Feature: Salute to Edward Albee

Every so often there's a playwright that comes along and changes the landscape of the American Theatre.

It was in 1963 when WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? debuted on Broadway and shook the foundation of the theatre world. Albee's work delves into the human psyche with an in-depth view of relationships, marriage, and sex. His presence will be truly missed but his mark on the theatre world is undoubtedly immortal.

Edward Albee was born in 1928 and soon after adopted and raised by Reed Albee and socialite mother Frances Cotter. At a young age, Albee had difficulty in the house of his adoptive parents. In an interview with Charlie Rose Albee he said, "he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate thug" and did not approve of his aspirations to become a writer." Once Albee took the risk to leave home to pursue his passion he made it his life's work to train and mentor young playwrights at the University of Houston.

The 21st Century was filled with American Playwrights who produced groundbreaking work. Tennessee Williams and August Wilson gave us a glimpse of Americana from two different standpoints but Albee was amongst the ranks of these two playwrights with his Brechtian/ theatre of the absurd flair that paid homage to Eugene Ionesco and Jean Genet.

In 1960 Albee's first play A ZOO STORY won a Drama Desk award and this award set the rhythm for the other award winning plays such as A DELICATE BALANCE, THE GOAT OR WHO IS SYLVIA and or course WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf? which was later turned into a movie directed by Mike Nichols starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Even though WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf? is noted as one of his popular plays Albee chose to use the royalties from this play to fund the Edward Albee Foundation Inc. also known as The Barn. This foundation serves as a residency for writers and visual artists from all walks of life. Albee was a great writer but he believed in sowing seeds into young and up-and- coming artists. Edward Albee was an openly gay writer and wanted to be known as a writer that happens to be gay. He is preceded in death by his longtime partner Jonathan Thomas and leaves a host of students, up-and- coming playwrights and a body of work that will outlive us all. Today we mourn a cornerstone in the architecture of American Theatre.

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