Edward Albee

Edward Albee
Albee in 1975
Born	Edward Franklin Albee III (1928-03-12)March 12, 1928 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	September 16, 2016(2016-09-16)(aged 88) Montauk, New York,U.S.
Education	Trinity College
Period	1958–2016
Notable works	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Zoo Story A Delicate Balance The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Three Tall Women
Notable awards	Pulitzer Prize for Drama Tony Award for Best Play National Medal of Arts Special Tony Award America Award in Literature
Partner	Jonathan Thomas (esp.1971; died 2005)

Edward Franklin Albee III(/ˈɔːlbiː/AWL-bee;March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such asThe Zoo Story(1958),The Sandbox(1959),Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(1962),A Delicate Balance(1966), andThree Tall Women(1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of whatMartin Esslinidentified as and named theTheater of the Absurd.Three of his plays won thePulitzer Prize for Dramaand two of his other works won theTony Award for Best Play.

His works are often considered frank 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 asSamuel Beckett,Eugène Ionesco,andJean Genet.

His middle period comprised plays that explored the psychology of maturing, marriage and sexual relationships. Younger American playwrights, such asPaula Vogel,credit Albee's mix of theatricality and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent postwar American theatre in the early 1960s. Later in life, Albee continued to experiment in works such asThe Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?(2002).

Early life

Edward Albee was born in 1928. His biological father left his mother, Louise Harvey, and he was placed for adoption two weeks later and taken to Larchmont, New York, where he grew up.Albee's adoptive father,Reed A. Albee,the wealthy son ofvaudevillemagnateEdward Franklin Albee II,owned several theaters. His adoptive mother, Reed's second wife, Frances (Cotter), was a socialite.He later based the main character of his 1991 playThree Tall Womenon his mother, with whom he had a conflicted relationship.

Albee attended the Rye Country Day School, then theLawrenceville Schoolin New Jersey, from which he was expelled.He then was sent toValley Forge Military Academyin Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he was dismissed in less than a year.He enrolled atThe Choate School(now Choate Rosemary Hall) inWallingford, Connecticut,graduating in 1946. He had attracted theatre attention by having scripted and published nine poems, eleven short stories, essays, a long act play,Schism,and a 500-page novel,The Flesh of Unbelievers(Horn, 1) in 1946. His formal education continued atTrinity Collegein Hartford, Connecticut, where he was expelled in 1947 for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel.

Albee left home for good 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."In a 1994 interview, he said he left home at 18 because "[he] had to get out of that stultifying, suffocating environment."In 2008, he told interviewerCharlie Rosethat he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate thug" and did not approve of his aspirations to be a writer.

Career

Edward Albee, photographed byCarl Van Vechten,1961

1959–1966: The Early Plays

Albee moved into New York'sGreenwich Village,where he supported himself with odd jobs while learning to write plays.Primarily in his early plays, Albee's work had various representations of theLGBTQIA community often challenging the image of a heterosexual marriage.Despite challenging society's views about the gay community, he did not view himself as an LGBT advocate.Albee's work typically criticized theAmerican Dream.His first play,The Zoo Story,written in three weeks,was first staged inBerlinin 1959 before premiering Off-Broadway in 1960.His next,The Death of Bessie Smith,similarly premiered in Berlin before arriving in New York.

Albee's most iconic play,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,opened on Broadway at theBilly Rose Theatreon October 13, 1962, and closed on May 16, 1964, after five previews and 664 performances. The opening night cast featuredUta Hagen.Arthur Hill,George GrizzardandMelinda Dillon.The play won theTony Award for Best Playin 1963 and was selected for the1963 Pulitzer Prizeby the award's drama jury, but the selection was overruled by the advisory committee, which elected not to give a drama award at all.The two members of the jury,John Mason BrownandJohn Gassner,subsequently resigned in protest.AnAcademy Award-winningfilm adaptationbyErnest Lehmanwas released in 1966 starringElizabeth Taylor,Richard Burton,George Segal,andSandy Dennis,and was directed byMike Nichols.In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registryby theLibrary of Congressas "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

1971–1987: The Middle Plays

Edward Albee by Irish artistReginald Gray(The New York Times,1966), inspired by a photograph taken in 1962 fromBettmann/Corbis.

In 1971 he wroteAll Over,a two-act play originally titled,Death,the second half of a projected double bill with another play calledLife(which later becameSeascape).The play premiered onBroadwayat theMartin Beck TheatrewithJohn Gielguddirecting and starredJessica Tandy,Madeleine Sherwood,andColleen Dewhurst.The New York TimeswriterClive Barneswrote, "It is a lovely, poignant and deeply felt play. In no way at all is it an easy play -- this formal minuet of death, this symphony ironically celebrating death's dominion. It is not easy in its structure, a series of almost operatic arias demanding, in their precision, pin-point concentration from the audience, and it is certainly not easy in its subject matter."

