Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

ANDREW BOTSFORD (George) has appeared in more than 50 Hampton Theatre Company productions since 1985, most recently as Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Also a director, his most recent productions were Admissions by Joshua Harmon in 2020 and Ripcord by David Lindsay-Abaire in 2022. Other regional stage work includes three roles in Round Table Theatre Company’s East Hampton production of Shakespeare’s Scottish Play and Noël Coward’s Tonight at 8:30 at Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater. The host of a summer film commentary program at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, he is also the host of the annual all-documentaries Hamptons Doc Fest in December in Sag Harbor. An archive of his now-occasional columns on life in Quogue can be found at atquaquanantuck.wordpress.com. Infinite gratitude to all the gifted and dedicated directors, casts and crews; family members; board members; audiences and generous patrons who have made it possible for me to be a part of this extraordinary company for the past 40 years. Long live the HTC!

ROSEMARY CLINE (Martha) last appeared on the HTC stage in 2023 as Rose in Rose and Walsh. Her first HTC directing gig was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in May 2024. A founding member of the company and current board member, she has had leading roles in over 40 HTC productions. She spent 15 years in NYC performing in theatre, film and TV, as well as seven years in summer stock in the Tri-State Region. More recently she studied directing and acting at Stony Brook Southampton with playwright Lucas Hnath, Mercedes Ruehl, Joanna Merlin, Tony Walton and Rinde Eckert, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the Southampton campus. Fresh off 14 years as theatre director at Westhampton Beach High School, she’s excited to share her new career as an audiobook narrator and can be found at rosemaryclinenarrator.com. Heaps of thanks to our amazing director George, our beautiful cast and crew, and all of those in our company who make the magic happen season after season. All love to Christopher, Cashew, Carter, her mother and father, with a wink to Poonie and Jane.

CAMERON EASTLAND (Nick; Fight/Intimacy Captain) is honored to be a part of HTC’s 40th anniversary season in their production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The play’s themes of truth and illusion are more important now than ever. Recent credits include Male Characters in Five Times in One Night at LTV and Chase in two dudes a couple of brews and a rusty canoe at 80G. Actors Studio Finalist. Pace MFA. Special thanks to his parents, Brad, Kate, and Carly; without them, he wouldn’t be here.

AMANDA GRIEMSMANN (Honey) is honored to return to the Hampton Theatre Company stage for its 40th year. A proud board member of the HTC, she was most recently seen in the Playcrafters production of The Tin Woman (Joy). Some of her favorite HTC credits include Sylvia (Sylvia), A Comedy of Tenors (Mimi), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Suzette), Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (Nina) and An Inspector Calls (Sheila Birling). She has performed for several seasons in Manhattan with The Inwood Shakespeare Festival. She has also performed with The Lafayette Salon Series, a monthly reading series that meets at The Players Club. She received a BFA in Theatre from Adelphi University. A special thanks to George for the opportunity to perform this intense piece of theatre. Lots of love to friends, family and her husband, Ryan!

EDWARD ALBEE (Playwright) is widely considered to be the greatest American playwright of his generation. The adopted son of an affluent family from Larchmont, NY, Albee left home in his teens and moved to Greenwich Village, where he supported himself with odd jobs while practicing writing poems, short stories, novels and plays. In 1959 he burst onto the scene with a play he’d written in three weeks: The Zoo Story, which laid bare the existential terrors lying beneath the surface of society’s post-war complacency. The play spawned a new wave of theatre in New York – “Off Broadway” – while establishing Albee as a rising talent around the globe. Three years later, his most iconic play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, premiered on Broadway, winning the Tony Award as Best Play and burnishing Albee’s reputation as a preeminent force in American drama, having inherited the torch from predecessors like Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Over the next 40-plus years Albee penned over two dozen plays, including A Delicate Balance (1967 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), Seascape (1974 Pulitzer Prize), Three Tall Women (1994 Pulitzer Prize) and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002 Tony Award). He died in Montauk, LI in 2016 at the age of 88.

