[1] She returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C., and acquired a job as unit clerk in the AIDS and cancer treatment wing of a research hospital.
The artistic team at South Coast Repertory worked with Edson to condense her two-act play into one act.
The revised Wit was produced at SCR in 1995 [2] and won 1995 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for Production, Direction (Martin Benson), Writing, Lead Performance (Megan Cole), Lighting Design (Paulie Jenkins), and the Ted Schmitt Award.
In 1997, the young director Derek Anson Jones was chosen by the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, to create a new production of the play.
Wit opened in November 1997 at the Long Wharf Theatre, directed by Jones and starring Kathleen Chalfant and featuring Walter Charles and Alec Phoenix as her doctors and Paula Pizzi as her nurse.
Championed by Kathleen Chalfant, the play was produced by the Off-Broadway Manhattan Class Company in September 1998 at the MCC Theater[6] and then opened at the Union Square Theatre on October 6, 1998 and closed on April 9, 2000 after 545 performances,[7] receiving positive reviews.
Edson was presented with the John Gassner and George Oppenheimer playwriting awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
HBO secured the film rights to the play and engaged Mike Nichols to direct and Emma Thompson to star.