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45-444: Signature has presented entire seasons of the work of Edward Albee , Lee Blessing , David Henry Hwang , Horton Foote , María Irene Fornés , Athol Fugard , John Guare , Bill Irwin , Adrienne Kennedy , Romulus Linney , Charles Mee , Arthur Miller , Sam Shepard , Paula Vogel , August Wilson , Lanford Wilson , A. R. Gurney , Naomi Wallace and a season celebrating the historic Negro Ensemble Company . Among its programs are

90-807: A Distinguished Professor of Playwriting and held the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in the Performing Arts at the University of Houston . His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Samuel French, Inc. Albee established the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc. in 1967, from royalties from his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . The foundation funds the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center (named after

135-1021: A block east of their former home, which opened in 2012 and was designed by Frank Gehry Architects , the architect's first project for a theatre company. The space reflected a significant increase in Signature's audience capacity. The Pearl Theatre moved into the old Signature space but that company declared bankruptcy in 2017. Paige Evans took over for Houghton as Artistic Director in 2016, and in 2018, Harold Wolpert took over from Erika Mallin as Executive Director. Wolpert remained through June 30, 2021. In 2024 Emily Shoolz became Artistic Director. Tony Awards Pulitzer Prize Obie Awards Drama Desk Awards Lucille Lortel Awards Outer Critics Circle Award AUDELCO Awards Special Awards & Recognition Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( / ˈ ɔː l b iː / AWL -bee ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016)

180-512: A close friend of English-born Muir Weissinger Jr. and his family. Albee, along with others, referred to Florence, Muir's mother, as "Mummy." For her part, Albee's mother felt he spent too much time at the Weissinger household. Albee dated Muir's sister, Delphine, and escorted her to her coming-out party. Albee and Delphine had a "long and intense relationship" while it lasted; Albee has said they were "unofficially engaged." Albee kept in touch for

225-565: A combination of scornful mimicry and supplication. Albee wrote a prequel to The Zoo Story , titled Homelife . Homelife is written as the first act, with The Zoo Story as the second act, in a new play called Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (initially titled Peter & Jerry ). Homelife was first read publicly at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference . Christopher Wallenberg wrote of The Zoo Story : "Over

270-520: A drama award at all. The two members of the jury, John Mason Brown and John Gassner , subsequently resigned in protest. An Academy Award -winning film adaptation by Ernest Lehman was released in 1966 starring Elizabeth Taylor , Richard Burton , George Segal , and Sandy Dennis , and was directed by Mike Nichols . In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by

315-424: A knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes his zoo story by bringing it into the immediate present: "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry, whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are

360-528: A long act play, Schism , and a 500-page novel, The Flesh of Unbelievers (Horn, 1) in 1946. His formal education continued at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was expelled in 1947 for skipping classes and refusing to attend compulsory chapel. Albee left home for good in his late teens. In a later interview, he said: "I never felt comfortable with the adoptive parents. I don't think they knew how to be parents. I probably didn't know how to be

405-416: A long time with Florence and Muir Weissinger. Albee insisted that he did not want to be known as a "gay writer", saying in his acceptance speech for the 2011 Lambda Literary Foundation 's Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement: "A writer who happens to be gay or lesbian must be able to transcend self. I am not a gay writer. I am a writer who happens to be gay." His longtime partner, Jonathan Richard Thomas,

450-575: A new $ 700 million performing arts center on the site of the destroyed World Trade Center site . It was to be designed by Gehry Partners LLP and Snøhetta. By 2007, plans for the WTC Performing Arts Center remained stalled, the city offered Fiterman Hall as a possible home, but that plan also fell through. In October 2008, Signature announced the creation of the Pershing Square Signature Center ,

495-508: A nonagenarian revisits events of her life refracted through both her own dementia and the differing recollections of her younger selves, is a not-quite-memory play filled with regret, resentment, entitlement, various bodily indignities". Georgia State University English professor Matthew Roudane divides Albee's plays into three periods: the Early Plays (1959–1966), characterized by gladiatorial confrontations, bloodied action and fight to

