Edward Albee - 2015.
This
September 16th, 2016 (a
week past, last Friday) Edward Francis Albee slipped the
surly bonds of earth. My Dear Shoevians I know that with the title, above, this
article was lost to too many. That really is a terrible shame, for in learning
of Mr. Albee, is to learn a great deal about me (Daniel Hanning) at an early age. However, before I unpack that
little sentence, let me show this titan of stage and screen his due.
.
Edward
Francis Albee was
born March 12th, 1928 and
immediately put up for adoption by his mother. However, as if to signal the
great fortune (and luck) that was to be an undercurrent throughout his life,
two weeks later Edward was adopted by the son of a wealthy vaudeville magnate Edward Franklin
Albee II[1] of
Larchmont in
Westchester County , New York
.
In
an interview, included in this article further down the page, Edward recalled
that he was very fortunate to end up in the Albee family because “they gave me an extraordinary education”[2].
Edward never felt as thought he belonged
in the Larchmont family, for one reason they were complete social
opposites.
“They
are ‘Right Wing’ to the point… to the right of Gangues Khan somewhat I think…
and they were bigots, I thought. Anti-black, anti… anti… anti-Semitic.”[3]
.
In
these schools (Lawrenceville
School, Valley Forge
Academy, Choate
and Trinity
College in Hartford, Connecticut) Edward felt that the teachers knew that he would “do something great in the creative arts… and kept pushing me in that
direction…”[4] These
teachers were so very correct! Below, is a listing of the works of Edward
Albee:
.
Works written or adapted by Albee:
|
|
- 1960: Drama Desk Award Vernon Rice Award: The Zoo Story
- 1963: Tony Award for Best Play: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- 1967: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: A Delicate Balance
- 1975: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Seascape
- 1994: Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Three Tall Women
- 1995: St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates[23]
- 1996: National Medal of Arts
- 2002: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
- 2002: Tony Award for Best Play: The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
- 2005: Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement
- 2005: Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award
- 2008: Drama Desk Award Special Award
- 2011: Edward MacDowell Medal for Lifetime Achievement
- 2011: Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement, Lambda Literary Foundation
- 2015: America Award in Literature[6]
Edward’s
works spanned two generations, more than fifty years, and in all that time he
never failed to shock his audiences or shake the very foundations of literary
art. I must tell you, My Dear Shoevians, that I had a very
early introduction to Mr. Albee’s works. It was 1975 when my, then, acting
director (Mr. Truman Dunahoo) introduced me to the works of Mr. Albee. The very
fist work, of his, I read was to be (unbeknownst to me) the very first of this
works I (later) preformed!
Edward Albee 1995That is correct My Dear Shoevians, I had the honor and distinct pleasure to perform one of Mr. Albee’s works, ‘The Zoo Story’. It was my freshman year of college at a little community college in
.
It
is a One Act Play that takes about an
hour to play out. During that hour, the lead actor, portraying ‘Jerry’, tells a tale – ‘The
Story of Jerry and the Dog’. What ‘Jerry’
really is telling is a tale of his own battle with himself… with his sexual
identity. Today, in 2016, that may not seem a turgid tale. However, in the
early 60’s ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas Texas Texas Texas
.
It
is a One Act Play that takes about an
hour to play out. During that hour, the lead actor, portraying ‘Jerry’, tells a tale – ‘The
Story of Jerry and the Dog’. What ‘Jerry’
really is telling is a tale of his own battle with himself… with his sexual
identity. Today, in 2016, that may not seem a turgid tale. However, in the
early 60’s ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas Texas Texas Texas
.
From
everything I have ever read about Mr.
Albee… from all the interviews I have watched… One factor is CLEAR! Mr.
Albee wanted his audiences to feel discomfort. In that, he wanted to draw his viewers out
of their social comfort zones. He
wanted to challenge how they viewed
their world, how they judged others, and
he wanted the viewers of his plays to leave changed.
I knew this going into my portrayal of Jerry
in ‘The Zoo Story’. However, I was a very young actor, only 21 years old. It wasn’t until many years
later, that I learned I had achieved my goal.
.
In
1978 Alvin Community College
.
I would like to tell you,
My Dear Shoevians, two short
stories. These stories, I feel, display just how my performances of Jerry in
‘The
Zoo Story’ ‘Hit the Mark’ as
far as making Mr. Albee’s desire to make
audiences uncomfortable during his plays. As you can see, in the image
below, at this time in my life I had very
long and curly hair. I do not have any pictures from the exact time of this play. However, I can
tell you that my dark curly hair reached my shoulders, at the time of this
play. The theater was very old, and did not have central air conditioning,
there were just a handful of window air conditioners, and none of them pointed on to the stage. That meant, that during
performances, some actors (mostly those with the most lines, and movement… like
me portraying ‘Jerry’) could get very very hot! My long curly hair would hold a large amount of sweat, during
a performance. Now, My Dear Shoevians, this story was told to me many years after the performances by my high school drama teacher and
director, Truman Dunahoo.
