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Edward Albee

March 21–22, 2011

Bio

Edward Albee

Playwright Edward Albee has defined modern American theatre with five decades of controversial and brilliant plays. A three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, The New Yorker has called him "the greatest living playwright."

Albee is perhaps best known for his 1962 drama, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It won both the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and is widely considered a classic of American contemporary theatre. In his lectures, Albee describes the power of the arts as a catalyst for change. He believes that art should be dangerous, that it should reveal all of our shortcomings and complacency – and, at its best, will inspire us to live our lives more fully.

Albee's other groundbreaking plays include The Zoo Story, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Three Tall Women and The Goat: or, Who is Sylvia, which won a Tony Award. He is a Kennedy Center Honoree, was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre.

Albee had three plays produced in New York during the 2007-2008 season: Peter and Jerry with Bill Pullman; a revival of his one-act plays, The American Dream and The Sandbox; and Occupant about Louise Nevelson. His play, Me, Myself and I, opened at the McCarter Theater in January 2008; At Home at the Zoo ran in 2009.

Edward Albee is often identified as the successor to Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. He "throws the abyss in our faces," one critic has written, "with exhilarating, articulate, daring and dark, grown-up dazzle."