In 1974 he wroteSeascape,which won thePulitzer Prize for Drama.It debuted on Broadway withDeborah KerrandFrank Langella.It was nominated for theTony Award for Best Playlosing toPeter Shaffer'sEquus.Clive Barnes ofThe New York Timesdeclared the play "a major event", adding, "As Mr. Albee has matured as a playwright, his work has become leaner, sparer and simpler. He depends on strong theatrical strokes to attract the attention of the audience, but the tone of the writing is always thoughtful, even careful, even philosophic." He compared his work alongsideSamuel BeckettandHarold Pinter.

Albee continued to write plays includingListening(1976),Counting the Ways(1976) before a brief break beforeThe Lady from Dubuque(1980) which had a short run on Broadway.He wrote the three act playThe Man Who Had Three Arms(1983) which was received negatively withFrank RichofThe New York Timeswriting, "isn't a play - it's a temper tantrum in two acts... One of the more shocking lapses of Mr. Albee's writing is that he makes almost no attempt even to pretend that Himself is anything other than a maudlin stand-in for himself, with the disappearing arm representing an atrophied talent."

Albee's plays during the 1980s received mixed reviews with Michael Billington ofThe Guardianwriting, "American dramatists invariably end up as victims of their own myth: in a success-crazed culture they are never forgiven for failing to live up to their own early masterpieces. But if Edward Albee has suffered the same cruel fate asArthur MillerandTennessee Williams,he has kept on trucking ".Billington wrote of Albee's 1987 play,Marriage Play,"At the end the play achieves a metaphorical resonance by suggesting that marriage is an accumulation of meaningless habits and that" nothing has made any difference ".

1991–2016: The Later Plays

In 1991 he wrote the playThree Tall Women,a two act play that premiered at theVienna's English Theatreabout three unnamed women. The play was revived in 2018 directed byJoe MantellostarringGlenda Jackson,Laurie Metcalf,andAllison Pill.The 2018 production received theTony Award for Best Revival of a Play.Allison Adato ofEntertainment Weeklywrote of the play, "Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, in which a nonagenarian revisits events of her life refracted through both her own dementia and the differing recollections of her younger selves, is a not-quite-memory play filled with regret, resentment, entitlement, various bodily indignities".

Georgia State UniversityEnglish professor Matthew Roudane divides Albee's plays into three periods: the Early Plays (1959–1966), characterized by gladiatorial confrontations, bloodied action and fight to the metaphorical death; the Middle Plays (1971–1987), when Albee lost the favor of Broadway audience and started premiering in the U.S. regional theaters and in Europe; and the Later Plays (1991–2016), received as a remarkable comeback and watched by appreciative audiences and critics the world over.

According toThe New York Times,Albee was "widely considered to be the foremost American playwright of his generation."The less-than-diligent student later dedicated much of his time to promoting American university theatre. He served as a Distinguished Professor of Playwriting and held the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in the Performing Arts at theUniversity of Houston.His plays are published byDramatists Play ServiceandSamuel French, Inc.

Philanthropy

Albee established theEdward F. Albee Foundation, Inc.in 1967, from royalties from his playWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.The foundation funds theWilliam Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center(named after the composerWilliam Flanagan,but better known as "The Barn" ) inMontauk, New York,as a residence for writers and visual artists. The foundation's mission is "to serve writers and visual artists from all walks of life, by providing time and space in which to work without disturbance."

Personal life and death

Albee was gay and stated that he first knew he was gay at age 12 and a half.

As a teen in Larchmont, Albee became a close friend of English-born Muir Weissinger Jr. and his family. Albee, along with others, referred to Florence, Muir's mother, as "Mummy." For her part, Albee's mother felt he spent too much time at the Weissinger household. Albee dated Muir's sister, Delphine, and escorted her to her coming-out party. Albee and Delphine had a "long and intense relationship" while it lasted; Albee has said they were "unofficially engaged." Albee kept in touch for a long time with Florence and Muir Weissinger.

Albee insisted that he did not want to be known as a "gay writer", saying in his acceptance speech for the 2011Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement: "A writer who happens to be gay or lesbian must be able to transcend self. I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay."His longtime partner, Jonathan Richard Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from bladder cancer. They had been partners from 1971 until Thomas's death. Albee also had a relationship of several years with playwrightTerrence McNallyduring the 1950s.

Albee died at his home in Montauk, New York on September 16, 2016, aged 88.

Albee lived in a 6,000-square-foot loft that was a former cheese warehouse in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. At the time of his death Albee held an expansive collection of fine art, utilitarian works and sculptures. Albee was especially interested in artworks created by indigenous cultures in Africa and Oceania.

