Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee's first full-length play, scooped up five Tony Awards after its Broadway premiere in 1962, including Best Play, Actor (Arthur Hill as George), and Actress (Uta Hagen as Martha). Critic Ruby Cohn called Edward Albee “the most skillful composer of dialogue that America has ever produced”. Written as a commentary on the Cold War, Albee used the animosity between spouses to show the raw, human truth beneath the public exterior.

Director Barabara Larose, who recently directed a critically-praised production of Albee's one-act The American Dream at the Toronto Fringe Festival, says “What I love about Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are the layers of illusion; the anger and violence of the piece as well as its sadness and hope - this contrast fascinates me.” It has been said that in this blackest of comedies, all of the characters emerge at the end of the play without pride or dignity. But Larose calls herself “a romantic at heart, like Martha”, and sees an element of possibility and hope at the end of the piece - “there is a chance that life can be lived without illusion and self-deceit and that, despite our fears, we may rise again from the ashes like the phoenix.”

Alumnae Theatre Companyís production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? features Tricia Brioux (Beautiful City) as Martha, Jason Gautreau (A Lie of the Mind) as Nick, Karie Richards (Summer and Smoke) as Honey, and Mark Whelan (The Dead) as George.

Set designer Stewart Vanderlinden (Summer and Smoke) and lighting designer Paul Hardy (A Lie of the Mind) evoke George and Martha's skewed living room; with sound by Shaun Devlin, and 1960's costumes by Johanna Jaciw.

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WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Biographies

EDWARD ALBEE (Playwright)
Edward Albee was born in Washington, D.C. in 1928, and his affluent adoptive parents exposed him to theatre from an early age. A prolific writer even as a teenager, his first published play, Schism, appeared in his school's literary magazine. He moved to New York City at age 20, over his mother's objections, and supported himself by writing music programming for a radio station. A meeting with playwright Thornton Wilder (Our Town) in 1953 inspired Albee to become a playwright himself, although not immediately - he tried several other jobs first: office boy, record salesman, and Western Union messenger. His one-act play Zoo Story, written in 1958 and first produced in Berlin, then off-Broadway, was hailed as “the birth of American absurdist drama”. A series of one-act plays followed, including The Death of Bessie Smith (1959), The Sandbox (1960), and The American Dream (1961). Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) was his first full-length play, the first to be produced on Broadway, and the one for which he is best known. The production earned five Tony Awards, among many honours. Albee has won the Pulitzer Prize three times - in 1966 for A Delicate Balance, in 1975 for Seascape, and in 1994 for Three Tall Women. Since the 1980's, Albee has been teaching at various universities, and insists that he plans “to go on writing until Iím 90 or gaga”.

BARBARA LAROSE (Director)
Barbara studied theatre at Concordia University in her home town of Montreal and has since worked as an actor, director, dramaturge and acting coach for many years. Barbara's directing credits include the critically acclaimed Toronto Fringe productions of Edward Albee's The American Dream for Fireplay Productions and Millennium Madness Sale! for Thick & Thin Theatre, as well as the box-office hit Life on a Diet for By the Word Productions. Other directing credits include Metropolitan Art Theatre's Partial Virgin/Total Jerk at the SummerWorks Festival; the musical, Wild Moose Chase also for Thick & Thin Theatre; Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig and last seasonís critical hit, Michel Tremblay's The Real World? at the Alumnae Theatre, as well as numerous productions for Second Step and the Refectory Theatres in Montreal. Barbara has a particular interest in the development of new works and has directed The Poet's Wife, Time and Longings, and The Meeting, and the staged readings of Spitting Distance and Fast Track in successive New Ideas Festivals.

TRICIA BRIOUX* (Martha)
Tricia was last seen as Mommy in Mr. Albee's The American Dream (which she also co-produced), a hit at this year's Toronto Fringe Festival. Previous favourite roles include Gina Mae Sabatini in George F. Walker's Beautiful City, Lady Torrance in Tennessee William's Orpheus Descending, Maggie in Betty Lambert's Under the Skin and Pierrette in Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Soeurs. Tricia has made forays into both film and television and appeared in last season's DeGrassi: The Next Generation. She also voices numerous television and radio commercials. Tricia would like to raise a hearty glass of rubbing alcohol to the cast, crew, and of course, to the inimitable Ms. Larose.

JASON GAUTREAU* (Nick)
Jason appeared on Alumnae's stage last season as Frankie in Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, and as John Buchanan Jr. in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke. In 2002, he played the would-be crook Stevie in George F. Walker's Beautiful City. He also appeared in Alumnae's 2003 New Ideas Festival in The Short Story, and played the lead in the Village Players production of Feeding Pigeons. On film and TV, his credits include The Man (New Line Cinema), The Eleventh Hour (CTV), The Project (Tripp Productions), Complete Control (directed by Joel Macdonald), Stages (Odegra Productions), and Disappeared (directed by Chris Remerowski).

*With permission of The Canadian Actor's Equity Association

KARIE RICHARDS (Honey)
Karie is pleased to be returning to the Alumnae Theatre Company Mainstage since appearing last season as Jane in Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular. Other theatre credits include Chorus 9 in The Trojan Women (Canopy Theatre Company), Amy in In the Yichud Room (New Ideas Festival 2004), Alma in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke (ATC), George in Modern Ritual (New Ideas Festival 2003), and Mrs. Simmonds in Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind (ATC). Karie will be seen this fall in the opening sequence of a new CBC-TV comedy, Jimmy MacDonald's Canada.

