Edward Albee : "Creativity is magic. Don't examine it too closely."
September 16, 2016 6:19 PM Subscribe
Edward Albee has died at the age of 88. Albee's first play The Zoo Story, debuted in 1960 in Berlin, and was followed two years later by Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albee received three Pulitzer Prizes for drama—for A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975), and Three Tall Women (1994).
Albee was openly gay. He insisted, that he did not want to be known as a "gay writer", and said 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."
Albee's longtime partner, Jonathan Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from cancer.
Q&A: Playwright Edward Albee
Playwright Edward Albee on creativity
About the Arts: Edward Albee, 1978
Albee was openly gay. He insisted, that he did not want to be known as a "gay writer", and said 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."
Albee's longtime partner, Jonathan Thomas, a sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from cancer.
Q&A: Playwright Edward Albee
Playwright Edward Albee on creativity
About the Arts: Edward Albee, 1978
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posted by come_back_breathing at 6:38 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by come_back_breathing at 6:38 PM on September 16, 2016
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posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:38 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:38 PM on September 16, 2016
"George and Martha, Sad Sad Sad."
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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:39 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:39 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 6:41 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 6:41 PM on September 16, 2016
Seeing Virginia Woolf with Kathleen Turner as Martha is one of my favorite theater experiences ever.
posted by griphus at 6:49 PM on September 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by griphus at 6:49 PM on September 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
If all he'd ever done was write Virginia Woolf, he'd still be a giant of American theater.
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posted by tzikeh at 6:54 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by tzikeh at 6:54 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Death is release, if you've lived all right.
EDWARD ALBEE, Seascape
posted by pjsky at 7:00 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
EDWARD ALBEE, Seascape
posted by pjsky at 7:00 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
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I once accidentally crashed a wrap party of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? in downtown Houston with Albee and cast. It was appropriately surreal.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 7:25 PM on September 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
I once accidentally crashed a wrap party of The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? in downtown Houston with Albee and cast. It was appropriately surreal.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 7:25 PM on September 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
I so wanted to be taught by him. In a way, by seeking out his work and the people he'd influenced, I guess I was. I'm glad he got a good long life and I hope all who love him have every comfort as they come to peace without him.
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posted by batmonkey at 7:30 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by batmonkey at 7:30 PM on September 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
I DON'T BRAY!!
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:32 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:32 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
I like his late work, and am frustrated that he is remembered by Woolf, which I think is untypical. I think his work is absurd, allegorical, cryptic, and v. queer. Sort of profoundly sad, and unideolgical. i think, even w/ those three Pulitzers, america rewards work that is realist, or work that rewards simple readings. Reading Frank Rich on Albee's strongest 70s work, and how Rich just loathed them, and read them badly, or see how is work was better treated in Houston or England than it ever was on Broadway, or that the only Tony he got was for life time achivement. It was weird--that he was perhaps the greatest American dramatist post 1970, and sort of rewarded, but not really compared to writers who were cleaner or clearer or easier or whose misanthropy was slicker.
and it was always compared to woolf-- maybe that is because he worked thru this domesticity, but as they got more abstract, there was this critical idea that he was just riffing on woolf endlessly, except thinking of woolf as the last realist attempt, before doing something weirder, or smarter, or more historical. i think he was the great philsopher of the theater--and you can see his in the four plays of the 90s--three tall woman, which repeats self endlessly, as a kind of precise set of negotations of memory, nominally bio-medical, but really lingustic; or the play about the baby, written in the normalizing of same sex desire, which was called minor albee, but whose use of sign language, asked questions about presence, about how bodies moved in space, about the failure to communicate, or the first act of the marriage play, which becomes a burlesque of realism, which refuses the history of post-miller plays about things--the husband tells the wife he is leaving, she does not hear him, he leaves, and returns, leaves and returns again. it's funny, and it's hacky, and it's weirdly moving, and it is also this kind of beckettian negation. or who is slyvia, nominally about fucking a goat, but a reducto ad absurdum about conserative arguments about gay marriage, an essay about greek drama, and a notion of the sexually bestial in all of us. a pagan intrusion into the domestic sphere.
he got nom'd for sylvia, but i cannot think of a deeper or more complex writer, or an under played, or misunderstood writer near the end of his life than albee. i love woolf, but it is profoundly atypical, except perhaps for his obsession about asking questions/poking holes into the questions of what straight people do to each other: (like that sondheim too clever half line in company about marriage)
but...he spent his career trying to sort out the implications of family, and esp. marriage--an entire career figuring out exactly what it meant to choose family, and how that choosing was not (ever/always) a net positive. It was a radical debunking of liberal sentimentality, the the lens of witgenstien language games. it allowed for the possibility of soft power to be as political as the hard power of ionesco's state or beckett's church.
