Theater in America has become more and more commercial, leading to bad audiences, mediocre critics and a slew of “awful musicals infesting Broadway,” according to playwright Edward Albee, who spoke at Vanderbilt Nov. 26 as part of the Chancellor’s Lecture Series.

Sometimes called “American theater’s terrible child,” Albee is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and three-time Tony Award recipient.  He is known for being a provocateur who explores taboos in his works. Best known for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Albee's 28 plays form a body of work that is recognized as unique, uncompromising and controversial. 

“Arts hold a mirror up to ourselves,” said Albee. “But audiences today do not want the tough truths that art wants to tell us about ourselves. We want to be lied to – we want the message softened. We have become so passive as a society that we won’t take risks to reach our zenith.”

He attributes the public’s change in attitude about the arts to the “deplorable state and lack of education in the arts in public schools,” which is leading to the public becoming a “civilization of well-informed barbarians.”  
 
Uneducated audiences, says Albee, start a cascade that leads to safe and commercially successful productions that are “awful.”

Safe is not a word that describes his 2002 Tony Award-winning play The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?, which is an unlikely story of love, respect and family and will be performed by The Tennessee Repertory Theatre Jan. 31 – Feb. 16, 2008.

Albee continues to produce provocative works and prove they can be successful.  Currently four of his works are in production in New York, including a new one entitled Me, Myself and I.  He told the audience, however, that, “The best play is the one I haven’t written yet. If you thought you had written your best, why would you go on? I’m interested in finding out about the play stirring in the back of my head.”

To see a full video of Albee’s speech, visit the Webcast later this week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s News Network at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.

For more information about the Chancellor’s Lecture Series, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/cls.

Tickets for The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia? are $10-$40 (some restrictions apply). Group discounts are available. Tickets are available at the TPAC Box Offices:  505 Deaderick St., Downtown Nashville, and Davis-Kidd Booksellers, The Mall at Green Hills, www.tennesseerep.org, (615) 255-ARTS.

Contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu