Editing Meryl Streep (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Meryl Streep cheerleader 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Streep as a cheerleader at [[Bernards High School]], 1966]]
Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949, in [[Summit, New Jersey]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vogue.fr/beauty-tips/article/meryl-streep-73-birthday-beauty-looks|publisher=[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]|title=At 73, Meryl Streep is still Queen of fresh beauty looks|last=Coates|first=Hannah|date=June 22, 2022|access-date=June 25, 2022}}</ref> to artist [[Mary Wilkinson Streep]] and pharmaceutical executive Harry William Streep Jr. She has two younger brothers, Harry William Streep III and Dana David Streep, both actors.{{Sfn|Probst|2012|p=7}} Streep's mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame [[Judi Dench]],<ref name="Brockes06"/> strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a very young age.<ref name="VF"/> Streep said, "She was a mentor because she said to me, 'Meryl, you're capable. You're so great.' She was saying, 'You can do whatever you put your mind to. If you're lazy, you're not going to get it done. But if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.' And I believed her." Although she was naturally more introverted than her mother, when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother at times for advice.<ref name="VF"/> 

Streep was raised as a [[Presbyterian]]<ref>{{cite news |first=Joy |last=Horowitz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/17/movies/that-madcap-meryl-really.html |title=That Madcap Meryl. Really! |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 17, 1991 |access-date=January 13, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111182207/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/17/movies/that-madcap-meryl-really.html |archive-date=November 11, 2012 }}</ref> in [[Basking Ridge, New Jersey]], and attended [[Cedar Hill School, Bernards Township, New Jersey|Cedar Hill Elementary School]] and the Oak Street School, which was a junior high school at that time. In her junior high debut, she starred as Louise Heller in the play ''The Family Upstairs''.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Central New Jersey Home News | date=December 10, 2017 | page=A6 | last=Makin | first=Bob | title=Hometown glory: The celebrities of Central Jersey | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-central-new-jersey-home-news-streep/125562804/}}</ref> In 1963, the family moved to [[Bernardsville, New Jersey]], where she attended [[Bernards High School]].<ref>{{cite news |title=N.J. Teachers Honor 6 Graduates |work=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |date=November 12, 1983 |access-date=July 20, 2007 |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29697FA2C7F62&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |quote=Streep is a graduate of Bernards High School in Bernardsville ... |archive-date=July 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712025019/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB29697FA2C7F62&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead }}</ref> Author [[Karina Longworth]] described her as a "gawky kid with glasses and frizzy hair", yet noted that she liked to show off in front of the camera in family home movies from a young age.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=7}} At age 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from [[Estelle Liebling]]. Despite her talent, she later remarked, "I was singing something I didn't feel and understand. That was an important lesson—not to do that. To find the thing that I could feel through."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=7}} She quit after four years. Streep had many [[Catholicism|Catholic]] school friends, and regularly attended [[Mass (religion)|Mass]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/meryl-streep-movies-marriage-and-turning-sixty-1488485.html|title=Meryl Streep: Movies, marriage, and turning sixty|work=[[The Independent]]|date=January 24, 2009|access-date=November 24, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125081844/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/meryl-streep-movies-marriage-and-turning-sixty-1488485.html|archive-date=November 25, 2011}}</ref> She was a high school cheerleader for the Bernards High School Mountaineers. She was also chosen as the homecoming queen her senior year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2015/02/watch_meryl_streeps_alma_mater_bernards_high_featu.html|title=WATCH: Meryl Streep's alma mater Bernards High featured in Oscars 'Good Morning America' segment|website=nj.com|date=February 25, 2015}}</ref> 

[[File:Meryl Streep cheerleader 1966 (cropped 2).jpg|thumb|upright|Streep as a senior in high school, 1966]]
Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theater until acting in the play ''[[Miss Julie]]'' at [[Vassar College]] in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=8}} Vassar drama professor Clinton J. Atkinson noted, "I don't think anyone ever taught Meryl acting. She really taught herself."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=8}} Streep demonstrated an early ability to mimic accents and to quickly memorize her lines. She received her [[Bachelor of Arts|AB]] in drama<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/s/so-sz/meryl-streep/|title=Meryl Streep &#124; Kennedy Center|website=The Kennedy Center}}</ref> ''[[cum laude]]'' in 1971, before applying for an [[Master of Fine Arts|MFA]] from the [[Yale School of Drama]]. At Yale, she supplemented her course fees by working as a waitress and typist, and appeared in over a dozen stage productions per year; at one point, she became overworked and developed ulcers, so she contemplated quitting acting and switching to study law.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=8}} Streep played a variety of roles on stage,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/theater/Meryl_Streep's_roles.doc |title=Yale library's list of all roles played at Yale by Meryl Streep |access-date=March 7, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727193548/http://www.library.yale.edu/humanities/theater/Meryl_Streep%27s_roles.doc |archive-date=July 27, 2010 }}</ref> from [[Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Helena]] in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' to an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights [[Christopher Durang]] and [[Albert Innaurato]].{{Sfn|Gussow|1998|p=265}}<ref>{{cite news | first = Mel|last=Gussow|author-link=Mel Gussow | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/07/movies/critic-s-notebook-luring-actors-back-to-the-stage-they-left-behind.html?pagewanted=1 | title = Critic's Notebook; Luring Actors Back to the Stage They Left Behind | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = January 7, 1991 | access-date = March 7, 2010 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130530102640/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/07/movies/critic-s-notebook-luring-actors-back-to-the-stage-they-left-behind.html?pagewanted=1 | archive-date = May 30, 2013 | df = mdy-all }}</ref> She was a student of choreographer [[Carmen de Lavallade]], whom she introduced at the 2017 [[Kennedy Center Honors]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mason|first1=Jeff|title=Without Trump, Kennedy Center celebrates Lionel Richie and Gloria Estefan|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-kennedycenterhonors/without-trump-kennedy-center-honors-lionel-richie-and-gloria-estefan-idUSKBN1DX0VY|access-date=December 27, 2017|work=Reuters|date=December 3, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226132056/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-kennedycenterhonors/without-trump-kennedy-center-honors-lionel-richie-and-gloria-estefan-idUSKBN1DX0VY|archive-date=December 26, 2017}}</ref> Another of her teachers was [[Robert Lewis (director)|Robert Lewis]], a co-founder of the [[Actors Studio]]. Streep disapproved of some of the acting exercises she was asked to do, remarking that one professor taught the emotional recall technique by delving into personal lives in a way she found "obnoxious".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=10}}{{sfn|Pfaff|Emerson|1987|p=16|ps=. "Her second year, the rage was "emotional recall" by a teacher who "delved into personal lives in a way that I found obnoxious."}} She received her MFA in drama from Yale in 1975.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-bio-mstreep-pg-photogallery.html|title=Meryl Streep: Life in pictures|website=Los Angeles Times|date=September 16, 2014 }}</ref><ref name=originalprofiles/> She also enrolled as a visiting student at [[Dartmouth College]] in 1970, and received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the college in 1981.<ref name=originalprofiles>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Biography, Women: Original profiles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bnBmAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=American Biography Service, Inc.|page=290|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506172702/https://books.google.com/books?id=bnBmAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=May 6, 2016}}</ref>