Famed Playwright Edward Albee to Guest Lecture at UH

Assimilated from several sources but piece used by Houston Chronicle writer Everett Evans:

Internationally renowned playwright Edward Albee will return to the University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance as a UH distinguished professor of playwriting for the spring 2010 semester.

Albee, famed for such plays as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Three Tall Women, taught at UH each spring semester from 1989 to 2003, heading a new play workshop. During those years, he directed several productions of his works at the Alley Theatre, as well as a program of Samuel Beckett one-acts.

Albee will teach an advanced playwriting course for graduate theater and creative writing students, to be selected by the playwright.

“I enjoy the learning experience of teaching, as well as the enthusiasm and intuition of the students,” Albee said.

Steve Wallace, director of the UH school, noted that Abee's “interest in Houston and UH speaks to the emotional connection that he has with our program.” Wallace said Albee has expressed interest in teaching the advanced playwriting course for at least two consecutive spring semesters.

Albee visited UH last year to attend the school's production of At Home at the Zoo, a double-bill pairing his one-act The Zoo Story with a newly written prequel.

Albee first won fame in the early 1960s for such ground-breaking plays as The Zoo Story and Who's Afraid ofVirginia Woolf. He has won three Pulitzers, for A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Tall Women, and two Tony Awards, for Virginia Woolf and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?