Edward Albee

Doreen was invited to a University of Houston even last night to celebrate the fact that Edward Albee is back at the U of H teaching again. He taught here for about 20 years, but had to take some time off for a “personal matter” and is back again after five years.

He is a little fellow, probably about 5’4” tall, and 83 years old. He had a hard time remembering names (who doesn’t?) but seemed otherwise to be as sharp as he probably ever was.

He talked about a wide range of topics. Why he came to Houston (he likes our arts community) how he negotiated the deal with the U of H (basically he asked for twice the money they offer and working half the time they requested) and a lot about intellectual property (“there are forces of evil out there trying to take advantage of artists!”)

I was a little surprised at how much he talked about money. He seemed to be obsessed with it. But then again, he was an orphan, adopted by rich people he didn’t really seem to like. He ran away from home as a teenager and became a playwright.

I engaged him a little bit before the start of the formal session, mentioning that my older brother was going to be in a production of The Zoo Story in his High School, until the play got shut down. That was sort of funny.

We go to a lot of these types of art events. I never want to go, but I am always glad I went. It is a good thing that Doreen doesn’t let me off the hook as often as I would hope.