GRIFFON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS
68-02 METROPOLITAN AVENUE, MIDDLE VILLAGE, NY 11379
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For further information, contact:
Dr. Clara Sarrocco, Director & General Manager
Phone: (718) 846-7858 Email: Csarrocco@aol.com
On Tuesday, September 21, actors, directors, producers, and theater lovers came together at the ‘Players’ (16 Gramercy Park South) to hear scholar/critic Anne Paolucci lecture on her new book, Edward Albee (The Later Plays) (publ July 15, 2010).
Speaking without notes, Paolucci gave an animated assessment of Edward Albee’s innovative state, recalling the genial changes brought about by Luigi Pirandello and showing how Albee has adapted the existential state of Sartre, Camus, Beckett, Ionesco and others to suit the American scene.
Paolucci was compelling in her parallels between Albee and Pirandello and did not hesitate to criticize reviewers who refuse to acknowledge anything beyond a realism that is outdated and stale.
Dr. Paolucci was not so blunt as to call the critics ‘a—holes’ as Mr. Albee declared Broadway’s harshest critic, john Simon, a ‘true a—hole,’ but she made eminently clear that our American theater critics should stop brandishing their swords in the vacuum that have created and start taking proper notice of the one playwright who has given us a body of work that is consistent and consistently provocative.
The talk was followed by a ‘conversation’ between Dr. Paolucci, Edward Albee (who was there as a ‘Special Guest’ for the evening to show his appreciation of Dr. Paolucci’s work) and John Andrews, Head of the Shakespeare Guild. Comments and conversation by theater and television personalities like Marion Seldes, Jerry Stiller, Dick Cavett, Eli Wallach, who came with his actress-wife Ann Jackson, gave an added dimension to the evening. Others who were there to honor Mr. Albee and Dr. Paolucci were Academy Award Best Actor winner F. Murray Abraham, artist Constance Del Vecchio Maltese, Senator Serphin Maltese, Queens Prosecutor Gail Giordano, ‘Nine’ playwright Mario Fratti, NYC Opera baritone Neil Eddinger, Heather Matarazzo and newly elected President of the Players Club, Johnny Planco.
Dr. Paolucci, an award winning playwright and poet, has covered a lot of ground with books and articles on Shakespeare, Hegel, AC Bradley, TS Eliot, ancient and modern drama and dramatic criticism. Her works include a collection of Hegel essays, articles and books on Dante, Spenser, and Pirandello; a translation of Machiavelli’s masterpiece, Mandragola. Her play about the ironies of the Columbus story was shown throughout the tri-state area and was chosen in 1991 as ‘Official Project of the Christopher Columbus Quincentennial Jubilee Commission’ set up by President Reagan to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the landing of Columbus in the ‘new world.’
Dr. Paolucci spent two years as a Fulbright lecturer in American Drama at the University of Naples (Italy) and has lectured throughout the world. The first University Research Professor at St. john’s University, New York, she was also Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Queens College (CUNY). She was chosen by President Reagan to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, where she continued in that capacity under three presidents, until 1993. In 1996, she was called on by George Pataki to take on the chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York – a complex of 21 colleges and a student population of 220,000 – a post she maintained until 1999, when she resigned to turn to full-time writing and publishing.
She has received many prizes and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Medal of the New York State Senate, and an honorary degree from Lehman College (CUNY). The Italian Republic has honored her twice with the Legions of Merit titles of ‘Cavaliere’ and ‘Commendatore.’
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