Edward Albee’s Me, Myself, and I
- Written by Edward Albee
- Directed by Emily Mann
Born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958); The Death of Bessie Smith (1959); The Sandbox (1959); The American Dream (1960); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award); Tiny Alice (1964); A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony Award); All Over (1971); Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize); Listening (1975); Counting the Ways (1975); The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78); The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981); Finding the Sun (1982); Marriage Play (1986-87); Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize); Fragments (1993); The Play About the Baby (1997); The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award); Occupant (2001); At Home at the Zoo (Act 1, Homelife. Act 2, The Zoo Story.) (2004); and Me, Myself & I (2007). 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. In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (As of August 2010)
Director and playwright Emily Mann recently celebrated her 20th season as Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. Under her leadership, McCarter was honored with the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Directing credits include the world premiere of Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I; Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics (also on Broadway); A Seagull in the Hamptons (also adapted); the world premiere of Christopher Durang’s Miss Witherspoon (also at Playwrights Horizons); Uncle Vanya (also adapted); All Over (also at Roundabout; 2003 ObieAward for Directing); and The Cherry Orchard (also adapted). Her plays include Mrs. Packard (2007 Kennedy Center Fund for NewAmerican PlaysAward); Execution of Justice (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; Helen Hayes, HBO awards); Still Life (six Obie Awards); Greensboro (A Requiem); and Annulla, An Autobiography. Ms. Mann wrote and directed Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany andA. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; NAACP Award; Peabody and Christopher awards and WGA nomination for her screenplay). A winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, she is a member of the Dramatists Guild and serves on its Council. (As of August 2010)
Mother can’t tell her identical twins apart. But when Otto announces his brother doesn’t exist, the household descends into chaos. Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee is “in rare form with his newest play, turning the most fundamental questions of identity into verbal soft-shoes.” (Ben Brantley, New York Times)
Featuring
Elizabeth Ashley
Zachary Booth
Brian Murray
Natalia Payne
Stephen Payne
Preston Sadleir
Made her Broadway debut in 1959. Notable Broadway credits include August: Osage County; Dividing the Estate (also Off-Broadway; Drama Desk nom.); Enchanted April; The Best Man; Take Her, She’s Mine (Tony, Theatre World awards); Barefoot in the Park (Tony nom.); The Skin of Our Teeth; Caesar and Cleopatra; Legend; Agnes of God; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tony nom.). Film: The Cake Eaters, The Carpetbaggers, Ship of Fools (Golden Globe nom.), Happiness (Independent Spirit Award). TV includes “Evening Shade” (Emmy nom.), “The Rope” (CableACE nom.), HBO’s “Treme,” “Law & Order,” hosted “Saturday Night Live.” Recording: Lou Reed’s The Raven. Founding member/Board of Directors: American Film Institute. Author: Actress: Postcards From the Road. (As of August 2010)
Off -Broadway: Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons), Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen (Women’s Project), Spine and Pentecost (Barrow Group). Film: The Beaver, White Irish Drinkers, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Taking Woodstock, The Marc Pease Experience, Assassination of a High School President, Venice. TV: “Damages,” “Royal Pains,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “New Amsterdam,” “What Goes On.” Received a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama. Member of the Actors Center Workshop Company, the Barrow Group Theatre community, Peterborough Players community. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Julia, Chris, Nancy, Kevin, Nora, Laurie, Stephen and everyone at PH! AEA. (As of August 2010)
Broadway: Mary Stuart, The Rivals, The Crucible (Tony nom.), Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Little Foxes (Tony nom.), Racing Demon, Noises Off, Black Comedy, Sleuth, King Lear, Da, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony nom.), All in Good Time. Playwrights Horizons: The Butterfly Collection; Mud, River, Stone. Other Off-Broadway: Candida, Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet, Beckett/Albee, Scattergood, The Play About the Baby (Obie), Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Entertainer, Travels with My Aunt, Ashes (Obie), Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Gaslight, Entertaining Mr. Sloan. Regional: Me, Myself & I; Seagull in the Hamptons; The Tempest. Film/TV: Bob Roberts, Treasure Planet, upcoming Dream House (dir. Jim Sheridan), “Hamlet,” “Twelfth Night.” 1998 Obie for Sustained Excellence, 1998 Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. (As of August 2010)
Recent theatre credits include Memory House (opposite Kathy Baker, Vineyard Playhouse), Jailbait (Cherry Lane), New Jerusalem (Classic Stage Company), Aliens with Extraordinary Skills (Women’s Project), Trouble in Mind (Yale Repertory Theatre), Novel (SPF), Armed and Naked in America (Naked Angels) and deathvariations (59E59 Theaters), along with readings and workshops for MTC, NYTW, NYS&F, Ars Nova, The Lark, The New Group, EST and WET. TV/film: “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC) and the feature film The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. Natalia has trained with Soulpepper Theatre Company in her hometown of Toronto, Canada, and holds a B.A. from Yale University. (As of August 2010)
Made his Broadway debut in August: Osage County and just closed White Woman Street (Irish Rep). Stage: Tina Landau’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter); Ola Mafaalani’s A Clockwork Orange and Wings of Desire (Amsterdam and A.R.T. Boston); Shanley’s Sailor’s Song (The Public); Bus Stop, dir. Joe Hardy (Old Globe, Craig Noel, Inner Circle Critic’s awards); Boy Gets Girl (Seattle Rep) Bukowski From Beyond (SoHo Playhouse); South of No North, Fool For Love (29th Street Rep); Hatful of Rain (Actors Studio); Night Dance (Mint Theatre). Film/TV: Shoot First and Pray You Live, Cake Eaters, Suburban Girls, Hell’s Kitchen, “Law & Order,” “The Sopranos,” “Third Watch.” (As of August 2010)
Makes his Off- Broadway debut with Me, Myself & I. He is thrilled to be working with the team at Playwrights Horizons again after appearing alongside Jane Krakowski in a reading of the musical Mrs. Sharp last year. Most recently he created the role of Gustaf in the world premiere of Give It Up! at the Dallas Theater Center. Preston would like to thank his inspired teachers from the B.F.A. Musical Theater program at BrighamYoung University, his consistently supportive family, Mr. Albee and this incredible company, Russell Gregory and all those who have made his short time in NewYork so exciting and successful. (As of August 2010)
Creative Team
Thomas Lynch
Scenic DesignerJennifer von Mayrhauser
Costume DesignerKenneth Posner
Lighting DesignerDarron L West
Sound DesignerAlison Cote
Production Stage ManagerPreviously at the Friedman: The American Plan,To Be or Not To Be, The Royal Family, Top Girls, and Time Stands Still. He is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer whose work for theater and dance has been heard in over 500 Productions nationally and internationally, on Broadway and off. His accolades for Sound Design include the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards. He a two-time Henry Hewes Design Award winner, and a proud recipient of the Princess Grace Award statue.
Photos of (1) Elizabeth Ashley and Brian Murray; (2) Preston Sadleir and Natalia Payne; (3) Preston Sadleir and Zachary Booth; and (4) Elizabeth Ashley and Brian Murray by Joan Marcus.
A unique brew of misanthropy, melancholy and impish delight in word games. Your psyche will be stirred by this Jungian puzzle about mothers, absent fathers, and identical twins.
Any new play by Edward Albee is a major theatrical event.
There's no disguising Albee's singular vision.
