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It’s weird to me to think that I do the same thing as Edward Albee. I suppose technically we’re both playwrights, but you can’t really compare Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to one of my six-minute plays about sock monkeys or dead dwarves or two guys talking about convoys.
Throughout my life, I’ve been exposed to many of the great writers for the stage. Whether in college or working at one of the many theaters that have employed me or just as a theater-goer, I’ve seen or read plays by all of our celebrated playwrights. While I enjoy all of them, some I connect with (Harold Pinter, John Guare, David Mamet, Sam Shepard) and some I don’t (Clifford Odets, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller). Again, not a question of quality or enjoyment, just the idea of “I want to do that.”
Edward Albee is one of the one’s I connect with.
I didn’t realize it at the time I was writing it, but my play “King Kong Doesn’t Speak” is very heavily influenced by “The Zoo Story” and several of my plays owe a debt to Seascape.
He changed theater and gave us a new kind of drama.
Rest in peace.
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