Presentation Abstract

Faculty's Name: David Whelan

Co-registrant Names: Charlotte Murphy, ’29

Type of Presentation: Performance: One or more registrants performing, such as music, dance, theater, or a literary reading

Presentation Title: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"

Abstract:

The scholars of Introduction to American Literature (Fall 2025) will perform a semi-improvised reading of Edward Albee's seminal play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Extracted for time, the performance will highlight social, political, emotional and intellectual anxieties shared between our 2026 moment and the time of the play's original penning. Based on a semester's work of interpretation and performance, each role will be played by a student familiar with the play, but who has not memorized their part. The effect is to create something emergent from the writing that is a mixture of both Albee’s vision and the cast’s creative gymnastics. Rightly considered one of the finest plays written in modern America Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf concerns George and Martha, a couple at a small New England college, who entertain the new hire and his wife for an evening of “games. The players will each bring conceptual props and dress for their roles, and it promises to blend reality and fiction into a one-of-a-kind table read.

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