it's not quite that i love him, but i think that he is singular and really at the top of his game. sylvia is like lear, in that it becomes a conclusion to a life times obsession, a late play in a space where it is rare that a late work is a best work.
posted by PinkMoose at 7:35 PM on September 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
and it was always compared to woolf-- maybe that is because he worked thru this domesticity, but as they got more abstract, there was this critical idea that he was just riffing on woolf endlessly, except thinking of woolf as the last realist attempt, before doing something weirder, or smarter, or more historical. i think he was the great philsopher of the theater--and you can see his in the four plays of the 90s--three tall woman, which repeats self endlessly, as a kind of precise set of negotations of memory, nominally bio-medical, but really lingustic; or the play about the baby, written in the normalizing of same sex desire, which was called minor albee, but whose use of sign language, asked questions about presence, about how bodies moved in space, about the failure to communicate, or the first act of the marriage play, which becomes a burlesque of realism, which refuses the history of post-miller plays about things--the husband tells the wife he is leaving, she does not hear him, he leaves, and returns, leaves and returns again. it's funny, and it's hacky, and it's weirdly moving, and it is also this kind of beckettian negation. or who is slyvia, nominally about fucking a goat, but a reducto ad absurdum about conserative arguments about gay marriage, an essay about greek drama, and a notion of the sexually bestial in all of us. a pagan intrusion into the domestic sphere.
he got nom'd for sylvia, but i cannot think of a deeper or more complex writer, or an under played, or misunderstood writer near the end of his life than albee. i love woolf, but it is profoundly atypical, except perhaps for his obsession about asking questions/poking holes into the questions of what straight people do to each other: (like that sondheim too clever half line in company about marriage)
but...he spent his career trying to sort out the implications of family, and esp. marriage--an entire career figuring out exactly what it meant to choose family, and how that choosing was not (ever/always) a net positive. It was a radical debunking of liberal sentimentality, the the lens of witgenstien language games. it allowed for the possibility of soft power to be as political as the hard power of ionesco's state or beckett's church.
it's not quite that i love him, but i think that he is singular and really at the top of his game. sylvia is like lear, in that it becomes a conclusion to a life times obsession, a late play in a space where it is rare that a late work is a best work.
posted by PinkMoose at 7:35 PM on September 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
sorry, he won three tonys, including one for lifetime. i was wrong
posted by PinkMoose at 7:40 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by PinkMoose at 7:40 PM on September 16, 2016
I think seeing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with any pair of powerhouse actors in the leads is pretty much guaranteed to be an amazing Theater experience. For me, it was David Suchet and Diana Rigg. For those who never had the pleasure of a live performance, there's always Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. That play is a monster. A fucking brilliant monster of a play. Unquestionably.
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posted by wabbittwax at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
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posted by wabbittwax at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
. Huh, I guess I kind of thought that he'd been gone for a while.
posted by octothorpe at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
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I saw Turner in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which was outstanding, and I saw "Sylvia," which I was of two minds on (mainly for the staging rather than the writing).
I also did a scene from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" for a directing class (I was volunteering as an actor) and it was one of the most intense acting experiences I've ever had. We redid and reblocked and re-performed the scene over and over through a few weeks (in response to the critique of the professor), and it was such a wonderful experience getting so deep into such rich dialogue.
RIP, Mr. Albee
posted by lazuli at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
I saw Turner in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which was outstanding, and I saw "Sylvia," which I was of two minds on (mainly for the staging rather than the writing).
I also did a scene from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" for a directing class (I was volunteering as an actor) and it was one of the most intense acting experiences I've ever had. We redid and reblocked and re-performed the scene over and over through a few weeks (in response to the critique of the professor), and it was such a wonderful experience getting so deep into such rich dialogue.
RIP, Mr. Albee
posted by lazuli at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
I saw Tyne Daly in "Me, Myself and I" some years back. It remains one of my favorite plays.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:47 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:47 PM on September 16, 2016
:( .
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:04 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:04 PM on September 16, 2016
I met Albee repeatedly, over the course of several summers, at a Midwestern theater conference where we were both, inexplicably, featured artists. He responded to a play I wrote, in fact.
