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Edward Albee Information

Edward Franklin Albee III (pronounced /ˈɔːlbiː/ AWL-bee; born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story (1958), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966) and Three Tall Women (1994). His works are considered well-crafted, often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula Vogel, credit Albee's daring mix of theatricalism and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent the post-war American theatre in the early 1960s. Albee continues to experiment in new works, such as The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia? (2002).

Contents

Biography

Edward Albee at the Miami Book Fair International of 1987

According to Magill's Survey of American Literature (2007), Edward Albee was born somewhere in Virginia (the popular belief is that he was born in Washington, D.C.). He was adopted two weeks later and taken to Larchmont, New York in Westchester County, where he grew up. Albee's adoptive father, Reed A. Albee, the wealthy son of vaudeville magnate Edward Franklin Albee II, owned several theaters. Here the young Edward first gained familiarity with the theatre as a child. His adoptive mother, Reed's third wife, Frances tried to raise Albee to fit into their social circles.

Albee attended the Clinton High School, then the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, from which he was expelled. He then was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he was dismissed in less than a year. He enrolled at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, graduating in 1946. His formal education continued at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was expelled in 1947 for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel. In response to his expulsion, Albee's play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is believed to be based on his experiences at Trinity College.

Albee left home for good when he was in his late teens. In a later interview, he said: "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't know how to be a son, either."[1] More recently, he told interviewer Charlie Rose that he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate gangsta and didn't approve of his aspirations to become a writer.[2]

Albee moved into New York's Greenwich Village, where he supported himself with odd jobs while learning to write plays. His first play, The Zoo Story, was first staged in Berlin. The less than diligent student later dedicated much of his time to promoting American university theatre. He currently is a distinguished professor at the University of Houston, where he teaches an exclusive playwriting course. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service[3] and Samuel French, Inc..

Honors

A member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Albee has received three Pulitzer Prizes for drama—for A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975), and Three Tall Women (1994); a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2005); the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1980); as well as the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts (both in 1996).

Albee is the President of the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc., which maintains the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center, a writers and artists colony in Montauk, New York. Albee's longtime partner, Jonathan Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from bladder cancer.

In 2008, in celebration of Albee's eightieth birthday, a number of his plays were mounted in distinguished Off Broadway venues, including the historic Cherry Lane Theatre. The playwright directed two of his one-acts, The American Dream and The Sandbox there. These were first produced at the theater in 1961 and 1962, respectively.

Plays

Essays

Quotes

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Discography

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations

The Pulitzer Prize committee for the Best Play in 1963 recommended Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the Pulitzer board, who have sole discretion in awarding the prize, rejected the recommendation, due to the play's perceived vulgarity, and no award was given that year.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Edward Albee Interview", Academy of Achievement, June 2, 2005
  2. ^ "Albee interview", The Charlie Rose Show, May 27, 2008
  3. ^ Dramatists Play Service
  4. ^ Edward Albee Interview - page 6 / 6 - Academy of Achievement
  5. ^ Edward Albee - Me, Myself & I - Peter and Jerry - Theater - New York Times
  6. ^ Klein, Alvin. "Albee's 'Tiny Alice', The Whole Enchilada", The New York Times, 24 May 1998: CT11.

External links

Literature portal
Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Joseph Kramm (1952) · William Inge (1953) · John Patrick (1954) · Tennessee Williams (1955) · Albert Hackett / Frances Goodrich (1956) · Eugene O'Neill (1957) · Ketti Frings (1958) · Archibald MacLeish (1959) · Jerome Weidman / George Abbott / Jerry Bock / Sheldon Harnick (1960) · Tad Mosel (1961) · Frank Loesser / Abe Burrows (1962) · Frank D. Gilroy (1965) · Edward Albee (1967) · Howard Sackler (1969) · Charles Gordone (1970) · Paul Zindel (1971) · Jason Miller (1973) · Edward Albee (1975)

· ·

Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Michael Bennett / Nicholas Dante / James Kirkwood, Jr. / Marvin Hamlisch / Edward Kleban (1976) · Michael Cristofer (1977) · Donald L. Coburn (1978) · Sam Shepard (1979) · Lanford Wilson (1980) · Beth Henley (1981) · Charles Fuller (1982) · Marsha Norman (1983) · David Mamet (1984) · James Lapine / Stephen Sondheim (1985) · August Wilson (1987) · Alfred Uhry (1988) · Wendy Wasserstein (1989) · August Wilson (1990) · Neil Simon (1991) · Robert Schenkkan (1992) · Tony Kushner (1993) · Edward Albee (1994) · Horton Foote (1995) · Jonathan Larson (1996) · Paula Vogel (1998) · Margaret Edson (1999) · Donald Margulies (2000)

· ·

Edward Albee plays

The Zoo Story · The Death of Bessie Smith · The Sandbox · Fam and Yam · The American Dream · Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? · The Ballad of the Sad Cafe · Tiny Alice · Malcolm · A Delicate Balance · Everything in the Garden · Box · All Over · Seascape · Listening · Counting the Ways · The Lady From Dubuque · Lolita · The Man Who Had Three Arms · Finding the Sun · Marriage Play · Three Tall Women · The Lorca Play · Fragments · The Play About the Baby · The Goat: or, Who is Sylvia? · Occupant · Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo
1996 Kennedy Center Honorees
Edward Albee · Benny Carter · Johnny Cash · Jack Lemmon · Maria Tallchief
Persondata
Name Albee, Edward
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth 12 March 1928
Place of birth Washington D.C.
Date of death
Place of death

Categories: 1928 births | Living people | Actors Studio alumni | American dramatists and playwrights | American Episcopalians | American theatre directors | Gay writers | Grammy Award winners | Kennedy Center honorees | Choate Rosemary Hall alumni | LGBT writers from the United States | Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters | Writers from New York | People from Washington, D.C. | Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners | Rye Country Day school alumni | Theatre of the Absurd | Tony Award winners | Trinity College, Hartford alumni | United States National Medal of Arts recipients | University of Houston faculty | American adoptees

 

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