Albee

Edward Albee

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, "The Zoo Story"

Some links:

Interview
Whistling in the Dark (Interview).
Longhouse(clips)

Albee's fun. "Zoo Story" is probably a half-hour read, in case anyone is pressed for time finishing these readings. His best work lances assumptions around family. My own favorites are "The American Dream," which I'd match against Brecht, and the recent Sylvia, or The Goat. But "Zoo Story" is a nice, tight little piece that manages to get most of the sturm und drang of confessional literature without much of the sop.

Burton and Taylor starred in a high-end production of Woolf in the 70's. Albee got public attention, but disliked the production and performances intensely.

I heard Albee speak at Chapman a few years back. A colleague asked him something broadly like "How far ahead do you know what you will write when you write?" I took no notes that day, but my memory of his response goes something like this:

"When I write? Do you mean a letter? A play? I'm tempted to say 'Not at all.'

"It really depends on what you mean. I know my characters before I start. I have spent some time with them; I have some idea what each has experienced, so I can predict how each might react in a given situation the way you might know how one of your friends might react in a new situation even though you don't know just what that person will say. And I have some idea what events I will make them confront; there's an idea, a basic crisis or conflict for the play. But if you're asking how far ahead I know just what someone will say, what words a character will use, I should say -- oh, I know maybe four or five words ahead of where I write."