Edward Albee

Edward Franklin Albee III ( "AWL-bee"; born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright known for works including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox and The American Dream. His works are considered well-crafted and often unsympathetic 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 Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Younger American playwrights, such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel, credit Albee's daring mix of theatricalism and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent the post-war American theatre in the early 1960s. Albee's dedication to continuing to evolve his voice as evidenced in later productions such as The Goat: or, Who Is Sylvia? (2000) also routinely marks him as distinct from other American playwrights of his era. According to Magill's Survey of American Literature (2007), Edward Albee was born... full article at wikipedia