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Edward Franklin Albee III

エドワード・フランクリン・アルビーさんせい

Edward Franklin Albee III

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1928-03-12 （Washington, D.C., U.S.）
Died
2016-09-16 （Montauk, New York, U.S.） age 88
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Larchmont, New York → Greenwich Village, New York City → Tribeca, New York City → Montauk, New York

Career

Occupations
playwright, screenwriter, essayist, educator
Active Years
1958-2016
Affiliations
Dramatists Guild Council, University of Houston
Memberships
Dramatists Guild, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow)
Influenced By
Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet
Influenced
Paula Vogel, many later American playwrights
Nominations
Pulitzer Prize finalist (2001) - The Play About the Baby, Pulitzer Prize finalist (2003) - The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, Tony Award nominations (multiple years)

Education

The Choate School (Choate Rosemary Hall)
Period: 在学〜1946
Year of Graduation: 1946
Country: United States
Completed secondary education
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Period: 1946–1947（中退）
Country: United States
Expelled for skipping classes and chapel
Valley Forge Military Academy
Period: 在籍（短期間、退学）
Country: United States
Dismissed after less than a year
Rye Country Day School / Lawrenceville School
Period: 少年期〜学内移動
Country: United States
Attended several preparatory schools

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for Drama
1967
Work: A Delicate Balance
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: Won
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
1975
Work: Seascape
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: Won
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
1994
Work: Three Tall Women
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: Won
Tony Award for Best Play
1963
Work: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Organization: American Theatre Wing / Tony Awards Committee
Result: Won
Tony Award for Best Play
2002
Work: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Organization: American Theatre Wing / Tony Awards Committee
Result: Won
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement
2005
Organization: Tony Awards Committee
Result: Received
National Medal of Arts
1996
Organization: U.S. Government / National Endowment for the Arts
Result: Received
Kennedy Center Honors
1996
Organization: Kennedy Center
Result: Received
Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album
1963
Work: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Organization: The Recording Academy (Grammy Awards)
Result: Won
PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award (Master American Dramatist)
1999
Organization: PEN America
Result: Received

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Zoo Story

1959 Play (one-act) 64 pages

A one-act play depicting a brief, escalating encounter between two men in a New York park; explores loneliness and failed communication.

lonelinesscommunication breakdownurban alienation
Adaptations
  • [Stage] The Zoo Story (stage productions) (1960)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1962 Play (three acts) 120 pages

Over the course of a night, a middle-aged couple and a younger couple engage in bitter exchanges that expose marriage, relationships, and the line between illusion and reality.

marital collapseillusion vs. realitypower and humiliation
Adaptations
  • [Film] Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film) / Mike Nichols (1966)

A Delicate Balance

1966 Play 110 pages

Follows a middle-aged couple whose uneasy equilibrium is disrupted by relatives and visitors, examining loss, anxiety, and domestic fragility.

domestic fragilityanxietybalance in relationships

Seascape

1975 Play 95 pages

A fable-like play in which an older couple encounters strange beings from the sea, addressing humanity, evolution, and communication.

human natureevolutioncommunication

Three Tall Women

1991 Play 100 pages

A two-act play portraying an elderly woman's recollections and fragmented memories; deals with aging, regret, and parent-child relationships.

agingmemoryregret

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

2000 Play 105 pages

Centers on a man's revealed relationship with a goat and the ensuing breakdown of family and social ethics, questioning the boundaries of love.

ethicsboundaries of lovefamily collapse

Bibliography

  • The Zoo Story (1959)
  • The Death of Bessie Smith (1960)
  • The Sandbox (1960)
  • The American Dream (1961)
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)
  • A Delicate Balance (1966)
  • Seascape (1975)
  • Three Tall Women (1991)
  • The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2000)
  • At Home at the Zoo (2004)

Adaptations

  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966 film, dir. Mike Nichols)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
sharp, dialogue-driven dramatic styleAmerican variant of Theatre of the Absurd elementsblend of black humor and psychological drama
Recurring Motifs
marriage and its disintegrationclash of illusion and realityfamily tension

Legacy

A leading American playwright of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner with multiple Tony and national honors. Brought sharp dialogue and theatrical structure to contemporary drama and influenced generations of playwrights.

Museums

  • Edward F. Albee Foundation (The Barn) Montauk, New York, U.S. Opened in 1967

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Dramatists Guild

Archives

  • New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (Edward Albee scripts, 1949–1966)
  • The Newberry Library (Edward Albee plays collection)
  • University of Delaware Special Collections (Robert A. Wilson collection)

In Popular Culture

  • The 1966 film adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is preserved as culturally significant

Quotes

  • 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.
    Source: Acceptance speech, Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement (2011) (2011)

Trivia

  • His biological father left his mother shortly after his birth and he was placed for adoption.
  • He was expelled or dismissed from several schools (e.g., Lawrenceville, Valley Forge, Trinity College).
  • Longtime partner Jonathan Richard Thomas (sculptor) was his partner from 1971 until Thomas's death in 2005.
  • Founded the Edward F. Albee Foundation in 1967 to support residencies for writers and visual artists.