Terry Earp: Playwright, triathlete, entrepreneur and, to husband Wyatt Earp, 'my hero'
Arizona Republic
By Kerry Lengel
February 18, 2019
In the Phoenix theater scene, she was that rare marvel, a local playwright who could sell out a house. But to her husband and sometime scene partner Wyatt Earp — the great-nephew of his namesake — she was “my hero.”
Terry Tafoya Earp, the Arizona playwright best known for chronicling the lives of legendary gunslingers, died in her Moon Valley home Feb. 15 at age 69 after more than a decade of medical battles following an accident that left her quadriplegic.
“She was training for (another) triathlon when she was hit” in 2006, Wyatt Earp said.
He was bike riding with her when a red-light runner struck. Terry was wearing a helmet, but the accident caused severe spinal injuries that required repeated surgeries.
They had been riding together for a long time. They met in 1978 while scuba diving off the California coast and had bumped into each other at the downtown Phoenix YMCA. When a friend mentioned that Terry was now divorced, Wyatt asked her to a “harmless breakfast,” then mixed up his schedule and stood her up — twice.
“She got back at me,” Wyatt said. Taking over the date planning, Terry planned a morning bike ride to breakfast. She failed to mention it would be with the Greater Arizona Bicycling Association.
“All these people start showing up in fancy cycling clothes and high-tech gear,” he recalled. Oh, and breakfast? It was 25 miles away.
“It about killed me, but I had to be macho and stay up with these guys,” Wyatt said.
And that night, Terry insisted they go dancing.
Born in Pueblo, Colorado, Terry Earp served in the Army in the ’60s before moving to Arizona in 1970. She earned a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s in public administration at Arizona State University, but in 1988 she decided to pursue a new dream: writing plays.
She had her first success two years later with “Skimpies,” a comedy about the goddess Aphrodite moonlighting as a lingerie pitchwoman.
“We didn’t expect it to be a hit, and it saved our theater, essentially, because we were hurting for cash flow, and all of a sudden that play came along and ran for three months or more,” said Raymond Shurtz King, founder of Playwright’s Workshop Theatre.
Earp went on to open her own venue, On the Spot Theater on Central Avenue, which ran off and on for about decade or so before closing in 2003. In addition to her own work, she promoted other playwrights, including King after his theater closed.
“Terry was so affable and so great to work with,” he said. “You could go and pitch her an idea, and she was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ She wasn’t afraid of risks.”
Earp is best known for the historical plays “Wyatt Earp: A Life on the Frontier” (which starred her husband) and “The Gentleman Doc Holliday,” both of which were produced on tour. In addition to her fascination with Arizona history, she also explored personal topics, such as her own mixed Anglo and Latino heritage in a comedy titled “A Touch of Tortilla,” another local hit.
“Terry was probably one of the few working playwrights that was actually kind of eking out a living with it,” King said. “She really was prolific. She had a lot going on.”
When circumstances forced On the Spot to close for good, Earp posed for a photo dressed as a Wagnerian valkyrie to say, “It ain’t over (till the fat lady sings),” recalled Laura Durant, a photographer and PR professional serving the Valley’s arts scene.
“She was fearless, and she literally wrote her own ticket,” Durant said.
“When I first met her, she had a desk job just like I did. And she left her day job, and it inspired me to do what I’m doing now, and to be a champion of original works and new works in the Valley.”
Earp’s 2006 accident was followed by a long, painful rehabilitation, but a year later she was attending theater openings in a wheelchair. She returned to writing with shows such as “In My Humble Opinion,” another historical work about Jack Durant, the late proprietor of the local-legend eatery Durant’s. Adapted from a book, it in turn was adapted into the 2016 film “Durant’s Never Closes.”
Earp also volunteered to help people facing life-changing injuries like her own make the transition to a new life, Wyatt Earp said.
“She talked to them from the chair, so she was living testimony, and she said, ‘Now it’s your job to reinvent yourself.’ And really, isn’t that what we all have to do, all our lives?
“There are not many men you talk to who say their wife is their own hero.”
In addition to her husband, Earp is survived by her sister, Gerri Siebenaller, as well as in-laws and, Wyatt Earp added, Earp’s personal nurse, Danelle Gerischer, who shared caregiving work with him for more than 12 years.
Services will be private.
EARP, Terry (Terry Tafoya)
Born: 1948,Pueblo, Colorado, U.S.A.
Died: 2/15/2019, Moon Valley, Arizona, U.S.A.
Terry Earp’s westerns – actress, playwright:
The Tombstone Saga – 1996 [playwright, actress]
Wyatt Earp: A Life on the Frontier – 1996 [playwright, actress]
The Gentleman Doc Holliday - 1998 [playwright, actress]
Kate, the Woman of Many Names – 1998 [playwright, actress]
Of Legends and Lovers: Doc and Kate – 1998 [playwright, actress]
Mrs. Wyatt Earp – 2004 [playwright, actress]
Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Earp – 2006 [playwright, actress]
Will Rogers: A Ropin’ Fool – 2010 [playwright]
Lark, a Cowboy Women’s Ride – 2012 [playwright]