Overview
After twenty-one-year-old Edward Albee flunked out of college, he came home drunk and packed his bags, intending to leave home forever. He never spoke to his father again; and he would be estranged from his mother for seventeen years. He headed for New York City's Greenwich Village where he began to synthesize the experiences of his childhood and more into drafts of plays that would become The American Dream,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, Three Tall Women, and others. Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of Edward Albee and the plays he wrote. Read Albee in an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play!
The book features:
• Albee in an Hour, the primary essay in the book
• Albe E In a Minute, a snapshot chronology
• A complete listing of Albee's work
• A list of Albee's contemporaries in all fields
• Excerpt suggestions from Albee's significant works
• An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader
• An index of the main essay.
Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek Masters to comtemporary writers and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short book places the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context.
Synopsis
After twenty-one-year-old Edward Albee flunked out of college, he came home drunk and packed his bags, intending to leave home forever. He never spoke to his father again; and he would be estranged from his mother for seventeen years. He headed for New York City's Greenwich Village where he began to synthesize the experiences of his childhood and more into drafts of plays that would become The American Dream,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, Three Tall Women, and others. Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of Edward Albee and the plays he wrote. Read Albee in an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play!
The book features:
• Albee in an Hour, the primary essay in the book
• Albe E In a Minute, a snapshot chronology
• A complete listing of Albee's work
• A list of Albee's contemporaries in all fields
• Excerpt suggestions from Albee's significant works
• An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader
• An index of the main essay.
Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek Masters to comtemporary writers and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short book places the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context.
Publishers Weekly
Part of a nifty new series of bite-sized primers covering playwrights from Sophocles and the ancient Greeks, through Shakespeare, the moderns (e.g., Chekhov), to today's contemporaries (e.g., Mamet and Wasserstein), this title on Edward Albee possesses a useful balance in situating Albee's background and legacy. Director and academic Choate (Kean Univ., N.J.) has drawn especially from Mel Gussow's 1999 biography as well as numerous interviews with the playwright over his long life (born 1928) to offer a lively, nonjudgmental look at his career: early adoption by a wealthy conventional Westchester couple, flunking out of college and taking up with the Bohemian crowd in Greenwich Village, and immersing himself in dizzying realms of experimental theater, alcoholism, and homosexuality. The Zoo Story, which "spawned an entire generation of park-bench plays," launched both him as an exciting new playwright and Off-Broadway as a viable alternative venue. The American Dream and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf followed in quick succession, establishing this iconoclast of middle-class illusions as the "playwright of his generation." After a tidy résumé, each of these accessible pocket titles provides "dramatic moments" from the author's major plays so that actors and teachers can find a quick brush up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Part of a nifty new series of bite-sized primers covering playwrights from Sophocles and the ancient Greeks, through Shakespeare, the moderns (e.g., Chekhov), to today's contemporaries (e.g., Mamet and Wasserstein), this title on Edward Albee possesses a useful balance in situating Albee's background and legacy. Director and academic Choate (Kean Univ., N.J.) has drawn especially from Mel Gussow's 1999 biography as well as numerous interviews with the playwright over his long life (born 1928) to offer a lively, nonjudgmental look at his career: early adoption by a wealthy conventional Westchester couple, flunking out of college and taking up with the Bohemian crowd in Greenwich Village, and immersing himself in dizzying realms of experimental theater, alcoholism, and homosexuality. The Zoo Story, which "spawned an entire generation of park-bench plays," launched both him as an exciting new playwright and Off-Broadway as a viable alternative venue. The American Dream and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf followed in quick succession, establishing this iconoclast of middle-class illusions as the "playwright of his generation." After a tidy résumé, each of these accessible pocket titles provides "dramatic moments" from the author's major plays so that actors and teachers can find a quick brush up.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.