Works

Plays

Works written or adapted by Albee:

• The Zoo Story(1959)
• The Death of Bessie Smith(1960)
• The Sandbox(1960)
• Fam and Yam(1960)
• The American Dream(1961)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(1962)
• Tiny Alice(1964)
• A Delicate Balance(1966)
• Everything in the Garden(1967)
• BoxandQuotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung(1968)
• All Over(1971)
• Seascape(1975)
• Listening(1976)
• Counting the Ways(1976)
• The Lady from Dubuque(1980)
• The Man Who Had Three Arms(1982)
• Finding the Sun(1983)
• Walking(1984)
• Envy(1985)
• Marriage Play(1987)
• Three Tall Women(1991)
• The Lorca Play(1992)
• Fragments(1993)
• The Play About the Baby(1998)
• The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?(2000)
• Occupant(2001)
• Knock! Knock! Who's There!?(2003)
• At Home at the Zoo(2004)
• Me Myself and I(2007)

Adaptations

• The Ballad of the Sad Café(1963) (adapted from the novella byCarson McCullers)
• Malcolm(1966) (adapted from the novel byJames Purdy)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's(adapted from the novel byTruman Capote) (1966)
• Everything in the Garden(adapted from the play byGiles Cooper) (1967)
• Lolita(adapted from the novel byVladimir Nabokov) (1981)

Opera libretti

• Bartleby(adapted from the short story byHerman Melville) (1961)
• The Ice Age(1963, uncompleted)

Essays

• Stretching My Mind: Essays 1960–2005(Avalon Publishing, 2005).ISBN9780786716210.

Accolades and accomplishments

Albee in 1997

A member of theDramatists GuildCouncil, Albee received threePulitzer Prizesfordrama—forA Delicate Balance(1967),Seascape(1975), andThree Tall Women(1994). Albee was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1972.In 1985, Albee was inducted into theAmerican Theatre Hall of Fame.In 1999, Albee received thePEN/Laura Pels Theater Awardas a Master American Dramatist.He received a SpecialTony Awardfor Lifetime Achievement (2005);the gold medal in Drama from theAmerican Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters(1980); as well as theKennedy Center Honorsand theNational Medal of Arts(both in 1996).In 2009, Albee received honorary degree from the Bulgarian National Academy of Theater and Film Arts (NATFA), a member of the Global Alliance of Theater Schools.In 2008, in celebration of Albee's 80th birthday, a number of his plays were mounted in distinguishedOff-Broadwayvenues, including the historicCherry Lane Theatrewhere the playwright directed two of his early one-acts,The American DreamandThe Sandbox.

Pulitzer Prize
Year	Category	Project	Result	Ref.
1967	Pulitzer Prize for Drama	A Delicate Balance	Won
1975		Seascape	Won
1994		Three Tall Women	Won
2001		The Play About the Baby	Nominated
2003		The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Nominated
Tony Awards
1963	Best Play	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Won
1964		The Ballad of the Sad Cafe	Nominated
1965	Best Author	Tiny Alice	Nominated
1965	Best Play		Nominated
1967		A Delicate Balance	Nominated
1975		Seascape	Nominated
2002		The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Won
2005	Lifetime Achievement		Received
Drama Desk Award
1960	Vernon Rice Award	The Zoo Story	Won
1975	Outstanding New Play	Seascape	Nominated
1976	Outstanding Director of a Play	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Nominated
1994	Outstanding Play	Three Tall Women	Nominated
2002	Outstanding New Play	The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?	Won
2008	Special Award		Received
Grammy Award
1963	Best Spoken Word Album	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Won
	Best Album Notes		Nominated

Honorary awards

• 1995:St. Louis Literary Awardfrom the Saint Louis University Library Associates
• 1996: National Medal of Arts
• 2003Fitzgerald Award Award for Achievement in American Literature award
• 2005:Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award
• 2011: Edward MacDowell Medal for Lifetime Achievement
• 2011: Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement,Lambda Literary Foundation
• 2013: Chicago Tribune Literary Prize
• 2015:America Award in Literature

References

"Edward Albee".Charlie Rose,May 27, 2008.

Further reading

• Solomon, Rakesh H.Albee in Performance.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

External links

Archives

• Edward Albee scripts, 1949–1966,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Edward Albee PlaysArchivedJuly 30, 2020, at theWayback Machineatthe Newberry Library
• Robert A. Wilson collection,Special Collections, University of Delaware Library

Other links

• Edward F. Albee Foundation
• The Edward Albee Society
• Edward AlbeeatIMDb
• Edward AlbeeatAllMovie
• Edward Albeeat theInternet Broadway Database
• Edward Albeeat theInternet Off-Broadway Database