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540-517: A sculptor, died on May 2, 2005, from bladder cancer. They had been partners from 1971 until Thomas's death. Albee also had a relationship of several years with playwright Terrence McNally during the 1950s. Albee died at his home in Montauk, New York on September 16, 2016, aged 88. Albee lived in a 6,000-square-foot loft that was a former cheese warehouse in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. At

585-525: A son, either." In a 1994 interview, he said he left home at 18 because "[he] had to get out of that stultifying, suffocating environment." In 2008, he told interviewer Charlie Rose that he was "thrown out" because his parents wanted him to become a "corporate thug" and did not approve of his aspirations to be a writer. Albee moved into New York's Greenwich Village , where he supported himself with odd jobs while learning to write plays. Primarily in his early plays, Albee's work had various representations of

630-433: A subsidized ticketing initiative designed to improve Off Broadway accessibility. Signature, its productions and its resident writers have been recognized with a Pulitzer Prize , a 2014 Regional Theatre Tony Award , eleven Lucille Lortel Awards , fifteen Obie Awards , five Drama Desk Awards , and thirty-two AUDELCO Awards . The National Theatre Conference recognized the company as the 2003 Outstanding National Theatre of

675-475: A success-crazed culture they are never forgiven for failing to live up to their own early masterpieces. But if Edward Albee has suffered the same cruel fate as Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams , he has kept on trucking". Billington wrote of Albee's 1987 play, Marriage Play , "At the end the play achieves a metaphorical resonance by suggesting that marriage is an accumulation of meaningless habits and that "nothing has made any difference". In 1991 he wrote

720-404: Is a lovely, poignant and deeply felt play. In no way at all is it an easy play -- this formal minuet of death, this symphony ironically celebrating death's dominion. It is not easy in its structure, a series of almost operatic arias demanding, in their precision, pin-point concentration from the audience, and it is certainly not easy in its subject matter." In 1974 he wrote Seascape , which won

765-571: Is missing essential pages. The Zoo Story is referenced in Jay McInerney 's 1988 novel Story of My Life , Michel Tremblay ’s 1992 memoir Douze Coups de Théâtre (English: Twelve Opening Acts ), and Bill Hader 's TV series Barry (2018). The Zoo Story is referenced in the 2024 film Woman of the Hour . While on a date with a serial killer, the main character of the film, played by Anna Kendrick , refers to The Zoo Story and quotes

810-485: Is referenced in the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men . The Zoo Story is a central element in the 2008 novel Qiṣṣat hadīqat al-ḥayawān (English: The Zoo Story ), by Moroccan playwright and novelist Yūsuf Fāḍil, set in the milieu of actors and playwrights in 1970s Morocco and Moroccans in Paris. The two main characters of the novel, Al-Sīmū and Rašīd, want to perform a Moroccan version of the play, but their copy of Albee's work

855-553: The Billy Rose Theatre on October 13, 1962, and closed on May 16, 1964, after five previews and 664 performances. The opening night cast featured Uta Hagen . Arthur Hill , George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon . The play won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1963 and was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize by the award's drama jury, but the selection was overruled by the advisory committee, which elected not to give

900-696: The Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts (both in 1996). In 2009, Albee received honorary degree from the Bulgarian National Academy of Theater and Film Arts (NATFA), a member of the Global Alliance of Theater Schools. In 2008, in celebration of Albee's 80th birthday, a number of his plays were mounted in distinguished Off-Broadway venues, including the historic Cherry Lane Theatre where

945-789: The LGBT QIA community often challenging the image of a heterosexual marriage. Despite challenging society's views about the gay community, he did not view himself as an LGBT advocate. Albee's work typically criticized the American Dream . His first play, The Zoo Story , written in three weeks, was first staged in Berlin in 1959 before premiering Off-Broadway in 1960. His next, The Death of Bessie Smith , similarly premiered in Berlin before arriving in New York. Albee's most iconic play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , opened on Broadway at