His responses were ... Not helpful. I got to be friends with his assistant, also a playwright, and found this was always the case. He was maddeningly unsympathetic to the work of others, acting irritated and confused by it, and every time I saw him respond to a play it reminded me that there is a difference between being a playwright and a critic. I have done both, and it took me years to find the critical language to fairly respond to someone else's work without superimposing my own taste or agenda. He had never bothered, and he did not remain with the conference for long.
But part of what made him so distinctive, original, and memorable a playwright was this very orneriness. I spoke once with the artistic director of The Guthrie about working with Albee and he described it as the most difficult thing he had ever done, as Albee was so precise and demanding and unforgiving and constantly present. He was scrupulous in supporting his own vision of how a play would be, and, honestly, it's guys like that that made the playwright's words sacrosanct in theater -- they are not afforded that respect in any other medium.
I forgave Albee for not responding to my play in a way I found useful, because I did not need that from him. I became a playwright because I was obsessed with The Zoo Story as a boy, and because Virginia Woolf is so perfect a thing as to remain shocking and breathtaking a half century after it debuted. He did not need to be a critic. He just needed to be Albee, and he wasn't capable of being anything but.
I'm very sad to hear of his passing, even if, the last time I saw him, when his back was turned I mimed throttling him. There's nothing wrong with a playwright making you want to choke him or her. It can be a tremendous asset, and it helped me learn to be comfortable being a colossal pain in the ass when it is required for my plays. And that's the greatest thing you can give a playwright -- the will to fight for their vision.
posted by maxsparber at 8:42 PM on September 16, 2016 [25 favorites]
His responses were ... Not helpful. I got to be friends with his assistant, also a playwright, and found this was always the case. He was maddeningly unsympathetic to the work of others, acting irritated and confused by it, and every time I saw him respond to a play it reminded me that there is a difference between being a playwright and a critic. I have done both, and it took me years to find the critical language to fairly respond to someone else's work without superimposing my own taste or agenda. He had never bothered, and he did not remain with the conference for long.
But part of what made him so distinctive, original, and memorable a playwright was this very orneriness. I spoke once with the artistic director of The Guthrie about working with Albee and he described it as the most difficult thing he had ever done, as Albee was so precise and demanding and unforgiving and constantly present. He was scrupulous in supporting his own vision of how a play would be, and, honestly, it's guys like that that made the playwright's words sacrosanct in theater -- they are not afforded that respect in any other medium.
I forgave Albee for not responding to my play in a way I found useful, because I did not need that from him. I became a playwright because I was obsessed with The Zoo Story as a boy, and because Virginia Woolf is so perfect a thing as to remain shocking and breathtaking a half century after it debuted. He did not need to be a critic. He just needed to be Albee, and he wasn't capable of being anything but.
I'm very sad to hear of his passing, even if, the last time I saw him, when his back was turned I mimed throttling him. There's nothing wrong with a playwright making you want to choke him or her. It can be a tremendous asset, and it helped me learn to be comfortable being a colossal pain in the ass when it is required for my plays. And that's the greatest thing you can give a playwright -- the will to fight for their vision.
posted by maxsparber at 8:42 PM on September 16, 2016 [25 favorites]
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posted by cotton dress sock at 8:43 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:43 PM on September 16, 2016
I saw Ben Gazzara and Colleen Dewhurst in it during a short revival run on B'way with my first girlfriend for my high school prom (I'd opted out of the hotel + limo thing.). I'd seen the Taylor/Burton on TV whenever it aired and read the play before I got to see it played live. Just an amazing play, something even I recognized as a junior high/high school student. And though my parents had their own weird fights, this demolition of a marriage was a revelation.
- "What a dump!" Hey, what's that from? ''What a dump!''
- How would I know?
- Oh, come on, what's it from? You know! What's it from, for Christ's sake?
aav.
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posted by the sobsister at 8:48 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
- "What a dump!" Hey, what's that from? ''What a dump!''
- How would I know?
- Oh, come on, what's it from? You know! What's it from, for Christ's sake?
aav.
