Playwright Edward Albee to Visit Oct. 1-2, Deliver Two Bryan Series Lectures
Playwright Edward Albee, who has defined modern American theatre with four decades of provocative, award winning plays, will visit Guilford College Oct. 1-2 and deliver two Bryan Series lectures.
Albee will speak on "The State of Theatre and the Arts in America" Oct. 1 and "Improvisation and the Creative Mind" Oct. 2. Both lectures are at 7 p.m. in Dana Auditorium and are free and open to the public.
During a two-day residency at Guilford, Albee will meet with faculty and students, including theatre studies students who will perform his play, Seascape, in November. He is the second in a series of four lecturers visiting the college in a fall series entitled "Arts and the Human Experience." It is also The Year of the Arts at Guilford.
The playwright is perhaps most well known for his debut three-act drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Released in 1962, Virginia Woolf was immediately recognized for its unabashedly honest dialogue and jarring interpretation of modern relationships. It won both the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and is widely considered a classic of contemporary theatre.
In his daring, groundbreaking plays, Albee has explored the most intimate aspects of human life and society, from race relations (The Death of Bessie Smith) and American family life (A Delicate Balance) to our 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.
Albee's most recent hit play, The Goat, won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Play and was a nominated finalist for the Pulitzer Prize this year. He is the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes (1966, 1975 and 1994) and two Tony Awards and is a Kennedy Center honoree.
For more information about the Bryan Series, which includes lectures by filmmaker Ken Burns Nov. 6 and actor Sidney Poiter Dec. 2, call 316-2308 or visit www.guilford.edu/bryanseries. For more about The Year of the Arts, visit www.guilford.edu/yeararts.
Oct. 1, 2003