HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as '' The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), '' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966), and ''
Three Tall Women ''Three Tall Women'' is a two-act play by Edward Albee, written in 1990, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Albee's third Pulitzer. Characters * A: A is a 92-year-old woman. She is thin, autocratic, proud, and wealthy, with "encroach ...
'' (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what
Martin Esslin , birth_date = , birth_place = Budapest, Austria-Hungary , death_date = , death_place = London, England, UK , education = University of Vienna Reinhardt Seminar , ...
identified and named the Theater of the Absurd. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony 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 as Samuel Beckett,
Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...
, and Jean Genet. His middle period comprised plays that explored the psychology of maturing, marriage, and sexual relationships. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula 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 as '' The 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 of
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
magnate Edward 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 play ''
Three Tall Women ''Three Tall Women'' is a two-act play by Edward Albee, written in 1990, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Albee's third Pulitzer. Characters * A: A is a 92-year-old woman. She is thin, autocratic, proud, and wealthy, with "encroach ...
'' on his mother, with whom he had a conflicted relationship. Albee attended the Rye Country Day 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 Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...
, 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 at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in 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 " ehad to get out of that stultifying, suffocating environment." In 2008, he told interviewer Charlie Rose that 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

Albee moved into New York's
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich 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 the LGBTQIA 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 the American Dream. His first play, ''The Zoo Story'', written in three weeks, was first staged in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
in 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 the Billy Rose Theatre on October 13, 1962, and closed on May 16, 1964, after five previews and 664 performances. The controversial play won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1963 and was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize by 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 Brown and
John Gassner John Waldhorn Gassner (January 30, 1903 – April 2, 1967) was a Hungarian-born American theatre historian, critic, educator, and anthologist. Early life and education At birth in the town of Máramarossziget, Hungary (today in Romania), he was ...
, subsequently resigned in protest. An
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning film adaptation by Ernest Lehman was released in 1966 starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, and was directed by Mike Nichols. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Georgia State University English 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 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 to ''The 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 at the
University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
, where he taught playwriting. His plays are published by
Dramatists Play Service Dramatists Play Service (also known as The Play Service) is a theatrical-publishing and licensing house, established in 1936 by members of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Society for Authors' Representatives. DPS publishes English-language ...
and Samuel French, Inc.


Achievements and honors

A member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Albee received three
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
s for
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
—for '' A Delicate Balance'' (1967), '' Seascape'' (1975), and ''
Three Tall Women ''Three Tall Women'' is a two-act play by Edward Albee, written in 1990, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Albee's third Pulitzer. Characters * A: A is a 92-year-old woman. She is thin, autocratic, proud, and wealthy, with "encroach ...
'' (1994). Albee was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1972. In 1985, Albee was inducted into the
American Theatre Hall of Fame The American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the organization's Executive Committee. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new ''Theater Hall of Fame'' would be located in the ...
. In 1999, Albee received the
PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award The PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, commonly referred to as the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center). It annually recognizes two American playwrights. A medal is given ...
as a Master American Dramatist. He received a Special
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
for Lifetime Achievement (2005); the gold medal in Drama from the
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headq ...
(1980); as well as the Kennedy Center Honors and the National 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 distinguished Off-Broadway venues, including the historic
Cherry Lane Theatre The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, ...
where the playwright directed two of his early one-acts, ''The American Dream'' and ''The Sandbox''.


Philanthropy

Albee established the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc. in 1967, from royalties from his play ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''. The foundation funds the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center (named after the composer William Flanagan, but better known as "The Barn") in Montauk, 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 2011 Lambda 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 playwright Terrence McNally during 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.


Awards and nominations

;Awards * 1960: Drama Desk Award Vernon Rice Award: ''The Zoo Story'' * 1963: Tony Award for Best Play: ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' * 1967: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: ''A Delicate Balance'' * 1975: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: ''Seascape'' * 1994: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: ''Three Tall Women'' * 1995:
St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhat ...
from the Saint Louis University Library Associates * 1996: National Medal of Arts * 2002: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play: ''The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?'' * 2002: Tony Award for Best Play: ''The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?'' * 200
Fitzgerald Award Award for Achievement in American Literature award
which is given annually in Rockville Maryland, the city where Fitzgerald, his wife, and his daughter are buried. * 2005: Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement * 2005: Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award * 2008: Drama Desk Award Special 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 The America Award is a lifetime achievement literary award for international writers. It describes itself as a modest attempt at providing alternatives to the Nobel Prize in Literature. It was first presented in 1994. The award does not entail an ...
;Nominations * 1964: Tony Award for Best Play: ''The Ballad of the Sad Cafe'' * 1965: Tony Award for Best Author of a Play: ''Tiny Alice'' * 1965: Tony Award for Best Play: ''Tiny Alice'' * 1967: Tony Award for Best Play: ''A Delicate Balance'' * 1975: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play: ''Seascape'' * 1975: Tony Award for Best Play: ''Seascape'' * 1976: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play: ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' * 1994: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Play: ''Three Tall Women'' * 2001: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: ''The Play About the Baby'' * 2003: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: '' The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?'' * 2005: Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play: ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''


Works


Plays

Works written or adapted by Albee:


Adaptations


Opera libretti

* ''Bartleby'' (adapted from the short story by
Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are '' Moby-Dick'' (1851); '' Typee'' (1846), a ...
) (1961) * ''The Ice Age'' (1963, uncompleted)


Essays

*''Stretching My Mind: Essays 1960–2005'' (Avalon Publishing, 2005). .


References

Edward Albee
''Charlie Rose'', 27 May 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 Plays
a
the Newberry Library

Robert A. Wilson collectionSpecial Collections, University of Delaware Library


Other links


Edward F. Albee Foundation

The Edward Albee Society
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albee, Edward 1928 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American male writers Actors Studio alumni American adoptees American male dramatists and playwrights American theatre directors Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American gay writers Grammy Award winners Kennedy Center honorees LGBT dramatists and playwrights LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT people from Virginia Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters People from Greenwich Village People from Larchmont, New York People from Tribeca Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners Rye Country Day School alumni Theatre of the Absurd Special Tony Award recipients Tony Award winners Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni United States National Medal of Arts recipients University of Houston faculty Writers from New York (state) Writers from Washington, D.C. Fulbright alumni