From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Edward Franklin Albee III (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
Absurdism 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.
