Off Broadway Theatres Across NYC Will Dim Their Lights to Honor Late Playwright Edward Albee

Following the loss of three-time Tony Award and three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, producer and director Edward Albee, Off Broadway theatres across NYC will dim their lights on Wednesday, September 21st at 7:45PM for exactly one minute, the Off Broadway League has announced. Widely considered one of the greatest American Playwrights of his generation and of the 20th Century, Mr. Albee passed away at age 88 on Friday, September 16, 2016.

"Edward's work and talent epitomized the spirit of Off-Broadway," says Adam Hess, President of the Off Broadway League. "He challenged artists and audiences alike and through that process created some of the greatest theatrical pieces of the last century. In his honor, the Broadway and Off-Broadway League will join together to dim their lights."

Mr. Albee began his career Off Broadway, with plays that established him as an astute critic of American values. Critics and audience took notice of his work with the debut of his existential one-act play The Zoo Story. The play about an intense encounter between two strangers on a park bench in New York City had its premiere in Berlin, Germany in 1959. The next year, It opened at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village and energized the Off Broadway theater community. He wrote three more one-act plays that were well received Off Broadway: The Sandbox (1959), The Death of Bessie Smith (1959) and The American Dream (1961).

In addition to writing, Albee produced a number of plays and lectured at schools throughout the country. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. A compilation of his essays and personal anecdotes, Stretching My Mind, was published in 2005. That year Albee also received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement.

Among the participating Off Broadway Theatres are The Theatre Center, New World Stages, A.R.T./New York, La Mama, Barrow Street, Vineyard Theatre, Atlantic Theater, Classic Stage Company, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Daryl Roth Theatre, DR2?Westside Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

To post a comment, you must register and login.