MARK WHELAN (George)
Mark is delighted to be making his debut with Alumnae Theatre Company. His most recent appearance was as Gabriel Conroy in a musical adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (Toronto Irish Players). Other stage credits include Charlie in Hugh Leonard's Da and Robert in The Mai (Toronto Irish Players) Of Mice and Men (Tribal Productions); Dancock's Dance (Amicus Productions), and Jacob Mercer in David French's 1949, for which performance he received a Thea and a Theatre Ontario Award.

SHAUN DEVLIN (Sound Designer)
This is Shaun's first attempt at sound design, and follows his experience doing other things at Alumnae Theatre last season, including sound operator on The Real World?, a role in the staged reading The Death of Honour at the New Ideas Festival, and as a member of Stewart Vanderlinden's crackerjack stage crew on Absurd Person Singular.

ANGELA FINLAY (Producer)
Angela has worked as a stage manager, producer and director in Quebec and Ontario for over 25 years. Last season she produced three of the mainstage shows at Alumnae Theatre (Summer and Smoke, The Real World?, and A Lie of the Mind), as well as overseeing the 2004 New Ideas Festival. In 2002, she directed George F. Walker's Beautiful City at Alumnae, its first production since the 1987 premiere at Factory Theatre. Stage management credits include Amy's View, The Progress of Love, The Illusion and Ten Lost Years at Alumnae; The Canadian New Media Awards at CBC's Glenn Gould Studio; and Moulin Rouge, a benefit for Toronto People Living with AIDS. Angela is also the Rentals Manager (and former Executive Producer) for Alumnae Theatre.

DANIELLE GUSLITS (Stage Manager)
Danielle is thrilled to be a part of this production. She is a recent graduate of Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, and is now working as a stage manager in Toronto. She began with stage managing several shows for last season's New Ideas Festival at Alumnae Theatre. She then went on to work on The Power of the Dog at Equity Showcase, followed by The American Dream for Fireplay Productions at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

PAUL HARDY (Lighting Designer)
Paul wears several hats. He has designed lighting for Praxis Theatre's Eugene, Gizmette for Theatreworks, Portrait for Allegoria Productions, and Amy's View and Collected Stories for Alumnae Theatre. His acting credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Allegoria Productions), Marvin's Room and 1949 (Amicus Productions). He has directed productions including The Evil That Men Do for Alumnae Theatre's New Ideas Festival 2002; a staged reading of Northern Lights in New Ideas 2003; Lanford Wilson's Burn This and Sam Shepard's Geography of a Horse Dreamer for One Man Tag Productions, a company of which he was co-founder. He directed and co-designed the lighting for Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind at Alumnae Theatre in January.

JOHANNA JACIW (Costumes)
Johanna joined the Alum on graduation from the University of Toronto - Modern Languages and Modern History. Her first Alumnae job was painting sets when the theatre was still located on Bedford Road. She worked at Hart House on costumes and props for the House of Bernalda Alba, made the masks for our production of Kaspar, and worked as Costume Designer on many Alumnae shows. Lately she has been very busy as a caregiver but has decided that the Alum is part of her life and working box office was just not enough! Back to active duty!

FIONA NEWMAN (Assistant Stage Manager)
Fiona has decided to leave the land of Narnia and devote herself entirely to theatre. This year alone she was involved with 3 plays at the New Ideas Festival (2 as actor, 1 as stage manager), 2 plays at the Toronto Fringe Festival (both as stage manager), and 1 at the Harbourfront Hot and Spicy Food Festival (as writer and actor). She is beside herself with glee at being able to work on this production of Virginia Woolf. Big thanks and love go out to the entire cast and crew (especially Barbara), Angela, PJ, her family, her amazing friends Justin and Debbie, and the incredibly funny guy who she lives with but never sees. Thanks Shaun. After this production, she plans to conquer Everest, learn 12 new languages, and hunt down George Lucas so she can smack him in the head for ruining the Star Wars franchise. If you have nothing better to do, meet her by Platform 9-3/4 at Union Station next Friday.

STEWART VANDERLINDEN (Set Designer)
Stewart has created sets for numerous Alumnae Theatre productions including Absurd Person Singular (three 1970's English kitchens), Summer and Smoke (Mississippi, circa 1913), Beautiful City (the seedy side of Toronto), and Talley's Folly (an old boathouse in 1944 Missouri). He's also served as ASM, lighting op, scenic painter and master carpenter on too many other Alumnae shows to mention. Other set design credits include the Canadian New Media Awards at CBCís Glenn Gould Studio, Plan B at Theatre Passe Muraille, Help Wanted - Inquire Within at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and The Uninvited Guest for Down the Aisle Productions at the Tarragon Theatre.

KATHRYN WINNING (Assistant Director)
Kathryn had a lot of fun directing The View From Here (half of the double bill It's Not What You Think) at the Toronto Fringe Festival this summer. Other recent credits include directing Or and the staged reading In The Booth at Alumnae Theatre's 2004 New Ideas Festival, and assistant-directing Summer and Smoke and The Real World? for Alumnae Theatre. She also directed Krista Dalby's Love in Swift Current at the 2003 New Ideas Festival and London Fringe Festival; plus a workshop of Dalby's Fertility Rites and a staged reading of Rosemary Doyle's Carl, Suzanne and the Taxi Man last fall. In her “other” life, Kathryn is a marriage and family therapist and counsellor.

MAUREEN WRIGHT (Props)
This is Maureen's first production with Alumnae Theatre. A longtime theatre lover (as an audience member), she recently felt the urge to learn what goes into making a production, and started by helping with props for the Canadian comedy Cakewalk (East Side Players) last year. She is thoroughly enjoying the experience!