Home > Features > Acclaimed Playwright Edward Albee to speak at ASU

Acclaimed Playwright Edward Albee to speak at ASU on November 16

Audiences are in for a treat at this year’s Flinn Foundation Centennial Lecture at Arizona State University, when one of the greatest innovators in American drama, Edward Albee, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Gammage Auditorium.

Albee has defined modern American theater with four decades of provocative, controversial and brilliant plays which challenge audiences with the truth of the human experience. His talk on the state of the theater and the arts in America is free and open to the public, though tickets are required.

Tickets are available at all ASU Bookstores, Borders Books and Music and Changing Hands Bookstore. Albee’s week-long residency at ASU is made possible by an endowment from the Flinn Foundation and is coordinated by the Barrett Honors College and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

His most recent hit play, “The Goat,” won the 2002 Tony Award for best play. Albee is best known for his classic three-act drama, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” first produced in 1962 to win both the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards.

He also will speak at a public colloquium, “Getting at the Morrow: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat or Who is Sylvia?” from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 17 at ASU’s Galvin Playhouse, with Professor Jay Boyer of the English Department and local actor and playwright Luke Krueger.

One of the most heralded dramatists of the 20th century, Albee is the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and two Tony Awards, and is a Kennedy Center Honoree and winner of the National Medal of the Arts.

In his lectures, Albee describes the power of the arts as a catalyst for change. He believes that art should be dangerous, revealing all our faults and complacency, and inspiring us to live our lives more fully.

“The job of the arts,” says Albee, “is to hold a mirror up to us and say: ‘Look, this is how you really are. If you don’t like it, change.’”

A young Albee was hailed as the leader of a new theatrical movement, American absurdist drama, with “The Zoo Story” in 1959, about a drifter who acts out his own murder with the unwitting aid of an editor.

His daring, groundbreaking plays have explored the most intimate aspects of life and society, from race relations (“The Death of Bessie Smith”) and American family life (“A Delicate Balance”) to mortality (“The Lady from Dubuque”) and the blurred line between reality and illusion (“Seascape”). His other plays include “The Sandbox,” “All Over,” “The American Dream,” “The Play About the Baby” and “Three Tall Women.”

During his residency Albee will meet with creative writing and theatre students and faculty, visit classes, have lunch with Barrett Honors College students, staff and faculty, meet Flinn Scholars, and answer questions from local high school and community college students. He also will give a reading and discussion at a Leadership Breakfast on Nov. 18.

An R.S.V.P. is required for the Nov. 17 colloquium and may be made by calling (480) 965-2836.

Auffret, with Media Relations & Public Information, can be reached at 480-965-6991 or (sauffret@asu.edu).