Page 6-Friday, February 23, 1979-The Michigan Daily Albee to writers: Interpret life ,. .K ta': By NINA SHISHKOFF Aspiring writers were impressed by Edward Albee's lack of bitterness as he talked to them at an informal workshop held in the basement of the Modern Language Building, Wednesday evening. Albee has long had the image of the "angry man" of the American theatre. However, Albee himself rejec- ts this. "You can't write in a rage. Rage and anger have no form." Albee ac- * Join, the Arts Page MANN THEATRES MAL ILG SHOPPING CENTRI 769-1300 tually seemed amused as he related an anecdote of an indignity in his early career. His play, The Zoo Story, was first produced in West Berlin, Albee ex- plained, in German - a language he doesn't understand. The audience also liked his approach to the workshop; an introduction to survival for writers. Albee had begun by defining what makes a writer. "It's how the brain works," and a desire to share an interpretation of life with others. He said there was a time when an individual discovers that he is a writer. Later, he discovers what kind of writer he is going to be. Albee began to write poems at six, and novels in his teens, but it wasn't until he was twenty- nine that he realized his calling. "I discovered I was a playwright; not what I wanted to do, but what I was." THE BIG question to the young writer is "Am I any good?" Albee doesn't think that matters. At least, it doesn't seem to stop very many people. "Per square yard, there are more terrible wriWrs than anything else." In America, he said, what's good isn't popular, and what's popular is automatically assumed to be good. Fur- thermore, when a talented author tries to write trash, for the money or the fame, he can't do it. "At some point in his career, a writer may begin to think he's crazy"-Albee called this an occupational hazard. "Most writers are controlled schizophrenics - schizophrenic in a good sense of the word," he explained, in the sense of being inside a situation, feeling it, and outside, observing it. Even in having the slightly fanciful delusion that one's characters have a life of their own is somewhat, well, illogical. Albee dismissed it as nonsen- se, then went on to describe how one of the characters in A Delicate Balance I, ,, ,,,,.- zf'', , . ? .,tee i ' l 7 ~ ?:': a , ; %,. / A ibee 'At some point in his career, a writer may begin to think he's crazy ... Most writers are controlled schizophrenics - schizophrenic in a ' good sense of the word.' -Edward Albee YOU'LL 1ELIEVE A MAN CAN FLY SUPERMAN MARLON BRANDO GENE HACKMAN SHOWTIMES MON.-FRI. SAT. & SUN. 7:00-9:45 1:30 7:00 Tickets on Sole 30 Minutes 4:15 9:45 Prior to Showime tried to take the play away from him, and how Albee outsmarted her by taking her offstage every time she tried to make a speech. ALBEE SPOKE mainly about plays and playwriting - quietly, and not as an oracle. He cast no pearls any larger I The word's out on c$MPUS If you wont to be in the know, you should be reading The Daily . . . the latest in news, sports, les affaires academiques, and entertainment ... CALL 764-0558 to order your subscription today ' /,/. ,/' i I ,I '.q \) I r -I J STARTS TODAY 1 Nam than, "The proper length of a play is it's proper length." He explained how he works; he almost never writes notes or plans the structure of his plays, because he values spontaneity. Although he always knows how his plays will end, he can be surprised by how that end is reached. He said he keeps a play in his head, "moving from the conscious to the unconscious until it becomes clear" from six months to ten years before writing it down. Albee calls this period being "with play" or being "knocked up intellectually." He trusts his unconscious. Often, he says,; he is cleverer than he thinks he is being. Although he directs his plays himself to keep his ideas intact, (ironically: "lots of people out there, feel terribly creative"), he is open to suggestion. He concludes that if the innovations are very good, they must be appropriate to what he wrote - therefore, they must have been there to begin with, and he can take full credit for them. One listener asked him how many times he had taken outside suggestions. Never, he explained - just as he had said. It was always there to begin with. There was the 1inevitable question from the audience - how does one break, into.-thertheater?--Cionnections? Albee admitted he has known,'many people in the theater, but that they are of very little help to him. He doesn't even read his latest works to theme- he'd rather have a poet's or a-, musician's opinion. He told listeners he doesn't see any problems for new playwrights. "There are people dying for new plays." Any halfway decent play in this country-will get, produced, says Albee. It's only a matter of knowing who wants what kind of play. His definition of a good play? "I don't think anything is any good if it leaves you where you were." Mediatrics Presents: v Starring Robert DeNiro Fri. 1:00, 8:00 pmn Sat. & Sun.:1:00, 4:30, 8:00 pm Rated R . MANN THEATRES VILLAG MAPLE VILLAGE SHOPPING6-ENTE0 "A film of great courage and overwhelming emotional power. A fiercely roving embrace of life."-Jack Kroll, Newsweek. "The great American film of the year."-Arthur Knight, Holly- wood Reporter. STARRING ROBERT E NIRO A MICHAEL CIMINO FILM Co-starring John Cazale, John Savage & Christopher Walken BA HIA A robust merry and musical panorama involving the lives, loves and folk religion of shantytown inhabitants is presented in "Bahia," the diverting new work by Marcel Comus, who directed the prize-winning "Black Orpheus" 20 years ago. Fri., Feb. 23 Nat. Sci. Aud. 7:00,19:00 -and- DRIVE-IN (Rod Amateau, 1978) A fun movie that is likeable, fast-moving entertainment. it's a movie-within-a-movie, DISASTER 1976, showing at the Alamo theatre on the wildest Friday night of the, year. While a mid-air collision, a tidal wave, a blazing skyscraper and a beserk shark compete for attention on the big screen, there's even more fun and action in the audience. Sat., Feb. 24 Nat. Scl. Aud. 7:00. 8:30, 10:00 A4 When in Southern California visit AL STUDIOS TOUR ANCAEYOMINAIO 7 C D1Y WDNOMINATIONS., BEST ACTRESSI BEST SCREENPLAY (Based on material from another mediurm) . BEST SONG The Mirisch Corporation presents Ellen Alda {i. ;s Burstyn Alan "same MmeNextiear" ELLEN BURSTYN and ALAN ALDA in"SAME TIMENEXT YEAR" A Walter Mirisch/Robert Mulligan Production Screenplay by BERNARD SLADE - Based on the stage play by BERNARD SLADE Produred on the stage by MORTON GOTTLIEB - Music by MARVIN HAMLISCH Produced by WALTER MIRISCH and MORTON GOTTLIEB -Directed by ROBERT MULLIGAN A Universal Picture - Technicolor" Now a DELL Book I I ".