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Life & Arts

Time to open curtains on renowned Albee Workshop

Six UH students' works debut this week at Jose Quintero Lab 

by KELLY J. SANTOS
The Daily Cougar

The Edward Albee Playwright Workshop will begin its series of six plays Tuesday evening, all of which were written by UH students and chosen by renowned playwright Lanford Wilson.

Three plays will be performed nightly until Sunday. All plays will be presented in the Jose Quintero Lab Theatre in the Wortham Theatre Building. Admission is free.

"Six plays for the price of none," M.J. Emig, one of the play's directors, said.

Albee began the workshop 17 years ago and Lanford Wilson took over three years ago. Albee is living near the New York area where a revival of his famous Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is running on Broadway, Emig said.

After graduating from the University of Chicago, where he began his writing, Wilson moved to New York City. He became involved with a group of artists that performed at the Caf* Cino, one of many Off-Off-Broadway coffeehouses. In 1963, he had his first play, So Long at the Fair, produced at the Caf* Cino.

Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his play Talley's Folly.

"Not only has he won the Pulitzer Prize, but he also is one of the founding people of the off-Broadway movement and he founded possibly, if not the best, one of the best companies in the United States, which is Circle Rep," Emig said, referring to Circle Repertory Company, a company that pooled actors, directors and playwrights together to create plays.

"So you're getting playwrights and this guy that did this whole incredible company. People like Jeff Daniels, Chris Reeves … a lot of people launched from there."

In addition to Daniels and Reeves, the company was home to other famous acts such as Demi Moore, Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. Circle Repertory Company closed in 1996, after 27 years in operation.

Albee has taught playwriting and production classes at UH since 1989. In 2005, he was awarded with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for A Delicate Balance (1966), Seascape (1975) and Three Tall Women (1996). A couple of his plays, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?, have won Tony Awards. The latter won the 2002 Tony Award for best play.

During the fall semesters, Wilson picks a group of plays that go into development in a workshop format. He also picked what order they will be performing in this week.

Phoenix, Happy Hour and Texas Exodus will show at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The workshop performance season begins with Phoenix, a tale about love interrupting life rather than vice versa. The play was written by Lou Amyx and is directed by Andrea Hyde.

Happy Hour written by Joe Barnes looks into the lives of four working women in America today. Happy Hour is directed by Emig.

Rounding out the night's performances is Texas Exodus, a play about the love affair of a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. The play, directed by Hyun Woo Hong, was written by Judith Switek.

15 Hours in a Green World, Secret Place and Smitten will be performing Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m.

15 Hours in a Green World starts Wednesday. It's a play written by Chris Rivera and directed by Reesa Graham. The plot involves a group of people trapped in a bed and breakfast in Mexico during a tropical storm.

Kevin Holden's Secret Place is a story about a man who, with his brother's help, moves into a new home and waits for his lover. The play's audience will get to watch as the brothers find out that moving on with their lives will take more than a new place to live and more than just time.

Smitten is a comedy about a man and a woman -- and the morning after. The play is directed by Hyun Woo Hong.
 

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