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Telling the Story of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Theatre History and Mythmaking
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened on Broadway on 13 October 1962. The author, producers, director and two leading actors won Tony Awards for that season; the play won the New York Drama Critics' Award, and two members of the Pulitzer Committee resigned when that group refused to give Virginia Woolf its top honor. This production of the play captured the vigor and emotional daring of off-Broadway, brought it uptown, and made it pay, running for 644 performances on Broadway. Early in 1964, when Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill repeated their roles in London for twelve weeks, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? became the first post-war American production to achieve a critical success in the West End. The story of this landmark production has been told piecemeal by writers in the popular press, by theatre historians, and in sharply differing accounts by its director, Alan Schneider. Collation of published testimony about the production with unpublished materials such as correspondence, diaries, and interviews with principals reveals the complex artistic process that led to the success of this play. The different versions of the story reveal the risks of storytelling and some of the challenges storytellers present to theatre historians.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1990
References
1 Schneider, Alan, Entrances—An American Director's Journey (New York: Viking Penguin, 1986).Google Scholar
2 Schechner, Richard, “Reality is Not Enough,” Tulane Drama Review, 9 (1964–1965): 118–52.Google Scholar
3 Lewis E. Shelton, “Interview with Alan Schneider concerning his work on Albee's, EdwardWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” 22Google Scholar and 24 May 1970, typescript in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, New York City.
4 Schneider, Alan, “Who's Afraid?” American Theatre 2.11 (February 1986): 4–9, 40–41.Google Scholar
5 Personal interviews conducted by the author with Arthur Hill, 18 April 1979, and Uta Hagen, 10 August 1989.
6 In Hagen's private collection. I am grateful to Miss Hagen for access to these documents and for permission to quote from them.
7 Entrances, 309–10.
8 Hagen's journal, 10 July 1962.
9 Hagen's journal, 11 July 1962.
10 Hagen's journal, 18 July 1962.
11 Letter to Mary Matthews, 21 July 1962, in Hagen's private collection.
12 Entrances, 313.
13 Schneider sued Waiting for Godot's producer Michael Myerberg for unpaid backroyalty payments in 1956 and in the same suit accused Berghof of stealing blocking from Schneider's Coconut Grove production when Berghof mounted the play on Broadway. Schneider's claim against Berghof was thrown out of court as unsubstantiated.
14 Entrances, 312.
15 Entrances, 313.
16 Interview with Hagen.
17 Interview with Hagen.
18 Richard Barr, Letter to “Dear Investor,” 18 July 1962, in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City.
19 McNally, Terrence, “Landmark Symposium: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Dramatists Guild Quarterly, 19.1 (1982): 20.Google Scholar
20 This and subsequent quotes from McNally, 20.
21 Interview with Hill.
22 Entrances, 316.
23 Interview with Hagen.
24 Entrances, 316.
25 “Kate Reid,” Current Biography, March 1985, 24.
26 An appendix to Entrances lists nine productions opening under Schneider's direction in the first nine months of 1962: Happy Days (12 January), Endgame (11 February), The American Dream (1 March), The Burning of the Lepers (20 March), Uncle Vanya (17 April), The Time of Your Life (15 May), The Dumbwaiter, Pullman Car Hiawatha, and Act Without Words, II (10 July), A Man's a Man (9 August), and Krapp's Last Tape and Zoo Story (12 September).
27 Schechner, 148.
28 Interview with Hagen.
29 McNally, 19.
30 Entrances, 317.
31 Schechner, 148.
32 McNally, 15–16.
33 McNally, 16.
34 Interview with Hagen.
35 Entrances, 323–24.
36 Interview with Hagen.
37 Schechner, 146–47.
38 Alix Jeffry's photograph of this meeting, identified as “the first rehearsal of Virginia Wootf,” appears as an illustration for Schneider's “Who's Afraid?” article in American Theatre.
39 Interview with Hill.
40 Hagen's recollection places the initial meeting of the full cast at the Billy Rose Theatre, as does the Alix Jeffry photograph cited above.
41 Entrances, 318–19.
42 Entrances, 319.
43 Shelton, 5.
44 Interview with Hagen.
45 Entrances, 319–20.
46 Entrances, 321.
47 Interview with Hill.
48 Schechner, 147–48.
49 Interview with Hagen.
50 Interview with Hill.
51 Interview with Hill.
52 McNally, 18.
53 Schechner, 147.
54 Entrances, 324.
55 Entrances, 324.
56 Entrances, 330–31.
57 Interview with Hagen;
58 Interview with Hagen.