Playwright Edward Albee receives his proclamation
in honor of his 80th birthday. Photo courtesy of Ben Gabbe.

March 3, 2008 - March 12, 2008 will mark Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee’s 80th birthday, and as such, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has declared the date “Edward Albee Day.”

Last month, at a gala event honoring Albee at the Vineyard Theatre, Associate Commissioner Julianne Cho, of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, presented the Mayor’s proclamation to Albee. The proclamation honored his cultural contributions to theatre and praised his philanthropic work with the Edward F. Albee Foundation, which helps nurture young artists as they create their own groundbreaking work.

A prolific writer, Albee has penned more than two dozen plays over the past forty years, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, and most recently Me, Myself, and I. Albee has received the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, and three Pulitzers. This spring, a number of local theatres will showcase Albee’s plays.