June 30 - July 23, 2006

Director: Seth R. Ghitelman

Evening Performances:
June 30, July 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 8
Sunday Matinees:
July 9 and 23 at 2

Silver Spring Stage presents the electric, funny, compelling, powerful, and award-winning Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. The play, directed by Seth Ghitelman and produced by Brenda Ryan, depicts one saucy night at the home of a mild college professor and his racy wife entertaining a young couple with drinks, seduction and revelations. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will run weekends June 30 to July 23, 2006.

Silver Spring Stage is located in the Woodmoor Shopping Center, lower level (next to the CVS) at Colesville Road and University Boulevard. Ticket prices range from $11 to $15. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday matinees on July 9 and July 23 at 2:00 PM. Tickets can be purchased at www.ssstage.org. Information is also available by calling (301) 593-6036.

Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play, Edward Albee broke new ground in his first original full-length play into the fragile American psyche. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was viewed as revolutionary and made Albee the second most produced playwright in the country, after Shakespeare. He also shocked Broadway audiences with a level of intensity and profanity unprecedented for the American stage. The profanity was so striking that though the Pulitzer Prize Committee selected the play for the 1962 drama prize, the Columbia University trustees, who oversee the award, overruled the committee and denied the award because of the play’s explicit language, interest in "taboo" subjects, and controversy. Similar to his one-acts of the era, Albee wrote in metaphors of the contemporary period. In October 1962, the play opened on Broadway and nuclear war was nearly breached with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The character of Nick, though never spoken out loud in the play, is allegedly named after Nikita Kruschev. The characters George and Martha hold the same names as the country’s first president and his wife. This represented the conflict of traditional and modern, generational or East and West perceptions of the world. In1966, Mike Nichols directed the movie version featuring a famous warring couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who would win her second Oscar. George Segal and Sandy Dennis, also an Oscar winner, rounded out the cast. Warner Brothers had to make some edits to the language in order to pass the censors. The film was one of a handful that precipitated the Motion Picture Association of America establishing the current rating system. The film remains the only one in history to receive a nomination (13 in total) in every single eligible Oscar category. There have been numerous revivals, including a 2005 production that won Bill Irwin a Tony for lead actor. Cold War analogies aside, the play transcends a specific time and remains so affecting because of the very nature of human relations, its cruelty, fragility and the power of reconciliation.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is set on the campus of a small, New England university. It opens with George (Craig Miller) and Martha (Tamara Phillips) coming home from a party at her father's house. The two of them have a complex relationship driven by love, disappointment, and control. Even at the late hour of two o'clock in the morning, they are expecting guests: the new biology professor Nick (Aidan Hughes) and his wife Honey (Annette Kalicki). The two are in for a surprise as George and Martha are on for a full-scale battle. In the first act, entitled "Fun and Games" by Albee, Martha and George try to fight and humiliate each other in new, inventive ways. They fuel each other's jealousies by competing for their guests' attention as they relate different versions of their life story. In the second act, "Walpurgisnacht," the games get nastier. George and Martha attack Honey and Nick, attempting to force them to reveal their dirty secrets and true selves. Finally, in the last act, "The Exorcism," everyone's secrets have been revealed and purged. Honey and Nick go home, leaving Martha and George to sort out the remnants of their marriage.

The production team includes Ronald Hitchcock (Assistant Director/Stage Manager), Mary Seng and Bob Thompson (Set Design, Construction, Decoration and Painting), Alan Levine (Lighting Designer), David Steigerwald (Sound Designer), Linda Senne (Properties) and Claudia Hampsher (Costumes).

The Stage’s 38th season opens with the 2006 One-Act Festival (Aug. 18-Sept. 3), the frothy and fun The Play's the Thing (Sept. 29-Oct. 22), classic Americana Bus Stop (Nov. 10-Dec 3), humorous and heartfelt Visiting Mr. Green (Jan. 12-Feb. 4), antic and hilarious Dimly Perceived Threats to the System (Feb. 23-Mar. 18), funny and sensitive The Drawer Boy (Apr. 13-May 6), enchanting and delightful Morning's at Seven (May 18-Jun. 10) and thrilling and thought-provoking Never the Sinner (Jun. 29-July 22). Silver Spring Stage is grateful for support from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland State Arts Council and Combined Federal Campaign.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc.