Edward Albee

"Stretching My Mind collects for the first time the author's writings on theater, literature, the visual arts, and the political and cultural battlegrounds that have defined our times. Albee also explores charged topics such as government repression, censorship in the arts, and cultural literacy. On a more intimate level, Albee writes about his early home life, discusses in depth his body of work, and shares his perceptive worldviews."--Jacket.

George, a disillusioned academic, and Martha, his caustic wife, have just come home from a faculty party. When a handsome young professor and his mousy wife stop by for a nightcap, an innocent night of fun and games quickly turns dark and dangerous. Long-buried resentment and rage are unleashed as George and Martha turn their rapier-sharp wits against each other, using their guests as pawns in their verbal sparring. By night's end, the secrets of both couples are uncovered and the lies they cling to are exposed. Considered by many to be Albee's masterpiece.

"A fresh young couple - Boy and Girl - have a new baby, whom an older couple - Man and Woman - have come to steal. Why? Because, as Man says, "If you don't have the wound of a broken heart, how can you know you're alive?""--BOOK JACKET.

"The Goat is about a profoundly unsettling subject, which for the record is not bestiality but the irrational, confounding, and convention-thwarting nature of love ... Albee still asks questions that no other major American dramatist dares to ask."--New York times.

From inside jacket: Martin -- a hugely successful architect who has just turned fifty -- leads an ostensibly ideal life with his loving wife and gay teenage son. But when he confides to his best friend that he is also in love with a goat (named Sylvia), he sets in motion events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters.

Contains two plays by Edward Albee including one in which a man describes his visit to the zoo to a stranger in Central Park and another in which a Grandmother tells her life story while playing in a sandbox.

"Tony Rosenthal is probably best known for his landmark, fifteen-foot high CorTen cube, poised on its tip, which stands prominently on Astor Place in downtown Manhattan. Yet at the time it was installed, in 1967, and soon after accepted as the first permanent contemporary outdoor public sculpture by the City of New York, he had received many other public commissions, and had also been producing smaller-scale studio sculpture of distinction for nearly two decades, first in Los Angeles and then in New York. Since the late fifties he has been experimenting in a rather wide range of abstraction, from monolithic structures to more open geometric forms, often with elegant surface detailing concerned with effects of light and movement." "The book contains 69 color plates, an extensive chronology, a list of the sculptor's major commissions and public sculptures and a bibliography."--BOOK JACKET.

Jack comes home from a middling day at the office to quickly announce to his wife, Gillian, that he is leaving her. Suspecting for some time a midlife crisis, Gillian goads Jack about this announcement, forcing him to try it again--going outside and coming in again--twice! Jack wants his wife, whom he still loves, to really understand his fears and the reasons he must leave her. His days seem unknown to him; his secretary of fifteen years is a total stranger; his sex is by rote. Gillian understands but feels the investment of a thirty-year marriage is worth holding on to because so much is in place, and quite frankly, they've been through these changes before: affairs, neglect, sections of time forgotten. Jack accuses Gillian of not listening, an accusation she easily returns, and when Jack then does start to leave, Gillian blocks him and a small battle ensues. Retreating to their corners, both recount memorable points in their marriage and lives, and discovering that through it all, nothing is really enough. As the lights fade, they prepare for a departure but don't make a move.

As an imperious, acerbic old woman lies dying, she is tended by two other women and visited by a young man.

The Mayflower Theatre Company, in association with Robert M. Lang, Jr. presents Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story," productions directed and designed by Nash-Chandler, lighting designed by Michael Koss.

Cordelia and Abigail share their dislike for one another almost as much as their husbands, Daniel and Benjamin, share their inextingusihable, secret love of their own. Gertrude and Henden, Daniel and Cordelia's parents by previous marraiges, play witness to their step-children's passions which inevitably excite their own, despite their age. Edmee and her 16-year-old son Fergus border on a relationship beyond the filial that Gertrude cannot help but notice with interest.

In act one, a young lawyer, "C," has been sent to the home of a client, a ninety-two-year-old woman, "A," to sort out her finances. "A," frail, perhaps a bit senile, resists and is of no help to "C." Along with "B," the old woman's matronly paid companion/caretaker, "C" tries to convince "A" that she must concentrate on the matters at hand. In "A's" beautifully appointed bedroom, she prods, discusses and bickers with "B" and "C," her captives. "A's" long life is laid out for display, no holds barred. She cascades from regal and charming to vicious and wretched as she wonders about and remembers her life: her husband and their cold, passionless marriage; her son and their estrangement. How did she become this? Who is she? Finally, when recounting her most painful memory, she suffers a stroke. In act two, "A's" comatose body lies in bed as "B" and "C" observe no changes in her condition. In a startling coup-de-theatre, "A" enters, very much alive and quite lucid. The three women are now the stages of "A's" life: the imperious old woman, the regal matron and the young woman of twenty-six. Her life, memories and reminiscences -- pondered in the first act -- are now unceremoniously examined, questioned, accepted or not, but, at last, understood. In the end, her son arrives and kneels at her bedside, but it is too late. - Back cover.

The influential American playwright discusses his work, the nature of art, the role of the unconscious, American culture, and the theater.

Handsome is as handsome does... When Kate Poole tracked down the estranged grandson of her beloved employer, she little guessed the consequences her actions would bring. A renowned playboy, Xan Walcott was unlike any man she had ever known -- and decidedly more dangerous! He would use and abandon her without hesitation. Though necessity had forced her to work alongside Xan in Crete, Kate was hoping her own practical nature would save her from falling for Xan's legendary charm .

The role of art in society and the structure of that society are the subjects of Albee's connected plays. No character is seen in Box, only a woman's voice is heard, commenting on the corruption of life when pain is the only result of art. Chairman Mao speaks phrases of doctrine, while two women decry the fate of life.