Iris Rainer Dart
Iris Rainer Dart ( Rainer; born March 3, 1944) is an American author and playwright for television and the stage. Her most notable novel is Beaches, which was made into a 1988 film of the same name. She has also written several stage musicals as well as for television shows, such as The Sonny and Cher Show. She also voiced Donna, Peter Cottontail's love interest, in the 1971 stop-motion Easter classic, Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Early life Dart was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was an actress as a youth with the Curtaineers, an inter-racial theater group at the Settlement house, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, and The White Barn Theatre. She also went to classes at the Pittsburgh Playhouse as a child. She graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1962 and was inducted into their alumni hall of fame in 2009. She is also a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in theater. Career In an interview (Summer 2007), when asked the question: "Has the Jewish cultural dynamic in your upbringing influenced what and how you write?", Dart replied "Unquestionably. I grew up in a household where both my parents were immigrants – my mother from Russia,