Whos Afraid of Edward Albee? :: Biography Biographies Essays

Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?      Ã‚   Edward Albee was considered the chief playwright of the Theater of the Absurd when his first successful one-act experimental plays emerged.   The Zoo Story, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung were all released during Albee's thirties between 1959 and 1968 (Artists   1-2).   Edward Albee was born in the nation's capitol on March 12, 1928, and his career has brought him three Pulitzer Prizes over four decades, the first for A Delicate Balance in 1966 and the most recent in 1994 for Three Tall Women.   While Albee's original works established him as a leading voice in America's Theater of the Absurd, his more mature plays were representative of traditional playwrights like Eugene O'Neill and August Strindberg.      Unlike many successful writers, the childhood of Albee was not one of deprivation.   On the contrary,   Albee was adopted at the age of two weeks by a millionaire family.   From that point on he knew a life of wealth and privilege.   He resided with his family in Westchester, New York.   His childhood experience was quite remote from that of many writers who knew squalor and deprivation.   As one magazine article said regarding his childhood years, "It was a time of servants, tutors, riding lessons, winters in Miami, summers sailing on the Sound:   there was a Rolls Royce to bring him, smuggled in lap robes, to matinees in the city; an inexhaustible wardrobe housed in a closet as big as a room.   Albee has never made any explicit comments about the happiness of his childhood.   His father was believed, however, to be dominated by his wife, who was considerably younger than her husband and an avid athlete" (Biography   1).   His grandfather was one of the major f igures in the development of the razzmatazz of American show-business and the owner of a famous chain of vaudeville theaters.   Albee was named after him and this lineage gave him a great deal of exposure to plays and theater people at a young age.   Albee was not very adept at schoolwork though he showed promise as a writer from a young age.   He dropped out of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, after a year and a half to pursue a writing career full time in New York.   However, while at Trinity, Albee did gain theater experience by playing a variety of characters in plays produced by the college drama department.

