Download or read book Edward Albee A Singular Journey written by Mel Gussow and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-27 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1960, Edward Albee electrified the theater world with the American premiere of The Zoo Story, and followed it two years later with his extraordinary first Broadway play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Proclaimed as the playwright of his generation, he went on to win three Pulitzer Prizes for his searing and innovative plays. Mel Gussow, author, critic, and cultural writer for The New York Times, has known Albee and followed his career since its inception, and in this fascinating biography he creates a compelling firsthand portrait of a complex genius. The book describes Albee's life as the adopted child of rich, unloving parents and covers the highs and lows of his career. A core myth of Albee's life, perpetuated by the playwright, is that The Zoo Story was his first play, written as a thirtieth birthday present to himself. As Gussow relates, Albee has been writing since adolescence, and through close analysis the author traces the genesis of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, and other plays. After his early triumphs, Albee endured years of critical neglect and public disfavor. Overcoming artistic and personal difficulties, he returned in 1994 with Three Tall Women. In this prizewinning play he came to terms with the towering figure of his mother, the woman who dominated so much of his early life. With frankness and critical acumen, and drawing on extensive conversations with the playwright, Gussow offers fresh insights into Albee's life. At the same time he provides vivid portraits of Albee's relationships with the people who have been closest to him, including William Flanagan (his first mentor), Thornton Wilder, Richard Barr, John Steinbeck, Alan Schneider, John Gielgud, and his leading ladies, Uta Hagen, Colleen Dewhurst, Irene Worth, Myra Carter, Elaine Stritch, Marian Seldes, and Maggie Smith. And then there are, most famously, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who starred in Mike Nichols's acclaimed film version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The book places Albee in context as a playwright who inspired writers as diverse as John Guare and Sam Shepard, and as a teacher and champion of human rights. Edward Albee: A Singular Journey is rich with colorful details about this uniquely American life. It also contains previously unpublished photographs and letters from and to Albee. It is the essential book about one of the major artists of the American theater.
Download or read book Conversations with Edward Albee written by Edward Albee and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 1988 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The influential American playwright discusses his work, the nature of art, the role of the unconscious, American culture, and the theater.
Download or read book Edward Albee as Theatrical and Dramatic Innovator written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward Albee as Theatrical and Dramatic Innovator explores this three-time Pulitzer prize-winning playwright’s innovations as a dramatist and theatrical artist and his contributions to the evolution of modern American drama.
Download or read book A Delicate Balance written by Edward Albee and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visitors cause trouble for a pair of suburbanites in this Pulitzer Prize–winning play by the author of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Wealthy middle-aged couple Agnes and Tobias have their complacency shattered when their longtime friends Harry and Edna appear at their doorstep. Claiming an encroaching, nameless “fear” has forced them from their own home, these neighbors bring a firestorm of doubt, recrimination and ultimately solace, upsetting the “delicate balance” of Agnes and Tobias’s household . . . In recent years, A Delicate Balance has enjoyed many and new stunning revivals, running now, including a Broadway production in 1996, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival, and another at the Alameida Theatre in London in 2011. “Theatrical fireworks.” —The New York Times
Download or read book The Play about the Baby written by Edward Albee and published by Methuen Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first British publication of a brilliant new Albee play If you have no wounds, how can you know if you're alive? In THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY, a young couple who are madly in love with each other, have a child - the perfect family - that is, until an older couple steal the baby. Through a series of mind games and manipulations, they call into question both couples' sense of reality and fiction, joy and sorrow in this devastating black comedy which invites parallels with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. "You're unlikely to find a more intriguingly structured, provocative or entertaining new play" - Curtain Up "The Play about the Baby rockets into that special corner of theatre heaven where words shoot off like fireworks into dazzling patterns and hues" - New York Times
Download or read book A Companion to American Literature written by Susan Belasco and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-03 with total page 1864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, chronological overview of American literature in three scholarly and authoritative volumes A Companion to American Literature traces the history and development of American literature from its early origins in Native American oral tradition to 21st century digital literature. This comprehensive three-volume set brings together contributions from a diverse international team of accomplished young scholars and established figures in the field. Contributors explore a broad range of topics in historical, cultural, political, geographic, and technological contexts, engaging the work of both well-known and non-canonical writers of every period. Volume One is an inclusive and geographically expansive examination of early American literature, applying a range of cultural and historical approaches and theoretical models to a dramatically expanded canon of texts. Volume Two covers American literature between 1820 and 1914, focusing on the development of print culture and the literary marketplace, the emergence of various literary movements, and the impact of social and historical events on writers and writings of the period. Spanning the 20th and early 21st centuries, Volume Three studies traditional areas of American literature as well as the literature from previously marginalized groups and contemporary writers often overlooked by scholars. This inclusive and comprehensive study of American literature: Examines the influences of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and disability on American literature Discusses the role of technology in book production and circulation, the rise of literacy, and changing reading practices and literary forms Explores a wide range of writings in multiple genres, including novels, short stories, dramas, and a variety of poetic forms, as well as autobiographies, essays, lectures, diaries, journals, letters, sermons, histories, and graphic narratives. Provides a thematic index that groups chapters by contexts and illustrates their links across different traditional chronological boundaries A Companion to American Literature is a valuable resource for students coming to the subject for the first time or preparing for field examinations, instructors in American literature courses, and scholars with more specialized interests in specific authors, genres, movements, or periods.
