Betty May
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Betty May

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Betty May is theatrical director, a writer, a teacher, and a clown. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she attended high school on Long Island. She was graduated from Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) with majors in theater and history and a minor in science. In college, she met and married Gerald (Jerry) G. May.

While their four children were growing up she taught acting, dance, and exercise classes. She conducted a class entitled "Parent and Child Messin' Around," and wrote and had published a non-fiction book based on that class: T.S.K.H.* *TICKLE SNUG KISS HUG Exercises and Tricks for Parent-Child Fun (Paulist Press).

Her drama classes grew and she opened her own theater in a derelict movie house with kid, teen, and adult companies. The kids and teens toured extensively, including a teen trip to France, England, and Switzerland. These years were filled with Broadway musicals and plays she wrote to fill in the gaps between major productions.

When the late 1980s recession set in, grant money dried up and the theater closed. Betty expanded her theatrical efforts to Central America. She taught high school during the school year (Theater, Art History, and Spanish) and spent the summers in a squatters' settlement in Guatemala. She started with a troupe of thirty-five street kids; over seven years it swelled to a company of ninety. They performed in other settlements, churches, schools, community centers, and synagogues. They toured mountain villages, where the indigenous inhabitants spoke only the languages of their ancient ancestors. The children enchanted the public at the National Palace and at the Guatemalan version of The Hollywood Bowl. Their performances culminated in a featured hour-long appearance on Guatemalan national television.

Betty's husband, Jerry, was a psychiatrist, spiritual consultant, and author. He wrote ten books in all, including ADDICTION AND GRACE and THE WISDOM OF WILDERNESS. When he died after a protracted battle with cancer, it fell to Betty to edit the latter, the most difficult task of her life.

Following Jerry's death, Betty searched for something to do she and Jerry had not done together. She went to clown school, learned to juggle, spin plates, and make balloon animals, and became a variety artist. She performed at parties and community and business events, and directed spring and summer camps at her son's circus school.

Betty has two novels on Kindle and in print: CHANGING CORNERS, a Young Adult novel based on racism in the late 1950s, and her latest book, PAYBACK, a Middle Grade prequel to CHANGING CORNERS based on bullying. A Middle Grade novel, WHERE SPACE BEGINS, based on the importance of dreams, is still in progress.

In 2008, Betty went into a maximum security prison in response to a somewhat bizarre request: write a comedy about life in prison. Twelve years later, she is an activist in the judicial system, testifying before congressional committees and advocating for people she once knew only through horrific newspaper headlines. Her work in the prison led to her book: FACES Incarcerated Women and Their Struggle with the Criminal Justice System.

Betty's sojourn into a Maryland maximum-security prison was more foreign to her than the time she spent in Guatemala. What started as a simple theatrical gig turned into a life-changing phenomenon. While she continues with her directing and writing, she is totally committed to advocating for the women who have become her friends and lobbying for progressive changes in our judicial and penal systems. Through her workshops for teenagers and young adults, she hopes to spread the women's advice and words of warning to young people everywhere.
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