Biography of Edward Albee
Edward Albee burst onto the American theatrical scene in the late 1950s with a variety of plays that detailed the agonies and disillusionment of that decade and the transition from the calm Eisenhower to the turbulent 1960s. Albee became a serious dramatist dealing with serious but always relevant themes, primarily having to do with the predicament of humanity in a society with moral decay, as well as the conflict between reality and illusion. His work is considered to be unique, uncompromising, controversial, elliptical, and provocative.
Born on March 12, 1928, in Washington D.C., Edward Albee was a couple weeks old when he was adopted by Reed and Frances Albee. He was taken to live in Westchester, New York. His adoptive father owned a chain of vaudeville theaters there, which gave the young Edward an early exposure to theater personalities. It was said that he lived a comfortable childhood having servants, tutors, riding lessons, winters spent in Miami and having an enormous wardrobe in his room sized closet. He was not very happy however. His strong-minded mother and him shared different views. While she tried to mold him into a respectable member of the Larchmont, New York social scene, he strongly opposed and chose to associate with artists and intellectuals whom she found quite objectionable. He felt dejected when she kicked him out of the family mansion for homosexuality. From there he moved to Greenwich Village where he took up such jobs as an office boy, record salesmen, and a messenger for western union which was his favorite. "I didn't use my mind at all, and walking around the Upper West Side was good exercise."
School was not a favorite for Edward Albee. He was sent to sele...
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...0's and all of the 80's were perhaps Edward Albee's worst playwriting times. He received many bad reviews, did not yield a single play that could be considered a commercial hit, and was consumed by Alcoholism. Albee says the reason for this is, "There is not always a relationship between popularity and excellence. You just have to make the assumption you're doing good work and go on doing it." When Albee came out with Three Tall Women in 1994, it reclaimed him as one of Americas leading dramatists. It enjoyed a stunning sold-out success in New York and has been staged across the country and around the world. It received Best Play awards from both the New York Drama Critics and Outer Critics Circle and it earned Albee his third Pulitzer Prize. Edward Albee is currently still playwriting, teaching, directing, and is having plays produced around the world.
Elie was born on September 30, 1928; he lived in Sighet, Transylvania that is now present-day Romania. When Ellie was 15 he was transferred to Auschwitz along with his younger sister, his mom, and his father.
...onnects his audience to the characters and although the play is written for the Elizabethan era, it remains pertinent by invoking the notion of human nature. He implements themes of love, anger, and impulsiveness and demonstrates the influence these emotions have on human behavior. It is evident that because human nature is constant, people have and will continue to be affected by these emotions.
Herman Melville had an interesting life. He was born on August 1st, 1819 to Allen and Maria Melvill of New York. At a young age, he came down with scarlet fever and as a result had weakened eyesight for the remainder of his life. His family was a well-respected one, then their import business fell through and they moved to Albany, New York. Their finances were desperate. During this time they changed the spelling of their last name and added an e, to be spelled, Melville.
Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania (later known as Romania) on September 30, 1928. Elie focused on Jewish religious studies before being relocated to Nazi death camps in WWII. Wiesel survived; he eventually began to write about his experiences in his memoir Night. He became an activist, orator and teacher. He spoke out against persecution and injustice. People should look at what Elie Wiesel and many other Jews went through just to be able to live in this world. The people living now should be appreciative of everything that is given and more.
In 1949, the pinnacle of contemporary American playwright, Arthur Miller, published his works “Death of a Salesman”. After the advent of this play, not only caused a sensation in the theaters in the United States, but also became the Western model of modern tragedy as one of the most important drama after America's World War II. Miller was twice won the “New York Drama Critics Award” and also awarded the “Pulitzer Prize.”[
At first glance, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America appear to serve as two individual exercises in the absurd. Varying degrees of the fantastical and bizarre drives the respective stories, and their respective conclusions hardly serve as logical resolutions to the questions that both Beckett and Kushner’s characters pose throughout the individual productions. Rather than viewing this abandonment of reality as the destination of either play, it should be seen as a method used by both Beckett and Kushner to force the audience to reconsider their preconceived notions when understanding the deeper emotional subtext of the plays. By presenting common and relatable situations such as love, loss, and the ways in which humans deal with change and growth, in largely unrecognizable packaging, Kushner and Beckett are able to disarm their audience amidst the chaos of the on stage action. Once the viewer’s inclination to make assumptions is stripped by the fantastical elements of either production, both playwrights provide moments of emotional clarity that the audience is forced to distill, analyze, and ultimately, comprehend on an individual level.
Downer, Alan S. American Drama and Its Critics. Chicago, University of Chicago Press [1965]. pp. 218-239.
Updike, John. "A & P." Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York: McGraw, 1998. 27-31.
Born in New York City, Washington Irving decided to pursue a professional writer lifestyle. In his teenage
Paley, Grace. "Samuel." Literature for Composition: Essay, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th ed. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Longman, 2001. 190-192
Though humanity can never express itself fully, it is never deterred in its quest to do so. Literature brings such light and expression for humanity to communicate across time, space, generations and ever-evolving society. However, no modicum of talent suffices to satisfy people throughout the ages for literature and its ability to communicate directly and indirectly. Arthur Miller stands as a classic American author with his ability to explore the darker and deeper parts of humanity and individuals facing the adversity of a larger society. In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, he demonstrates the struggle of a family with an illusion of the American Dream against new ideas of success and striving for personal happiness rather than wealth or prestige.
Albee, Edward. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Rev. ed. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2005. Print.
Rollyson, Carl E. “Eugene O’Neill: The Drama of Self-transcendence” in Critical Essays on Eugene O’Neill. James Martine, ed. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co, 1984.
Pieces written and produced were created to shine a light on the social problems within America, as well as the growing concern about money and personal financial wellbeing as well. American theatre was already established during this time, thanks to the “two potent young dramatists: Arthur Miller, who turned the ordinary man into a figure of tragic stature in Death of a Salesman (1949) and drew a parallel between U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communist ‘crusade’ of the 1950s and the Salem witch trials of 1692 in The Crucible (1953), and Tennessee Williams, who created a world festering with passion and sensuality in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1954).” (Rea) America had had a history at this point in time with using theatre as a device to reflect society, something once again seen by the popularity of Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber who used their art to highlight the emphasis society had placed on the rich and classism. In the sixties and seventies, there was also an exaggerated emphasis on the development of African American, Asian, and Hispanic theatre companies in an attempt to further diversify a white-dominated field. Women’s companies and LGBT+ friendly companies also became popular during this time. Both of these things showed a transition in a field dominated by straight, white men to an artform that could better represent our culture and society by being
In all, the 1950s Avant-Garde era was marked by advancements and experimentation in not only theatrical productions, but in the way of daily life for Americans. Playwrights of that era, such as Samuel Beckett, were influenced by the ever-changing culture, society, and historical events of the 1950s. These advancements that laid a foundation for the Avant-Garde are the building blocks on which the American culture and way of life are built.