"Virginia Woolf" Photos Are Here!

Once again we've brought in photographer Jon Gardiner to get some production photos at the final dress rehearsal of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - and these shots are pretty spectacular! Check them out below to get a sneak peek of this sizzling production.

Ray Dooley as George, Katie Paxton as Honey,
Julie Fishell as Martha and Brett Bolton as Nick



Katie Paxton and Brett Bolton

Brett Bolton and Ray Dooley

Julie Fishell and Brett Bolton

Ray Dooley and Julie Fishell

Photos by Jon Gardiner.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is now playing through December 18th.

The Costumes of "Virginia Woolf"

When working on a period show, the costume shop often has to rely on finding vintage pieces or making similar garments themselves. But luckily for this production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the styles of the 1960s are making a comeback (probably due to the popularity of AMC's Mad Men).

"The fashions on the television screen have trickled into the mass market and it's now possible to go to the mall and buy slim tailored suits, skinny ties, and even hats and not have to rely completely on vintage pieces to obtain an authentic look," says costume designer Jade Bettin. "This is a very fortunate coincidence when one is trying to create costumes for a show like Virginia Woolf that is set in 1962."

But the design process still took some research. "Of course my immersion in the silhouette of the late 1950s and early 1960s went beyond Mad Men," Bettin says. "After my initial design meeting with [director] Wendy Goldberg and the other members of the design team, I collected a large amount of images that solidified my understanding of the details of the period."

1962 Brooks Brothers fashion illustration from Bettin's research

Bettin also had to work with - and at times against - the vibrant set design, which she previewed not long after that first design meeting. "I opened the email and saw - was that a bright patent red floor and ceiling?" she said, adding, "I think my initial thought was, well, I guess I'm not using green."

Though the set offered certain restrictions, it  also provided inspiration. "My journey to find the colors that work for each character and with this set has been a very interesting one," says Bettin, who chose saturated colors for the character Martha.

"In reading the play and focusing in on the character of Martha, I always got the sense that she didn't quite fit - that she was not content playing the role of 1950s housewife," she said. "So that saturation hints at her discontent and also ties her to the color of the floor and ceiling and one of the other most interesting pieces of the set for me - the abstract painting that is commented on in the dialogue."

Untitled 15-P by Edward Dugmore, a 1959 abstract painting that
inspired Bettin's design (source: www.abstract-art.com)

"The abstract paintings of this period are canvases filled with bold splashes of color that speak to raw emotion," Bettin says. "Sounds like Martha to me."

The Set Design of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

For Alexander Dodge, set designer for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the design process began with understanding the play's psychological and emotional tone.

"The atmosphere of the play is incredibly hot much of the time and frequently unbearably so," he said. "However, its volatility is absorbing and even bewitching."

From there, Dodge and director Wendy C. Goldberg approached the task of creating a feeling of confinement for the PlayMakers thrust environment.  "We wanted a space that felt oppressive and constricting without necessarily being completely literal and naturalistic," he said. "Though the play requires certain trappings of a period living room and the course of the evening happens in real time, the overall space could be metaphorical as well."

Rendering of Dodge's design

To accomplish this, they settled on a "metaphorical playing space" with more realistic, period-specific furniture pieces "to ground the reality." The use of books ties in with the characters' connections to academia. The glossy red floor and ceiling create the feeling of confinement desired by appearing to crush the wall of books.

An image that inspired Dodge's design

Dodge said, "One of Martha's first lines is 'what a dump' channeling Bette Davis. Presumably as George and Martha mess up one area of this big rambling colonial they move on to a cleaner area until the entire house is in the state we find it."

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens November 30th.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and the Pulitzer Prize

Entertaining? Definitely. Shocking? At times. Wholesome?

...maybe not.

There's a lot that can be said about Edward Albee's 1962 Broadway debut Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, winner of the 1963 Tony Award and initial winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. But when it came time to award the Pulitzer, the committee actually decided to override its original decision. Albee's play did not, they decided, portray a "wholesome" view of American life. Its sexual themes and language were not deemed "uplifting."

Edward Albee (source: www.achievement.org)

So what beat out Virginia Woolf?

Actually, nothing. The Committee didn't award a drama prize at all that year, despite critical acclaim. The decision grew even more controversial when half of the Committee's members resigned to show their support for Albee.

For more information, check out Edward Albee's biography. 

And if you think you can handle the scandal, then get ready for PlayMakers' production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, opening on November 30th.