Edward Albee 80th Birthday Tribute

The evening will celebrate Mr. Albee’s 50-year career as one of the world’s leading dramatists as he turns 80 during this theatrical season. (His actual birthday is March 12, 2008.)

The Gala — which will benefit The Vineyard Theatre, one of the nation’s leading theatres devoted to presenting new works — will include salutations to Mr. Albee by a host of actors and writers and other theatre artists, including Bill Irwin, Tony Award-winner for his performance in the revival of Mr. Albee’s masterpiece Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; another Tony winner, Mercedes Ruehl, who appeared on Broadway in Mr. Albee’s 2002 Tony Award-winning play The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, and will appear this season in his new play Occupant; and the beloved Marian Seldes, who won a Tony Award in 1967 for her performance in the original cast of Mr. Albee’s A Delicate Balance, and whose many appearances in plays by Mr. Albee include at The Vineyard Theatre in Three Tall Women.

Widely-considered America’s foremost living playwright, Edward Albee is the winner of the Pulitzer for his plays A Delicate Balance, Seascaoe and Three Tall Women. He has won two Tony Awards, for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, starring Bill Pullman and Mercedes Ruehl in 2002. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council, and President of The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 received the Kennedy Center Honors and National Medal of Arts. In 2005, he received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.