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posted by the sobsister at 8:48 PM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
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I got to meet him once. It is not something I will ever forget.
posted by dannyboybell at 9:52 PM on September 16, 2016
I got to meet him once. It is not something I will ever forget.
posted by dannyboybell at 9:52 PM on September 16, 2016
I was never that fond of "Virginia Woolf" because it felt like the combatants were uneasily matched. All the Marthas overpowered the Georges. That is, ntil I saw Bill Irwin (incidentally playing against Kathleen Turner) -- he was a revelation. It's still not my favorite (I love the humor of "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia"), but I understand it better now.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:05 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:05 PM on September 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by carping demon at 11:17 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by carping demon at 11:17 PM on September 16, 2016
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posted by From Bklyn at 11:20 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by From Bklyn at 11:20 PM on September 16, 2016
He was maddeningly unsympathetic to the work of others, acting irritated and confused by it, and every time I saw him respond to a play it reminded me that there is a difference between being a playwright and a critic.
A little over a decade ago, I did a one day educational session* with him while I was getting my BFA in playwriting. It was a bizarre experience. He clearly wanted to be supportive of the students; at the same time... he had no capacity for it. Any question that came from our professors (who did a lot of work to get us there in my memory -- it was at another college and for their English department and we were the crashing people from the nearest theatre conservatory) was the most stupid possible question. I clearly remember that he felt his plays were pretty much perfect as he wrote them down. He didn't seem to feel the need to rewrite and he felt that productions ruined plays. He made it sound like he felt the truest way to create plays is to do the full Emily Dickinson route and don't let actors and directors near them.
I called my Mom that night and said that it was like meeting the most pompous person we knew, but if they had a reason to be the pompous and a lifetime of pomposity. He was the absolute opposite of the public persona of Lin-Manuel Miranda.
For me personally... I recognize the intense craft of his work, but it doesn't really do much for me. Either in production or in reading (which his preferred way for me to experience his work). I think a lot of it boils down to that we write for theatre for fundamentally different reasons. I love the collaborate process of writing plays. Around the same time we did this workshop, I was learning about Caryl Churchill and the Joint Stock Company... and the idea of creating work that collaboratively thrilled me. I also connect with Churchill's work a LOT more, which just as well-crafted and interesting, but also explicitly feminist without being preachy -- which was a revelation to 20 year old me.
However, the session with Albee was a fascinating experience and I'm really glad I had it. Even if it basically left me with a "I don't agree with your point of view at all sir" place. He did a lot for the profile of the playwright in the American theatre and I am a beneficiary of that. Maybe it's time to try reading a play of his again.
*I wouldn't call it a master class.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:08 AM on September 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
A little over a decade ago, I did a one day educational session* with him while I was getting my BFA in playwriting. It was a bizarre experience. He clearly wanted to be supportive of the students; at the same time... he had no capacity for it. Any question that came from our professors (who did a lot of work to get us there in my memory -- it was at another college and for their English department and we were the crashing people from the nearest theatre conservatory) was the most stupid possible question. I clearly remember that he felt his plays were pretty much perfect as he wrote them down. He didn't seem to feel the need to rewrite and he felt that productions ruined plays. He made it sound like he felt the truest way to create plays is to do the full Emily Dickinson route and don't let actors and directors near them.
I called my Mom that night and said that it was like meeting the most pompous person we knew, but if they had a reason to be the pompous and a lifetime of pomposity. He was the absolute opposite of the public persona of Lin-Manuel Miranda.
For me personally... I recognize the intense craft of his work, but it doesn't really do much for me. Either in production or in reading (which his preferred way for me to experience his work). I think a lot of it boils down to that we write for theatre for fundamentally different reasons. I love the collaborate process of writing plays. Around the same time we did this workshop, I was learning about Caryl Churchill and the Joint Stock Company... and the idea of creating work that collaboratively thrilled me. I also connect with Churchill's work a LOT more, which just as well-crafted and interesting, but also explicitly feminist without being preachy -- which was a revelation to 20 year old me.
However, the session with Albee was a fascinating experience and I'm really glad I had it. Even if it basically left me with a "I don't agree with your point of view at all sir" place. He did a lot for the profile of the playwright in the American theatre and I am a beneficiary of that. Maybe it's time to try reading a play of his again.
*I wouldn't call it a master class.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:08 AM on September 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
Mrs. Example and I have always wanted to do Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. It is an acting marathon, though, with only four characters over three acts, and the bulk of the dialogue belonging to the two leads...but it would be so, so worth it.
We always say it would either be the greatest experience ever or destroy our marriage entirely.
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posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:53 AM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
We always say it would either be the greatest experience ever or destroy our marriage entirely.
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posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:53 AM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
I used to teach The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia? in an undergrad English class. My students found it MADDENING, because the play is so beautifully constructed-- every time they wanted to say that the central conceit was "wrong", the play contained another example that undercut the argument. For many of them, it was one of the first times they really wrestled with a piece of writing instead of just reading it.