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990-621: The Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1971 he wrote All Over , a two-act play originally titled, Death , the second half of a projected double bill with another play called Life (which later became Seascape ). The play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre with John Gielgud directing and starred Jessica Tandy , Madeleine Sherwood , and Colleen Dewhurst . The New York Times writer Clive Barnes wrote, "It

1035-474: The Pulitzer Prize for Drama . It debuted on Broadway with Deborah Kerr and Frank Langella . It was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play losing to Peter Shaffer 's Equus . Clive Barnes of The New York Times declared the play "a major event", adding, "As Mr. Albee has matured as a playwright, his work has become leaner, sparer and simpler. He depends on strong theatrical strokes to attract

1080-689: The Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959, in a double bill with the German premiere of Samuel Beckett 's Krapp's Last Tape . The play premiered in the United States Off-Broadway in a production by Theatre 1960 at the Provincetown Playhouse on January 14, 1960, and closed on May 21, 1961. The play was paired with Krapp's Last Tape . Directed by Milton Katselas , the cast

1125-690: The Tony Award for Best Play . His works are often considered frank examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett , Eugène Ionesco , and Jean Genet . His middle period comprised plays that explored the psychology of maturing, marriage and sexual relationships. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula Vogel , credit Albee's mix of theatricality and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent postwar American theatre in

1170-789: The Hartford Stage in 2004, with Pam MacKinnon directing and Frank Wood as Peter, Johanna Day as Ann, and Fred Weller as Jerry. The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2007, and starred Bill Pullman , Dallas Roberts and Johanna Day . It was titled Peter and Jerry . The play, titled Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo played at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in June 2009, with Anthony Fusco as Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry. At Home at

1215-509: The Residency One Program, celebrating a single playwright with multiple productions over the course of a year, and Legacy Program, which brings those playwrights back for additional productions. Signature also introduced Residency Five, a program that will feature early- and mid-career playwrights and guarantee them three full productions over the course of a five-year residency. In honor of its 20th anniversary, Signature launched

1260-586: The Year. James Houghton founded the theatre in a black box theater at 31 Bond Street in the NoHo neighborhood in 1991 at the Kampo Cultural Center (a venue that had focused on promoting Japanese calligraphy ). The theatre focused on having a resident playwright of national stature with its first playwright Romulus Linney and Houghton led the company until just prior to his death in 2016. In 1997

1305-608: The Zoo had its Pittsburgh -area premiere as the inaugural show of the Ghostlight Theatre Troupe in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania in July 2010. It starred Rich Kenzie as Peter, Mary Romeo as Ann and Ned Johnstone as Jerry and was directed by Gabe Herlinger. At Home at the Zoo opened on February 23, 2018, at New York's Signature Theatre, starring Katie Finneran, Robert Sean Leonard and Paul Sparks. The Zoo Story

1350-493: The attention of the audience, but the tone of the writing is always thoughtful, even careful, even philosophic." He compared his work alongside Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter . Albee continued to write plays including Listening (1976), Counting the Ways (1976) before a brief break before The Lady from Dubuque (1980) which had a short run on Broadway. He wrote the three act play The Man Who Had Three Arms (1983) which

1395-524: The composer William Flanagan , but better known as "The Barn") in Montauk, New York , as a residence for writers and visual artists. The foundation's mission is "to serve writers and visual artists from all walks of life, by providing time and space in which to work without disturbance." Albee was gay and stated that he first knew he was gay at age 12 and a half. As a teen in Larchmont, Albee became

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1440-562: The early 1960s. Later in life, Albee continued to experiment in works such as The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002). Edward Albee was born in 1928. His biological father left his mother, Louise Harvey, and he was placed for adoption two weeks later and taken to Larchmont, New York, where he grew up. Albee's adoptive father, Reed A. Albee , the wealthy son of vaudeville magnate Edward Franklin Albee ;II , owned several theaters. His adoptive mother, Reed's second wife, Frances (Cotter),

