At a little before 2 pm on February 24th, I called the phone number which Arena Stage had provided. A thin, cultured, cheery voice said, “Hello?” I explained who I was and asked to speak with Edward Albee. “This is he,” the voice said, and just like that I was on the phone – with all respect to Tom Stoppard – with the world’s greatest living playwright.

Albee, who writes fierce dialogue, has a reputation as a fierce, and fiercely guarded, man. I found him to be completely otherwise – open, gracious, optimistic and full of laughter. His answers to my questions were enormously polished and succinct, but they were also thoughtful and substantive. He spoke extensively on his writing process, which many writers are unwilling to do, and he gave an understanding of characters and events in A Delicate Balance which help us unlock the human heart of that play. [Read more...]

Actress Kathleen Chalfant, perhaps best known for her role as Vivian Bearing in Margaret Edson’s Wit (winning her numerous awards including an OBIE), began her career in New York in 1972. She has  played an astonishing range of roles written by playwrights such as Jules Feiffer, Christopher Durang, Eve Ensler, Samuel Beckett, Alan Bennett and Tony Kushner (Angels in America earned her a Tony nomination). She is in town to portray Agnes in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, now in production at Arena Stage.

In an Arena Stage interview, Ms. Chalfant described the playwright: “I admire Albee’s writing deeply. There is never a false word. Albee’s language carries an actor rather than the other way around. His language is the roadmap which leads me, the actor, into the world of the play.”  Here, we investigate the world of A Delicate Balance, and the life of this celebrated actress. Our interview with Edward Albee will appear shortly. [Read more...]