1 For further details see Evans, Everett, “Alley's ‘Virginia Woolf’ to play in Soviet Union,” Houston Chronicle (3 January 1990)Google Scholar: Sec. D: 1, and Coe, Richard, “Lone Star Over Lithuania,” American Theatre (September. 1990): 22–27.Google Scholar

2 Politics caused a last-minute cancellation of the engagement at the Sovremennik Theatre, where artistic director Galina Volchek had herself played Martha in a Russian production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Coe, 24.

3 Albee has cited this production on several occasions; for example, see the account of his press conference in Selvin, Barbara, “Albee directs Albee,” Village Times (Stony Brook, NY: 24 August 1978): 7.Google Scholar

4 Sullivan, Dan, “Theater: Albee's ‘Bessie Smith’ and ‘Dream’ Revived,” New York Times (3 October 1968): 55.Google Scholar

5 Barnes, Clive, “Albee's ‘Seascape’ Is a Major Event,” New York Times (27 January 1975).Google Scholar

6 Rich, Frank, “Stage: Drama by Albee: ‘Man Who Had Three Arms,’” New York Times (6 April 1983).Google Scholar

7 Barnes, Clive, “Stage: ‘Virginia Woolf,‘” New York Times (2 April 1976): Sec. 2: 1.Google Scholar

8 Albee, Edward, Counting the Ways and Listening: Two Plays. (New York: Atheneum, 1977), 4, 56.Google Scholar

9 “Morning Report … Stage,” Los Angeles Times (14 May 1987): Sec. 6: p. 2.

10 Richards, David, “Edward Albee and the Road Not Taken,” New York Times (16 June 1991): 1 +.Google Scholar

11 Albee, , Counting the Ways, 56.Google Scholar

12 Solomon, Rakesh H., “Albee Directs ‘Ohio Impromptu’ and ‘Krapp's Last Tape,’” Beckett Circle 12, 2 (1991): 1–2Google Scholar; “Notizen,” Theater heute 26 (November 1985): 67; and Ottavino, John, personal interview, 4 January 1990.Google Scholar

13 Fontaine, Barbara La, “Triple Treat on, Off and Off-Off Broadway,” New York Times (25 February 1968): 42.Google Scholar

14 Schneider, Alan, Entrances: An American Director's Journey. (New York: Viking, 1986): 275.Google Scholar

15 Schneider, , Entrances, 374.Google Scholar

16 For more details see my “Crafting Script into Performance: Edward Albee in Rehearsal,” American Drama 2.2 ( Spring 1993): 76–99.

17 See Kerr, Walter, “First Night Report: ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’” New York Herald Tribune (15 October 1962): 12.Google Scholar

18 Like Albee, Alan Schneider also chafes at this critical misinterpretation more than twenty years later; unlike Albee, however, Schneider attributes the problem entirely to the reviewer's obtuseness. See Schneider, , Entrances, 324.Google Scholar

19 The largest deletion – a page and a quarter in the standard Atheneum edition of the play – contained George's six insistent warnings to Martha not to mention their kid when their guests arrive, and Martha's defiant claim to a right to bring up any subject; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (New York: Atheneum, 1962): 19–20. The second set of excised references consisted of two similar but cryptic exchanges after their guests arrive; Virginia Woolf?, 30. The simplicity of Albee's explanation for these deletions belies their inevitable dramaturgic and thematic import.

20 Although Albee slights these changes, many of them serve to achieve dramatic economy, refine characterization, eliminate ambiguity, or correct faulty logic, as seen in examples below.

21 Virginia Woolf?, 202.

22 Virginia Woolf?, 40.

23 Martha: “We're alone!”/ George, : “Uh … no, Love … we've got guests.”/ Martha (With a covetous look at Nick): “We sure have.” Virginia Woolf?, 121.Google Scholar

24 Virginia Woolf?, 64.

25 Virginia Woolf?, 57.

26 Virginia Woolf?, 14.

27 Virginia Woolf?, 80.

28 Virginia Woolf?, 233.

29 Virginia Woolf?, 230.

30 Virginia Woolf?, 21.

31 According to Albee, public relations people in the Los Angeles production sought unsuccessfully to remove the Oriental references.