I remember the look on one student's face as she struggled with how neatly the play had trapped her-- it was like she was furious, but grudgingly impressed, that art was fighting back against her preconceptions.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:40 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
I remember the look on one student's face as she struggled with how neatly the play had trapped her-- it was like she was furious, but grudgingly impressed, that art was fighting back against her preconceptions.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:40 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
My contact with Albee was at an adoption reform conference in NYC many years ago, where he spoke about his adoption experience, which is reflected in many of his plays, and was not good. Albee was a charming and witty speaker and graciously answered questions. He said he had never searched for biological relatives, but would be interested if someone found him.He said one of the things he liked about being adopted was that it gave him infinite possibilities to imagine and and invent himself. Knowing the one truth of his origins might limit this.
Several years later a group of us did a reading of his "American Dream" as a workshop., which resonated with many adopted people who had had difficult family relationships and felt rejected and out of place in their adoptive families.
posted by mermayd at 7:00 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
Several years later a group of us did a reading of his "American Dream" as a workshop., which resonated with many adopted people who had had difficult family relationships and felt rejected and out of place in their adoptive families.
posted by mermayd at 7:00 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Happens to be gay."
Can I just chime in with how much I hate this term?
"I am writer who IS gay," would sound perfectly fine to me, but this "happens to be" phrase that we place in front of every social/political/religious/racial label these days just feels so half-apologetic and squishy as if there needs to be some explanation that chance was involved, or luck. "I am a _______ who is ________." It's stronger, more concise, and just...more appropriate in my mind.
"Happens to be..." always sounds to me like the Seinfeld characters are going to follow it up with, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
posted by Dr_Janeway at 7:29 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
Can I just chime in with how much I hate this term?
"I am writer who IS gay," would sound perfectly fine to me, but this "happens to be" phrase that we place in front of every social/political/religious/racial label these days just feels so half-apologetic and squishy as if there needs to be some explanation that chance was involved, or luck. "I am a _______ who is ________." It's stronger, more concise, and just...more appropriate in my mind.
"Happens to be..." always sounds to me like the Seinfeld characters are going to follow it up with, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
posted by Dr_Janeway at 7:29 AM on September 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
I also dislike "happens to be X." It's a deliberate minimizing, a way of saying, "This is not an important thing about me." It says, "I'm X, but X doesn't matter." But X always matters, at least in some way.
And when a gay writer talks about gay writers needing to "transcend self," it just makes me see red, because it's the same argument you get from anti-gay critics and scholars, who suggest that a gay life is less "universal" than a straight one, or that to write for and about gay people is to close yourself in a meaningless, devalued box.
That said, RIP brilliant playwright.
posted by not that girl at 8:20 AM on September 17, 2016
And when a gay writer talks about gay writers needing to "transcend self," it just makes me see red, because it's the same argument you get from anti-gay critics and scholars, who suggest that a gay life is less "universal" than a straight one, or that to write for and about gay people is to close yourself in a meaningless, devalued box.
That said, RIP brilliant playwright.
posted by not that girl at 8:20 AM on September 17, 2016
The man could write. Jesus, could he write, and so savagely.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:41 AM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 8:41 AM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Zoo Story was very, very important to 20 year old. such that I can't believe I've not talked about here before. (The only problem is that it bled into everything else I tried to write for the rest of my college career, and I was unsuccessful at making that work.)
I also love Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; I was lucky enough to see Diana Rigg and David Suchet perform it in London on my 22nd birthday for a class I was taking (Suchet came back to our hotel afterwards to talk and drink with the class.) Seeing the London version of an American Classic that I was already very familiar with was one of joys of my academic life.
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posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:40 AM on September 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
I also love Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; I was lucky enough to see Diana Rigg and David Suchet perform it in London on my 22nd birthday for a class I was taking (Suchet came back to our hotel afterwards to talk and drink with the class.) Seeing the London version of an American Classic that I was already very familiar with was one of joys of my academic life.
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posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:40 AM on September 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
I was fortunate to meet him in 1996 during an interview for a documentary on Tennessee Williams. When asked what he and Mr. Williams discussed when they vacationed together, his answer was: "What every writer talks about: money and sex."
Even though I was just a cameraman on the shoot, he treated me with the utmost respect and courtesy.
A brilliant mind and a brilliant writer.
posted by joetrip at 11:05 AM on September 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
Even though I was just a cameraman on the shoot, he treated me with the utmost respect and courtesy.
