Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright known for works including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream. His works are considered well-crafted and often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflected 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 Pulitzer Prize-winner 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's dedication to continuing to evolve his voice — as evidenced in later productions such as The Goat or Who is Sylvia (2000) — also routinely marks him as distinct from other American playwrights of his era.Albee himself described his work as "an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen."
1/92: Was arrested on a beach in Key Biscayne, FL, for indecent exposure. Charges were dropped when it was determined that he had removed his swimming trunks only to rinse out the sand that was in them, and had not done anything that could result in criminal charges.
Won two Tony Awards as author of Best Play winners: in 1963 for "Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and in 2002 for "Edward Albees The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?" He has also been Tony-nominated five other times: in 1964 as author of Best Play nominee "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe;" in 1965 as Best Author and as author of Best Play nominee "Tiny Alice;" and, also as author of a Best Play nominee, in 1967 for "A Delicate Balance" and in 1975 for "Seascape".
Adopted as an infant, he was the scion of one of Americas most distinguished theatrical families. His paternal grandfather, E.F. Albee, was a legendary vaudeville impresario, and his father, George Sumner Albee , was a playwright and occasional screenwriter.
Served as a guest instructor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in the early to mid-1980s.
1996: Awarded the American National Medal of the Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC.
His favorite actress (his muse) is Marian Seldes. She has appeared in nearly all of his performed plays and also holds the world record for most performances of the same role.
Was nominated for the 1965 Tony Award (New York City) for the Author (Drama) for "Tiny Alice".
Edward Albee won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "A Delicate Balance", the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "Seascape" and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "Three Tall Women" He was nominated for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "The Play about the Baby" and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?".
His play, "A Delicate Balance", at the Redtwist Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, was nominated for the 2011 Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Play.
His play, "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?", at the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, was awarded the 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Play (Midsize).
His play, "Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", at the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, Illinois, was nominated for the 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Play (Large).
In 2014, his first one-act play "The Zoo Story" was staged in Athens, Greece, by THE.AM.A. (Theatre for Disabled People), the only Greek theatre consisted of disabled actors in its main composition (such as the renowned actor and director Vassilis Oikonomou who founded THE.AM.A. in 2010, Panos Zournatzidis , Marina Besiri , Christina Toumba , Giorgos Iliakis and Maria Mourelatou ) as well as by non-disabled ones (such as Michalis Tamboukas who played Jerry in "The Zoo Story", Aimiliani Avraam and Efi Toumba ). The park bench (where Peter meets Jerry) was theatrically transcribed in the wheelchair used by Panos Zournatzidis, the excellent actor who played Peter, and the production was noted as an acclaimed performance, brilliantly directed by Vassilis Oikonomou. After the performances in Athens, the production continued on tour in other cities of Greece with a fine cast which also included Vassilis Oikonomou, Christina Toumba, Giorgos Iliakis, Maria Mourelatou, Efi Toumba, Aimiliani Avraam and Marina Besiri in roles of persons that come from Jerrys narration, and in their way of existing in his state of being, they get life on stage, some of them in animal figures. The documentary THE.AM.A. , directed by Eliana Perifanou and Maria Sidiropoulou , was filmed mainly during the rehearsals and the performance of "The Zoo Story", depicting the work of this exquisite theatre group. On the occasion of World Theatre Day March 27, the documentary was broadcast that day in 2015 by the Greek TV network of Public Television.
His play, "The Zoo Story," was awarded the 1990 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Production at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
His play, "The Sandbox," was awarded the 1990 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Production at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
His play, "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?," at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 2005 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Play (Large Theatre).
His play, "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 2005 Back Stage Garland Award for Best Production.
He was awarded the 2005 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Playwriting for "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
His play, "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?," at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded the 2005 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Production.
He was awarded the 2005 Back Stage Garland Award for Best Playwriting for "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and,half-dead faculties.
You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.
In my mind, Martha, you are buried in cement right up to your neck. No… right up to your nose… that’s much quieter.
Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.
To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all my love.
If you spend a hundred bucks, or more, to go to the theatre, something should happen to you. Maybe somebody should be asking you some questions about your values, or about the way you think about things. Maybe you should come out of the theatre, something having happened to you. Maybe you should be changing, or thinking about changing. But if you just go there, and the only thing you worry about is where you left the damn car, then you wasted a hundred bucks.
If you spend a hundred bucks, or more, to go to the theatre, something should happen to you. Maybe somebody should be asking you some questions about your values, or about the way you think about things. Maybe you should come out of the theatre, something haven happened to you. Maybe you should be changing, or thinking about changing. But if you just go there, and the only thing you worry about is where you left the damn car, then you wasted a hundred bucks.
A play is fiction - and fiction is fact distilled into truth. .
