she would not consider writing another play because of how much she enjoyed teaching.

“Teaching is my passion and has always been, even when I was a tutor,” Edson said. “I feel no need to write another play because, instead of putting my thoughts on paper, I can now share them with my students. And I enjoy that tremendously.”

By Jared Steckl and Orly Mansbach