Collected Plays of Edward Albee: 1958-1965

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9781585678846
• Proviso: NEW
• Notes: Stigmatize New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

Overlook's three-volume Collected Plays of Edward Albee finally brought together all of Albee's works for the first time. Now, as the first book is released in paperback, the first stage of Albee's great career will be brought in full to an even broader audience. The first volume of this three-volume collection contains the eight plays written by Albee during his early years as a playwright, from 1958 through 1965. Those range from the four brilliant one-act plays with which he exploded on the New York theater scene--The Zoo Story, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, and The American Dream--to his early masterpiece, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Also included are two adaptations from notable American novels--The Ballad of the Sad Café and Malcolm--and Albee's mysteriously fascinating Tiny Alice. Ben Brantley of the New York Times has described him as "one of the few genuinely great living American dramatists." This book represents one of the most exciting and bold periods in the career of one of America's most popular and imaginative playwrights.

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Customer Reviews

A great anthology of a great American playwright.
The first of three collections of Edward Albee's plays. 1958-1965, I think were his best. Having them all in one place at the same time, one can truly see Albee's importance in the American theatre.
This collection is a must for any serious theatre student.

2009-12-05 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Edward Albee: A Singular Journey (Applause Books)

Product Details

• 448 Pages
• Softcover
• Published by Acclaim Books

Description

Mel GussowÕs critically-acclaimed biography of the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (SEASCAPE, A DELICATE BALANCE, THE ZOO STORY), who first electrified the American theatre scene in the 1960s with his groundbreaking THE ZOO STORY followed by the now legendary WHOÕS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

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With his off-Broadway success The Zoo Story in 1960 and the Broadway smash Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1962, Edward Albee announced himself as his generation's great American playwright. He had an unhappy childhood as the adopted son of wealthy suburbanites with no interest in his feelings or talents, and later immersed himself in the flourishing (but still closeted) New York gay scene of the 1950s. These seminal experiences gave Albee a sardonic, essentially bleak view of human relations that suited the questioning spirit of the '60s, as did his plays' absurdist tone and often experimental techniques. Alcoholism and bad reviews plagued him through much of the 1970s and '80s, but he emerged triumphant and sober in 1994 with the play Three Tall Women, which marked his mature understanding of his mother's life and won him a third Pulitzer Prize. Mel Gussow observed much of this personal and professional journey as a theater critic and an acquaintance; his book is a traditional biography based on research and interviews--with colleagues and friends as well as Albee himself--that also judiciously uses the author's firsthand experiences. (A section about the playwright's drunken rudeness at a dinner party and subsequent apologetic letter to Gussow is particularly revealing.) Gussow limns his subject's life with candor, but without prurience, and lucidly conveys Albee's importance in the American theater. --Wendy Smith

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Customer Reviews

Edward Albee A Singular Journey
I have not finished, but am completely enjoying the life story of one of America's finest playwrights. I became intrigued by something on the internet and then purchased this book. Before long I needed to read some
of his plays. I began with his Pulitzer Prize winning "Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?" I am really getting a deep picture of Edward Albee and
highly recommend "A Singular Journey" for anyone who loves the whole process of writing and sharing our life stories. This book was written by
Mel Gussow, thanks to him and the wonderful Edward Albee, readers will
travel for a time through the life and mind of one incredibly brilliant
individual.

2008-06-09 (New Jersey) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Brilliant
I received this book as a gift from the author's son and daughter-in-law. It's simply an amazing story, perhaps the only thing more amazing than Gussow's writing is the man that he writes about. Gussow captures Albee's natural speaking wit and amazing story in an absolutely brilliant way.

2007-06-23 | jimbodhizzle (Columbia, MO USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Is Albee America's Shakespeare?
Gussow admires and likes Albee and one supposes that is a good thing, but one wonders if that is enough to recommend this author for the job of writing Edward Albee's biography. Many will say so, of course, because of Gussow's credentials as a theater buff. If you see playwriting as a branch of the show biz trade, then surely Gussow is your man, but if prefer to speak of Ibsen and Chekhov in the same breath as Zola and Turgenev, that is, if one sees plays as part of literature, and wishes to speak of the theater beyond box office receipts and stardom, then maybe this star-gazing journalist could be bettered. I got tired of Gussow's praise for Albee's so-called political consciousness coupled with his admiration for Albee's talent for making real estate deals. Hypocritical radical chic seems so very yesterday. Albee's career follows more or less the course of Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward; early fame was followed by years of critical scorn and popular indifference. Unlike them, Albee has had a late-term come back. Revivals open annually as do new works. Yet, what somebody has to do is evaluate their worth. Saying it is all wonderful simply will not do.

