Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee died Friday at the age of 88.
Advertisement
Neil Portnow, president and CEO of The Recording Academy, issued a statement in reaction to Albee’s death to convey how the writer redefined the playwriting craft with his themes exploring the human condition in a time of modernity.
The drought ended with his third Pulitzer in 1994 for Three Tall Women, the story of his mother, followed in 1996 by an acclaimed Broadway revival of A Delicate Balance, the elegant but unsettling drama about the accommodations a family makes to stay together, albeit unhappily.
His play or drama would often explore the darker sides of marriages, religion, raising children, and American life.
Albee (pronounced AWL-bee) was born March 12, 1928, in Washington, DC, to Louise Harvey, who, having been deserted by the baby’s father, gave her son up for adoption two weeks later, according to Albee biographer Mel Gussow.
Edward Albee takes his bow alongside director Pam MacKinnon on the opening night of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Booth Theatre in 2012.
With plays like, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and 1964’s Tiny Alice, Albee made his own presence in the literature world. The movie won five Oscars, including one for Taylor and one for supporting actress Sandy Dennis; George Segal played Nick, opposite her in the young couple. “Seascape” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” were revived on Broadway in 2005, and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was revived on Broadway again in 2013. A one-act work, it focused on a menacing park-bench encounter between two men. “I couldn’t write for a long time”, Albee told the same newspaper in 2007.
He was the recipient of a number of awards, including the National Medal of the Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1966.
For several years, Albee had been working on his latest play, Laying an Egg, which was to be presented at Signature.
Albee’s companion, the sculptor Jonathan Thomas, passed away in 2005.
Advertisement
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