A brilliant mind and a brilliant writer.
posted by joetrip at 11:05 AM on September 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
When I was in high school, I won a spot in a week-long writers' workshop to be taught by Edward Albee. I was unbelievably excited. Then he dropped out of the workshop because of fears of the SARS outbreak in Toronto, and I was devastated. Four years later, he showed up at my university to teach...the semester after I graduated. I liked to joke that he had a secret vendetta against me, as I kept missing him. After reading some of these comments about his ornery lack of helpfulness, maybe it was for the best, but he'll still always be my playwright white whale.
posted by ilana at 11:48 AM on September 17, 2016
posted by ilana at 11:48 AM on September 17, 2016
I was always deeply impressed by how Zoo Story took one of the ideas that is canonical for "this play will never work," two guys on a park bench, and made it into a brilliant piece of theatre.
And then there's everything after that.
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posted by graymouser at 2:25 PM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
And then there's everything after that.
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posted by graymouser at 2:25 PM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had no idea that professional theater companies are no longer allowed to license performances of the original version of "The Zoo Story" - Albee wrote a prequel that serves as the first act of a two act show where "Zoo Story" is the second act. Together, it's At Home at the Zoo. Only non-professional and collegiate companies can produce the original "Zoo Story", now.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:27 PM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 5:27 PM on September 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
For those who never had the pleasure of a live performance, there's always Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Woolf live, but seeing the movie is still an unsettling and riveting experience, even if you've seen it dozens of times before. Everything, including time, seems to stand still in Haskell Wexler's icy black-and-white. All you see and hear and think about for north of two hours is Taylor and Burton shrieking violently at each other. It is an unparalleled experience in American cinema. The closest I can think to a parallel are some of Ingmar Bergman's films, but even those rarely have the constant threat of imminent violence that Woolf does.
posted by blucevalo at 7:43 AM on September 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing Woolf live, but seeing the movie is still an unsettling and riveting experience, even if you've seen it dozens of times before. Everything, including time, seems to stand still in Haskell Wexler's icy black-and-white. All you see and hear and think about for north of two hours is Taylor and Burton shrieking violently at each other. It is an unparalleled experience in American cinema. The closest I can think to a parallel are some of Ingmar Bergman's films, but even those rarely have the constant threat of imminent violence that Woolf does.
posted by blucevalo at 7:43 AM on September 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, here's what I have to say about "I hate the term 'happens to be gay.'" Yes, it sounds awful to hear that term in 2016. Here's something that will shock and make y'all even angrier: Albee would kick his lifelong lover and companion out of the house every time Albee's adopted mother visited, even when they'd been together for years, because she hated that he (her once-estranged son, Albee) was gay.
Is that the sign of a self-loathing gay man? Maybe so, but then again, in Albee's case, maybe not. Maybe it's something that all gay people who have both partners and unaccepting families have thought about doing at one time or another, especially in a time less open than ours. I have had long-lost relatives come out of the woodwork after finding my profile on FB, and act excited to have come across me, only to go into radio silence when they find out that I'm married with a same-sex partner and have been for close to 20 years. That is the kind of real life-as-lived experience that forces you to come up with phrases like "happens to be gay."
It's also the sign of a deeply sick and perverted culture that we're far more willing to attack people who use the term "happens to be gay" than to attack the culture and the social structure that made using that term necessary in the first place. And in Albee's prime, using that circumlocution was survival, not some semantic parlor game.
posted by blucevalo at 7:58 AM on September 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Is that the sign of a self-loathing gay man? Maybe so, but then again, in Albee's case, maybe not. Maybe it's something that all gay people who have both partners and unaccepting families have thought about doing at one time or another, especially in a time less open than ours. I have had long-lost relatives come out of the woodwork after finding my profile on FB, and act excited to have come across me, only to go into radio silence when they find out that I'm married with a same-sex partner and have been for close to 20 years. That is the kind of real life-as-lived experience that forces you to come up with phrases like "happens to be gay."
It's also the sign of a deeply sick and perverted culture that we're far more willing to attack people who use the term "happens to be gay" than to attack the culture and the social structure that made using that term necessary in the first place. And in Albee's prime, using that circumlocution was survival, not some semantic parlor game.
posted by blucevalo at 7:58 AM on September 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:00 PM on September 18, 2016
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:00 PM on September 18, 2016
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posted by Thorzdad at 6:21 PM on September 16, 2016