Literature Review on Break Up Strategies

Ending any kind of relationship is found to become a traumatic experience to both parties involved. This could include a romantic relationship, friendship and even business partnerships. All relationships involve strong interpersonal communication skills that would allow the parties involved to cope and eventually heal emotionally. There are five phases in breaking up from a relationship. Duck (as qtd in Dickson, Saunders, and Stringer, 1994 & â€Å"Interpersonal Communication,† para 18-22) identified the break up model to have the breakdown phase, intrapsychic phase, dyadic phase, social phase, and grave dressing phase.However, any break-up solution would not work successfully unless the three factors in the relationship are identified, namely – the high level of satisfaction with the relationship, the acknowledgment of both parties of the time and effort that has gone into building it, and the absence of new compensatory attachments. (Dickson et al, 2004) According to Dr. Margaret Paul, people try their best to end relationships gracefully such that the society perceives it as a reflection of their worth when someone does not want to be with them any longer (â€Å"Ending Relationships,† para 1).But ending relationships gracefully will always have to go through hurting the other person’s feelings. A person may meet wonderful people though they may not feel any connection to them or a single individual alone. And the only way that person can end that relationship is telling the other the truth. There are on the other hand various strategies in breaking up from a relationship as identified by Baxter (1982, 1984 qtd in â€Å"Interpersonal Communication,† para 12-17) as either unilateral or bilateral and indirect or direct.Some of these strategies identified were avoidance, Pseudo de-escalation, cost escalation, fade-way, the blame game, and others. Much early work examining initiation, intensification, and termination as relatio nal goals simply compiled ad-hoc lists of strategies for redefining relationships without organizing strategies around a theoretical framework. More recent work has suggested that theories of politeness or facework may be applied to foster understanding of how people regard and respond to the relational goals of initiation, intensification, and termination of relationships. (Kunkel, Olufowote, Robson, & Wilson, 2003)Politeness theory is one of the most commonly utilized strategies implemented by individuals in order to enact their desired behaviors from their partners. According to the theory, convincing another person to alter his or her own behavior is inherently face threatening, thus they use politeness strategies to try to balance the competing goals f persuading the other an supporting the other person’s face. But politeness theory falls short in its ability to explain how compliance seekers must contend with multiple potential face threats to both their own and the tar get person’s face.(Krunkel et al, 2003) In an article written by Janet Jacobson on countrysingles. com, their study showed that â€Å"leavers† an â€Å"lefts† have varies coping strategies after breaking up from a relationship. â€Å"Leavers† focuses more on self-enhancement strategies through understanding and improving themselves by spending more of time with friends and families and dates other people. There were however those who become introspective and spends time alone, reflecting on the relationship they had left. (Jacobson, 2004)On one hand, individuals who were left behind focus on self-enhancement. The same with the â€Å"leavers,† â€Å"lefts† spend time with friends and family but they keep themselves more busy with work and/hobbies. They are more likely to change their perspectives on the relationship as much as they try to change their physical appearance to â€Å"look good. † There were also those who bad-mouths former partners and those who become intentionally mean by flirting with their past partners and eventually dumping them off.Avoidance was as well another strategy identified by the respondents of the study upon coping up with breakups. (Jacobson, 2004) References & Works Cited: Dickson, D. , Saunders, C. , & Stringer, M. 1994. Rewarding People: The Skill of Responding Positively. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. Interpersonal communication relationship dissolution. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Interpersonal_communication_relationship_dissolution#Phases_of_dissolution on December 7, 2007. Jacobson, J. 2004.COPING with a BREAK-UP: a report on strategies. Retrieved from http://www. countrysingles. com/azsinglescenecom/archives/coping_with_6-04. htm on December 7, 2007. Kunkel, A. , Olufowote, J. , Robson, S. , & Wilson, S. 2003. Identity implications of influence goals: initiating, intensifying, and ending romantic relationships. Western Journal of Communication Paul, M. Ending Relationships Gracefully. Retrieved from http://www. innerbonding. com/show- article/657/ending-relationships-gracefully. html on December 7, 2007.

Realism played a massive role in the lives of Anton...

Realism played a massive role in the lives of Anton Chekhov and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Both men made a significant impact on the world of theatre, and results are still seen today. They paved the way for those who came after them. Elements from Chekhov’s plays have influenced playwrights that preceded him, like the works of Tennessee Williams, who listed that Chekhov had a large effect on his writing. Stanislavsky’s acting system, based on acting truthfully, inspired many other acting systems that are still used today. Realism was a huge movement in the late 1800s to early 1900s. All art forms were influenced by it. Writers, artists, actors and more started taking a more simple direction and tried to depict life as it actually was. In†¦show more content†¦Chekhov himself said that his plays were â€Å"just as complex and just as simple† as real life (Puchner, et al). Around the same time Chekhov was an upcoming author, The Moscow Art Theatre came abou t. Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Konstantin Stanislavsky founded the Moscow Art Theatre on June 22, 1897, during an 18-hour luncheon at the Slavyanski Bazar (The Stanislavsky Century). The two had set out to reform Russian theatre and had the common goal in mind to create great art. Before they set their rules and regulations into place, none officially existed. Actors would show up either drunk or late and not have their lines learned. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich wanted a place where there would be discipline, respect, and great art, thus the Moscow Art Theatre was born (The Stanislavsky Century). Konstantin Stanislavsky, himself, also practiced ideas of naturalism. He was a theatre practitioner and his roles served as actor and director, and he created the first acting method. He functioned as the artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre. In A Sourcebook for Naturalist Theatre, there was a comparative statement to Chekhov and Stanislavsky which read: â€Å"In addition to the concept of acting ‘truly’, the practical correlative to Chekhov’s aim of depicting life ‘as it really is’, this extract outlines one of the most important keys to Stanislavsky’s system: establishing objectives, which in terms of acting is the