2007-06-22 | Almawood (Kansas, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Informative page-turner for an Albee fan
Albee is without doubt my favorite living playwright, so I'm a little biased, but I read and enjoyed this book, and felt like I got to know Albee a lot better in the process, without losing any of my respect for him.
Since his plays are so much about family and the pursuit of "success", it's worthwhile to know about how Albee--who was adopted--grew up. I recommend this to anyone who admires Albee's plays, and also to sceptics who want more insight on the ideas and the man behind them.

2005-08-09 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Good, but not for everyone
This is a very good biography of Albee, and the best book available on the great playwright, but for those who consider 'The Zoo Story' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' to be his sole significant works should look for lighter reading. The book refuses to be salacious, sticks to the facts and offers very to-the-point criticism on Albee's plays. Albee emerges as a figure of some mystery and extraordinary talent. The book does not find any powerful new insight as in, for example, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams, but the book does move along nicely and is highly informative.
Overall, a good read for Albee's fans.
(By the way, what's up with all of the short 1-star reviews of the book, does someone have a personal vendetta against the author?)

2004-09-05 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays of Edward Albee

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780786717996
• Circumstances: NEW
• Notes: Name brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Description

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The American Dream and Zoo Story

Product Details

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• ISBN13: 9780452278899
• Notes: Mark New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Train: NEW

Description

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Customer Reviews

The American Dream
Edward Albee's Play, "The American Dream" uses absurdist elements to mock the American society, exposing its most controversial topics into normal conversation. By doing so, Albee gives us an inside look at the ugly truth; which may allow one to question their morals and motives while reading. Albee is successful in twisting ones sense of consciousness. By breaking things down into simple and casual dialogue, Albee is able to get away with the most remarkably crude humor; something that may be at first startling to the reader allows for a chaotic plot line and suspenseful story.

2010-02-12 (new london, ct) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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not into plays neither am i
well at least i thought i wasnt. but these two plays are very easy to read and i think theyd also be brilliant to see if only i got the chance. edward albee, pretty much the only playwright i like so far. but he makes me give the area a chance. these two are a great way to get into him and into plays in general.

2008-08-21 | peanuts for nuts (i get around) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A theatre MASTER piece
These plays are modern classics. Albee has an interesting view of our modern word (especially the american way of life) and expresses it really good in his theatre plays. Zoo story specially is a 'must do it' play for all the actors

2007-08-10 (Madrid, Spain) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Earliest and the Best
These are the two of the three plays ("Virginia Woolf") that will go down in theater history as Albee's contribution to the stage. The others may not make it. Both of these plays capture Albee at his rebellious best, just in from Westchester County where he had been living the country club life with his adopted parents, and now living in Greenwich Village. "The American Dream" captures the world of his parents, while "Zoo Story" takes up Albee's new life on the streets of New York (paid for out of his grandmother's trust fund). These plays have a vernacular zip and zing his later plays lack. They make for wonderful theater. Much of this early promise was realized in "Virginia Woolf" but then Albee, like the man with three arms, seems to have lost his voice.

2007-06-24 | Almawood (Kansas, USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Albee's Earliest
An unqualified genius with language, Edward Albee has a fair claim to being the USA's most important living playwright, though most would give the nod to Arthur Miller. *The Zoo Story* and *The American Dream* are among Albee's first plays, and both dabble in the absurdism that defines his work. The plays are very different from each other: *The Zoo Story* is a more serious play that builds slowly toward the inevitable, while *The American Dream* is more of a nonsense-farce, with echoes of Ionesco and Becket. But the logic of *The Zoo Story* and the comic brevity of *The American Dream* make these plays much easier to get a handle on than his later *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf* and *A Delicate Balance*. In fact, both plays have a spiffy economy that Albee's work seemed to lose until his recent masterpiece, *Three Tall Women*.

Anyone interested in American theater should study Albee, and these plays are a good introduction. Also (unlike most of Albee's plays) these plays could be performed by student or beginning actors.

