Edward Albee, the seminal American playwright and three-time Pulitzer winner who is generally considered the greatest playwright of the latter half of the twentieth century, died yesterday afternoon at his home in Montauk, New York. He was 88.
Albee won Pulitzer prizes for A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Two Tall Women. His most famous play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (to be performed later this season at Ford’s) was selected for the award by the award’s drama jury, but overruled by the award’s advisory committee, which elected to give no award.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf has played three times in DC recently — once at the Kennedy Center, once, produced by Steppenwolf Theatre, at Arena Stage, and once at Maryland Ensemble Theatre.
Albee was born in Virginia — thought by many near (or perhaps in) Washington — and adopted by Reed A. Albee, the son of vaudeville magnate Edward Franklin Albee II. Edward Albee attended Trinity College, but was expelled for skipping classes and refusing to attend chapel.
“I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents,” Albee was quoted as saying. “I don’t think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn’t know how to be a son, either.” He later told interviewer Charlie Rose that he was “thrown out” because his parents wanted him to become a “corporate thug”. Albee said his adoptive parents did not support his ambitions to be a writer.
In this interview with DCTS, conducted seven years ago, Albee talked about his writing process, the importance of young people in the theater, Arena’s production of A Delicate Balance, two plays he was thinking about (and regrettably never put to paper) and his tennis game. He was 81 at the time.
In addition to his Pulitzers, Albee was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1972), a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame (since 1985), the 1999 winner of the PEN/Lauren Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, and received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2005), the Gold Medal for Drama from the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters (1980), the National Medal for Arts (1996), and the Kennedy Center Honors (1996).
Albee’s partner, Jonathan Thomas, died in 2005.
WAPAVA has a treasure trove for anyone nterested in experiencing Albee’s amazing work.
An Onstage Conversation with Edward Albee from 2011 at Georgetown University The American Studies Program’s Annual Richardson Lecture
A Delicate Ballance 2003 by Fountainhead Theatre with The Keegan Theatre directed by Kerri Rambow
Edward Albee’s THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? 2010 at Rep Stage 2010 directed by Kasi Campbell
Everything in the Garden at Univ. of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies 2012 Scot Reese
The Play About the Baby at Studio Theatre – Milton Theatre 2003 directed by Joy Zinoman
Playwright Series II – Edward Albee at Corcorn Gallery of Art Office of Public Programs 1999
Seascape at The American Century Theatre 2009 directed by Steven Scott Mazzola
Tiny Alice at Washington Shakespeare Company 2002 directed by John Vreeke
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Keegan Theatre 2003 directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner
Irene Wagner
It is easy, looking backwards, to see this writer as a winner, on top all the way. The truth I remember is how so many of his plays were experiments ahead of his time, and he was often criticized roundly. He must have felt hurt and alone when people did not understand his plays. I remember a long radio interview with Albee where he was asked about why he didn’t keep writing “winners.” He spoke so calmly yet passionately about following his ideas each time, voices in his head. This was not remarkable in itself, perhaps. But his steady voice still lives on in my head. He wasn’t going to be dissuaded by a negative review or a less than totally enthusiastic audience response. He always kept working. Hearing his words, feeling his example coming to me through the years has kept me going.
Thank you, Tim. This was indeed a working playwright, a courageous artist.