In 2008, Mr. Albee surprised us with a much different selection in "Grenadine" by Neil Wechsler. Mr. Wechsler graduated Yale University in 1996 with distinction in Philosophy and Psychology. He has been writing novels, novellas, and plays ever since. He lives in Buffalo with his wife, Anne, and their two infant children, Max and Sasha.

Grenadine follows a man's quest for love in the company of his three devoted friends. The bonds of friendship are challenged -- and ultimately reaffirmed -- by the quartet's journey through unfamiliar landscape.

The award ceremony was held the evening of September 14th at the Ritz Carlton Rise Bar, Battery Park, New York City. Mr. Bill Irwin, the multi-talented Tony award winning actor, who received his Tony for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" introduced Mr. Albee.

The Yale Repertory Theatre staged a brilliant reading of the play, directed by Evan Yionoulis on September 15th to a sold out audience.

 

Edward Albee, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and judge of the Yale Drama Series, says of 'Grenadine', "I found it highly original; it kept me fully awake; I learned quite a bit; both the questions the play asks and the answers it proposes are provocative; the play stretches my mind. If I have one reservation, it is that my favorite character, Pyx, vanishes (through apparent drowning) early in the second act and reappears only quite near the end of the play, diminished in wonderfulness (perhaps drowning, apparent or otherwise, does this) but able to recover in time to say the play's lovely last line."

"Grenadine" was published by Yale University Press in August 2009.

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