Download or read book Conversations with Pinter written by Harold Pinter and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a series of interviews with Harold Pinter by drama critic for the New York Times, Mel Gussow, dating back to 1971.
Download or read book Daphne s Dive written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a tucked away corner of North Philly, six regulars gather at a neighborhood watering hole. Over twenty years, they turn their collective memories into a vivacious mythology. The tales they’d rather forget, however, keep sneaking up and tapping them on the shoulder. At Daphne’s Dive, an aloe plant, a girl’s sneaker, a stiff drink, and mounds of trash become talismanic treasures to a group of outsiders trying to be “in” together.
Download or read book Orlando written by Virginia Woolf and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virginia Woolf's most unusual and fantastic creation, a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality. WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY PETER ACKROYD AND MARGARET REYNOLDS As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, thirty-six-year-old woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando will not only witness the making of history from its edge, but will find that his unique position as a woman who knows what it is to be a man will give him insight into matters of the heart. The Vintage Classics Virginia Woolf series has been curated by Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Reynolds, and the texts used are based on the original Hogarth Press editions published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. **One of the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**
Download or read book Singular Sensation written by Michael Riedel and published by Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extraordinary story of a transformative decade on Broadway, featuring gripping behind-the-scenes accounts of shows such as Rent, Angels in America, Chicago, The Lion King, and The Producers—shows that changed the history of the American theater. The 1990s was a decade of profound change on Broadway. At the dawn of the nineties, the British invasion of Broadway was in full swing, as musical spectacles like Les Miserables, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera dominated the box office. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard soon spelled the end of this era and ushered in a new wave of American musicals, beginning with the ascendance of an unlikely show by a struggling writer who reimagined Puccini’s opera La Bohème as the smash Broadway show Rent. American musical comedy made its grand return, culminating in The Producers, while plays, always an endangered species on Broadway, staged a powerful comeback with Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. A different breed of producers rose up to challenge the grip theater owners had long held on Broadway, and corporations began to see how much money could be made from live theater. And just as Broadway had clawed its way back into the mainstream of American popular culture, the September 11 attacks struck fear into the heart of Americans who thought Times Square might be the next target. But Broadway was back in business just two days later, buoyed by talented theater people intent on bringing New Yorkers together and supporting the economics of an injured city. Michael Riedel presents the drama behind every mega-hit or shocking flop, bringing readers into high-stakes premieres, fraught rehearsals, tough contract negotiations, intense Tony Award battles, and more. From the bitter feuds to the surprising collaborations, all the intrigue of a revolutionary era in the Theater District is packed into Singular Sensation. Broadway has triumphs and disasters, but the show always goes on.
Download or read book Albion s Seed written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-03-14 with total page 981 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.
Download or read book Thom Pain based on nothing TCG Edition written by Will Eno and published by Theatre Communications Group. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Astonishing in its impact. . . One of the treasured nights in the theatre that can leave you both breathless with exhilaration and, depending on your sensitivity to meditations on the bleak and beautiful mysteries of human experience, in a puddle of tears . . . Thom Pain is at bottom a surreal meditation on the empty promises life makes, the way experience never lives up to the weird and awesome fact of being. But it is also, in its odd, bewitching beauty, an affirmation of life’s worth."--Charles Isherwood, The New York Times “Eno has emerged as one of the most original young playwrights on the scene. He is one of the few writers who can convert discomfort and outright agony into such pleasure."--David Cote, TimeOut New York "Will Eno is one of the finest younger playwrights I've come across in a number of years. His work is inventive, disciplined and, at the same time, wild and evocative."--Edward Albee When Will Eno's one-person play Thom Pain opened in New York in February 2005, it became something rare--an unqualified hit, which soon extended through July. Before that, the play was a critical success in London and received the coveted Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Dubbed "stand-up existentialism" by The New York Times, it is lyrical and deadpan, both sardonic and sincere. It is Thom Pain--in the camouflage of the common man--fumbling with his heart, squinting into the light. Will Eno lives in Brooklyn, New York. His plays include The Flu Season, Tragedy: a tragedy, King: a problem play, and Intermission. His plays have been produced in London by the Gate Theatre and BBC Radio, and in the United States by Rude Mechanicals and Naked Angels. His play The Flu Season recently won the Oppenheimer Award, presented by NY Newsday for the previous year's best debut production in New York by an American playwright.
Download or read book Albee and Influence written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albee and Influence contains essays, written by leading Albee scholars, that focus on literary and philosophical influences on Edward Albee’s plays as well as essays on writers and works that Albee influenced.
Download or read book Grasses of a Thousand Colors written by Wallace Shawn and published by Theatre Communications Group. This book was released on 2014-03-03 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brilliantly upsetting and endearing . . . riveting."—Newsday An updated and revised edition of Wallace Shawn's most outlandish work to date. This poetic epic about a scientist, his wife, and his two mistresses as they fend for their lives in a world savagely close to extinction, raises issues of redemption, forgiveness, and responsibility. Grasses of a Thousand Colors is a troubling, erotic adventure that received high critical praise for its first New York City revival in 2013, starring Shawn. Wallace Shawn is a noted actor and writer. His often politically charged and controversial plays include The Fever, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Marie and Bruce, and The Designated Mourner. With Andre´ Gregory, he co-wrote My Dinner with Andre´, in which he also starred.
Download or read book Sex Gender and Sexualities in Edward Albee s Plays written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-03-12 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex, Gender, and Sexualities in the Plays of Edward Albee contains a general introduction and eleven essays by American and European Albee scholars on Albee’s depictions of gender relations, sexual relations, monogamy, child-rearing, and homosexuality. The volume includes close readings of individual plays and more general theoretical and historical discussions. Contributors: Henry Albright, Mary Ann Barfield, Araceli Gonzalez Crespan, Andrew Darr, John M. Clum, Paul Grant, Emeline Jouve, T. Ross Leasure, David Marcia, Cormac O’Brien, Donald Pease, Valentine Vasak
Download or read book What There Is to Say We Have Said written by Suzanne Marrs and published by HMH. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letters revealing a lost literary world—and a unique friendship between a brilliant author and a New Yorker editor. For over fifty years, Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, two of our most admired writers, penned letters to each other. They shared their worries about work and family, literary opinions and scuttlebutt, and moments of despair and hilarity. Living half a continent apart, their friendship was nourished and maintained by their correspondence. What There Is to Say We Have Said bears witness to Welty and Maxwell’s editorial relationship—both in Maxwell’s capacity as New Yorker editor and in their collegial back-and-forth on their work. It’s also a chronicle of the literary world of the time; they talk of James Thurber, William Shawn, Katherine Anne Porter, J. D. Salinger, Isak Dinesen, William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Walker Percy, Ford Madox Ford, John Cheever, and many more. It is a treasure trove of reading recommendations. Here, Suzanne Marrs—Welty’s biographer and friend—offers an unprecedented window into two intertwined lives. Through careful collection of more than three hundred letters as well as her own insightful introductions, she gives us “a vivid snapshot of 20th-century intellectual life and an informative glimpse of the author-editor relationship, as well a tender portrait of devoted friendship” (Kirkus Reviews).
Download or read book A Study Guide for Edward Albee s Delicate Balance A Play written by Gale, Cengage Learning and published by Gale, Cengage Learning . This book was released on 2016 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Study Guide for Edward Albee's "Delicate Balance: A Play," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