.
Danny Hanning 1976 - Upper Right Corner
.
Seems, that when I
would get excited on stage… I would turn quickly from one side of the stage
to the other. Well, Truman told me, that on several occasions, when I would
whip from left to right or right to left, sweat
would fly off my brow and hair… and
strike the audience! Truman explained it to me, like this: “You would whip around, on stage, and when
you did sweat from your hair would rain across the audience. When that would
happen, the audience would jump and their breath would catch. You see, Daniel,
when the sweat struck us… for that moment… the ‘Forth
Wall’ would COLAPSE! When that
happened, for just and moment… we would leave
the theater… and be in that park with that crazed Jerry!”
.
For the few of you that are not theater savvy, “The Forth Wall’ is the invisible wall that separates the actors for the audience. It
exists along the curtain of the stage (the edge in front of the curtain) from
stage left to stage right. It is the invisible wall that audiences look through to see into the world the actors live! So, your see, My
Dear Shoevians… each and every time I would quickly turn, from right to
left or left to right, my sweat would strike the audience! It startled them… greatly! It was as though
something left the imaginary world of
the performance and broke through to strike the audience. Truman told me… THAT was the only time (in all his
years of directing and attending theater shows) he had ever witnessed the forth wall BROKEN! He also told me, that each and every time it happened,
the audience flinched! As if they had
been struck! Truman told me it made
the play more realistic than any play
he had ever attended, and that the fact I was unaware of it happening… just made it more real! He said, the
first time it happened, it really scared him! That, for a moment, he
was in
THAT park WITH that CRAZED man! Truly Albee’esk!
.
My final story, from my experience with ‘The Zoo Story’… well, as always, I have
saved the best for last! At the
ending of the play, ‘Jerry’ pulls out
a knife. The knife ends up in the hand of the bystander, sitting on a bench, in
the park. ‘Jerry’ grabs the man’s
hands, with the knife still clinched, and shoves the knife into his chest! We used a
nice stage knife that would stay stuck
in my chest after the bystander let
go. I had blood packs, under my shirt, near the base of the holder for the
stage knife. When I shoved the knife into my chest, I would break the blood
packs and get the stage blood all over my hands.
.
I would, then, throw my arms back with the knife in my
chest… and SCREAM! Falling to my knees, I would deliver the last lines of the play. It was exciting…
to say the least! However, as
exciting as it was (every night…
three times on Sunday) there was ONE NIGHT… that stood out from ALL the
rest… and one that I REALLY WISH Edward
Albee COULD HAVE BEEN THERE… FOR! It was a hot night, as most of the
performances were. I was sweating,
just like every other night. However, that
night… well, things were… different.
The whole play had taken on a surreal
quality, for me, it was almost as though… well, it was really happening… TO ME! The
audience was on the edge of their seats, and I could feel it all the way down
into my toes!
.
The final moments of the play had arrived, and the air
was so thick (with anticipation and heat)
you could cut it with a knife! I
pulled my knife… there was the struggle where I let the bystander take the knife from me… he is holding
the knife out from his body as
defensive… I turn quickly and grab his arms… I thrust the knife into my chest… I
stagger… I whip around to face the
audience… I SCREAM… and BAM! That
is all anyone heard… BAM! Right in front of me… not INCHES from
the stage! An older women, easily in the 80’s to 90’s… HAD BLACKED OUT AND FALLEN FLAT
ON HER FACE!!!
.
I stood there, motionless…
the ushers came running from the wings… they picked her up and took her
outside, where it was cooler. I fell to my knees, and finished my lines and the
play. But, the audience WAS HORRIFIED! NEVER…
EVER!!! Never had anything like
this had EVER happened before in Alvin , Texas
My Dear
Readers that was my experience with Mr. Albee’s work. Later, my sophomore year at A.C.C. An experience that I will never forget!
I wrote a paper on ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf’. That
is a tale of an aging power couple at
a small university. If you have not seen the film, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, you
SHOULD!
.
.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf - Burton & Taylor on Set
.
Through
out Edward Albee’s life he worked to make
his audiences “uncomfortable” while watching his work. He felt that theater
“Should make audiences uncomfortable” because
there was already a medium that wrote and performed works to make people
comfortable in their lives and it was called television.
.
Mr.
Albee’s works challenged my view of; myself,
the people I grew up with, the people of our country. Without his work… my
life would have been quite bereft of any understanding or self-awareness.
For that, I am forever in your debt, Mr. Albee!
.
Adieu!.
Thank you!
.
Daniel Hanning- Writer, Research Staff, Editor and Publisher of The Other Shoe
.
© 2010 – 2016 Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/1247463606959/the-last-word-edward-albee.html?smid=pl-share
[3] ibid
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/1247463606959/the-last-word-edward-albee.html?smid=pl-share
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Albee
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Albee