1485-721: The metaphorical death; the Middle Plays (1971–1987), when Albee lost the favor of Broadway audience and started premiering in the U.S. regional theaters and in Europe; and the Later Plays (1991–2016), received as a remarkable comeback and watched by appreciative audiences and critics the world over. According to The New York Times , Albee was "widely considered to be the foremost American playwright of his generation." The less-than-diligent student later dedicated much of his time to promoting American university theatre. He served as

1530-473: The play Three Tall Women , a two act play that premiered at the Vienna's English Theatre about three unnamed women. The play was revived in 2018 directed by Joe Mantello starring Glenda Jackson , Laurie Metcalf , and Allison Pill . The 2018 production received the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play . Allison Adato of Entertainment Weekly wrote of the play, "Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, in which

1575-475: The playwright directed two of his early one-acts, The American Dream and The Sandbox . Honorary awards " Edward Albee ". Charlie Rose , May 27, 2008. The Zoo Story The Zoo Story is a one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee . His first play, it was written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. Rejected by New York producers, the play premiered in West Berlin at

1620-455: The reason behind his visit to the zoo . The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level. Eventually, Peter has had enough of his strange companion and tries to leave. Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench and challenges him to fight for his territory. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls

1665-538: The show to shoot a film.) This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in New York City 's Central Park . Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter's peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life and

1710-509: The theatre moved to 555 West 42nd Street on Theatre Row. In 1999 software developer Peter Norton donated $ 600,000 for renovations to the 42nd Street venue which was renamed Signature Theatre Company at the Peter Norton Space. Their lease at this location was scheduled to expire at the end of 2011, and the company began a search for a long term home. In 2004 it was announced that the Signature had signed on to be an anchor tenant of

1755-562: The time of his death Albee held an expansive collection of fine art, utilitarian works and sculptures. Albee was especially interested in artworks created by indigenous cultures in Africa and Oceania. Works written or adapted by Albee: A member of the Dramatists Guild Council, Albee received three Pulitzer Prizes for drama —for A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975), and Three Tall Women (1994). Albee

1800-519: The years, he'd [Albee] always had a nagging feeling that something was missing from the piece’s unsettling encounter between two very different men on a Central Park bench ..." Albee said: " The Zoo Story is a good play. It's a play that I'm very happy I wrote. But it's a play with one and a half characters. Jerry is a fully developed, three-dimensional character. But Peter is a backboard. He’s not fully developed. Peter had to be more fleshed out." The two-act play Peter and Jerry had its world premiere at

1845-577: Was William Daniels (Peter) and George Maharis (Jerry). Maharis left the production on March 6, 1960, to film Exodus . Peter Mark Richman (then known as Mark Richman) took over the role of Jerry on March 8, 1960. Daniels and Richman performed to rave reviews for more than nine months. Richman left the production in January 1961. The play won the 1960 Obie Award for Distinguished Play and Distinguished Performance, William Daniels. (Michael Karlan replaced Mark Richman for six weeks when Richman left

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1890-933: Was a socialite. He later based the main character of his 1991 play Three Tall Women on his mother, with whom he had a conflicted relationship. Albee attended the Rye Country Day School, then the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, from which he was expelled. He then was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he was dismissed in less than a year. He enrolled at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut , graduating in 1946. He had attracted theatre attention by having scripted and published nine poems, eleven short stories, essays,

1935-557: Was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what Martin Esslin identified as and named the Theater of the Absurd . Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two of his other works won

1980-686: Was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972. In 1985, Albee was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame . In 1999, Albee received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a Master American Dramatist. He received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2005); the gold medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1980); as well as

2025-546: Was received negatively with Frank Rich of The New York Times writing, "isn't a play - it's a temper tantrum in two acts... One of the more shocking lapses of Mr. Albee's writing is that he makes almost no attempt even to pretend that Himself is anything other than a maudlin stand-in for himself, with the disappearing arm representing an atrophied talent." Albee's plays during the 1980s received mixed reviews with Michael Billington of The Guardian writing, "American dramatists invariably end up as victims of their own myth: in

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