2005-01-01 (Saint Louis, Missouri United States) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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Three Tall Women (Drama, Plume)

Product Details

• Mould: NEW
• ISBN13: 9780452274006
• Notes: Tag New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for best play, as well as a number of other prestigious awards, Three Tall Woman has been called Albee's finest achievement. In his triumphant return to the New York and London stages, Albee demonstrates insight and vision with a moving look at mortality. "Stunning . . . nuanced and breathtaking."--Time.

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Customer Reviews

brilliant
Albee, brilliant as usual. He spins a tale about one woman's journey through life with three actors representing her youth, middle and old age. It's humorous, touching and urges the audience to consider the value of life and the journey toward the unavoidable end: Death.

2009-06-11 (Bluffton, SC) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Stunning and Lyrical Meditation on Growing Old
Three Tall Women is Edward Albee's third play to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. It may be the best play that Albee has written. It balances his trademark ambiguity (dialogue and scenes that seem almost realistic but veer slightly off kilter, into a reality that has sharp and painful edges) with a heartbreaking poetry composed 99% of the ordinary language we all use every day. Three women sit in a bedsitting room: a well-off elderly woman, 90, 91, or 92 depending on who's counting, drifts in and out of reality, falls back on the past in repetitive coda, is never very nice and is occasionally outright nasty in the way she treats her companions; a fiftyish caregiver, her sympathy for her charge worn down by the old woman's complaints and pettiness; a twentyish lawyer, sent to persuade the old lady to cash her checks and pay her bills, and repulsed by her constant tirades and close-minded bigotry. The old woman dominates their conversation. It falls back again and again into monologue, the old lady reliving her past. Watching her behavior, seeing her drift in and out dementia is a wrenching experience, especially for a viewer like me who's already several steps along life's path. I won't tell you what happens later in the play but the second act completely transforms the revelations made in the first act and brings the play to a sad but richly lyrical close.

2008-10-31 | David Keymer (Modesto CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A Triumph--Albee's Best
It's unusual for a playwright to produce his or her best work in late-career, but that's what Albee has done in *Three Tall Women.* The essence of Albee's genius has long been his ability to get language to do what he wants, rather than being constrained by what language wants to do. But in *Three Tall Women*, unlike in *Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf*, there's something urgent and concrete at stake: what, exactly, was the meaning of a dying woman's ninety-two year life? It's this question that fuels the gripping conflict between the play's three characters, "A", "B", and "C", who represent a single woman at ages 26, 52, and 92.

There is so much in *Three Tall Woman* for brilliant actresses to exploit that the play seems virtually certain to be a hot ticket for as long as live theater exists. It's the kind of play that, if properly cast, could sell out the National Theater of Mars, or a similarly remote venue.

2005-01-01 (Saint Louis, Missouri United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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There is no denying.
A very remarkable life experience shared through the self. I love Albee. Such a fluid writer. Willing to expose s--t and anguish and self-loathing and nostaglia and laugh about it. This play is very direct, interesting, full of mortal longing presented though an amazingly simple concept. The three tall women, A, B and C are one woman. But at three different times in their own life. What comes is a moving sweep of life, as thought through in the future by C, the past and future by B and the past by A. What would you ask yourself if you met you twenty-five or sixty years from now? What would you say to yourself knowing what you know now to you thirty years ago? Etc., etc. There is no denying, the concept and idea of such a dialogue is ancient, and here Albee contemparizes it in the bittersweet way that life is. Read this if you love Albee, if your into philosophy, time travel, theoretical physics, feminism....There is no denying.

2004-10-13 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Another emotional triumph from Albee
Personally, I don't understand it when people say that Albee's writing is cold. "Three Tall Women" is a very emotional play, heartfelt and autobiographical. The writing is luminous. The characters are rich and dynamic. There is humor, and wit, and pain, and pathos. Perhaps Albee is just too smart for the average theatre goer. However, I love that he doesn't pander. I love that he writes smart. I love that he challenges the audience to think. "Three Tall Women" keeps you thinking long after reading it. Thank you, Mr. Albee.

2003-09-27 | I. Sondel - lover of the arts (Tallahassee, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Edward Albee: A Literary Companion (Mcfarland Literary Companions)

Description

This book covers the canon of playwright Edward Albee, perhaps best known as the author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Comprehensive entries detail each of the plays and major characters, and all works are cross referenced with important themes. Other features include biographical information focusing on Albee's artistic beliefs, his understanding of the playwright's responsibility, the importance of music in drama, and the technical craft of writing plays.

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