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Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays 1960 to 2005

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As a member of the theatre community for some 25 years, I bring a rather unique perspective to Stretching My Mind. With some assurance, I can say that no 20th century playwright has offered such sound advice on playwriting and its production. This is a selection of Albee's essays through the years which reflect works he is then seeing to the stage or has recently seen to the stage. Woven with extreme discretion and insight into the play-oriented texts is a sound vision of the nugatory forces alive in the US entertainment world (tv, film, theatre). He decries these, while offering up a philosophy which those interested in saving, nurturing and creating a true cultural base for this nation should listen to carefully. He believes that a democracy can only flourish in a healthy way when the electorate has as aeshetic background on which to base its choices. In a nation that has elected GWB twice, we can see the emotional and intellectual simplification of the nation's narrowing mind. Albee believes that a nation attuned to an aesthetic theatre as opposed to a pop cultural, pc theatre can not only develop a large audience base, but lead to a nation not shackled by the amygdala mindset of the digital world. Stasis can only lead to the death of art and culture, the only sure indices of a nation's spiritual, moral and ethical values. Those essays in this volume not devoted to playwriting deal with the contemporary art world. Albee is an 'accumulator' of artworks from about the globe. This is path on which I cannot follow him as I do not agree that conceptual art is art at all. But his point that a dynamic inter-relationship among sculptors, painters, composers and playwrights is a sound one. He has put his money where his mouth is with his Montauk foundation, offering new talent from these disciplines an environment in which to enjoy mingling and sharing views whilst enjoying a working holiday. If you are a fledgling writer or a theatre lover, you must have this book in your collection. Accumulate it. Read it, from first to last page.