After 27 years as creator and executive producer of the acclaimed PBS biography series American Masters, Susan Wagner Lacy ’70 has signed a deal to produce and direct documentaries for HBO.Lacy will create a biographical series for HBO. “This was a wonderful opportunity for me to continue to make films,” she told The New York Times. Lacy created American Masters in 1986, and for the series’ first decade she produced the work of other documentarians. Eventually, she made films of her own, covering subjects including Paul Simon, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, John Lennon, Leonard Bernstein, and Joni Mitchell. Successful as American Masters has been, Lacy faced a challenge getting it off the ground, she recalled in a 2010 interview with University of Mary Washington Magazine. “Everybody laughed at me when I had the idea for the series, and now I’m getting lifetime achievement awards.” The series also has won numerous Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and Grammys. … [Read more...]