GEORGE A. LOIZIDES (Director) is a veteran of HTC, with this production being his 12th as director for the company, his most recent being Neil Simon’s Rose and Walsh. As an actor for HTC he has acted in 13 productions, most recently as Erronius in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He has been an actor and director for more than 55 years. He studied acting and directing at the HB Studio in NYC. For 27 years he was Director of Theatre Arts for Ward Melville High School in Setauket, where he taught acting and directing and directed 81 productions including comedies, dramas, musicals and 11 Shakespeare productions. He is a member of the HTC Board of Directors and its Artistic Committee, and is Administrator of the Diana and Peter Marbury Scholarship. He is ever thankful to have directed Rosemary and Andrew in Albee’s masterpiece, this being the fifth production he has had the pleasure to guide them to performance. He is also happy to have worked with Amanda again, as well as newcomer Cameron. Thank you all for your wonderful work. Thanks to Mary, Grace, Melisa, Laurie, Terry, Sebastian, Meg, Joe and the entire HTC production crew for bringing Virginia Woolf to life. Love to Kathy.

MARY POWERS (Producer) has worked extensively as a director and as a producer for 30 years. Some favorite productions include Vincent, Steel Magnolias, Respect, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Lost in Yonkers, I Am My Own Wife, Greater Tuna, Lend Me a Tenor, Run For Your Wife, Barrymore, I Hate Hamlet, Nunsense, Little Shop of Horrors, Beehive, Hamlet, and Lips Together, Teeth Apart. Locally she has directed at Theatre Three, Patchogue Theatre and Guild Hall. She worked as assistant director for Bay Street Theatre’s Gross Points, starring Alec Baldwin, and as assistant director for Julie Andrews on The Boyfriend. She is involved with Arts in Education projects, having worked with local high schools, Guild Hall, the Children’s Museum of the East End, and Bay Street Theatre’s Young Playwrights. Most recently she has directed Strictly Murder and Now and Then for HTC. She is happy to rejoin old friends at HTC, where she now serves as a board member.

GRACE HYGOM (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be stage managing Hampton Theatre Company’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Previously, Grace has done tech for three shows and been the stage manager for two at Mattituck High School. She has also worked on two productions at SUNY Oneonta: as assistant stage manager for Temperance (2024) and light board operator for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2025). Here at the Hampton Theatre Company she has worked on lighting for Native Gardens (2021) and Ripcord (2021), as well as stage managing Over The River and Through the Woods (2022), It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (2022), The Lifespan of a Fact (2023), The Portuguese Kid (2023) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (2024).

LAURIE ATLAS (Rehearsal Stage Manager) is extremely pleased to be working alongside George and this very accomplished cast and crew. When not helping behind the scenes, she has been seen on the HTC stage as Abby Binder in Ripcord and Emily Penrose in The Lifespan of a Fact. She is currently putting the finishing touches on another original radio show that she has written that will be performed in September. In December she will be returning as co-director and co-producer of Gimme a Minute – Long Island’s One Minute Play Festival. Much thanks and gratitude to the entire HTC family. Love always to Fred and Jamie.

MELISA DIDIO (Rehearsal Stage Manager) recently moved to Quogue with her family and is excited to return to her love of the theatre. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, she began her career acting in plays and television. Prior to moving to Long Island, she was the assistant theatre director at Bedford Middle School in Westport, CT for over 10 years. She has worked for the Hampton Theatre Company in the production of Now and Then and is thrilled to be working again in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?!

MEG SEXTON (Set Design/Construction/Sound Design) is thrilled to be working on her twelfth production with Hampton Theatre Company. Other productions with HTC include Native Gardens, Ripcord, A Doll’s House Part 2, Over the River and Through the Woods, The Lifespan of a Fact, The Portuguese Kid, Rose and Walsh, Strictly Murder, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Now and Then, and Boeing Boeing. She has previously worked as the Education Manager at Bay Street Theater, as well as the Grants Manager & Marketing Coordinator at Patchogue Theatre. Currently, she is the Director of Marketing at The Suffolk and the Development Assistant & Content Editor at the Patchogue Arts Council.

JOE KENNY (Technical Director/Construction) is a versatile Technical Director, Scenic Designer, and Artistic Director with extensive experience across Long Island and New York City. Known for his innovative craftsmanship and deep understanding of theatrical production, he brings precision, creativity, and technical expertise to every project. After making his Hampton Theatre Company debut as Technical Director and Set Builder for Now and Then and returning as Set Designer and Builder for Boeing Boeing, he is thrilled to be back as Technical Director and Builder for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Focused on bringing the complex and intimate world of the play to life, his work continues to combine structural ingenuity with a passion for storytelling. Committed to creating engaging and transformative stage environments, he continues to push the boundaries of theatrical craftsmanship. To explore his work, visit joekennydesigns.com.

JONATHAN PRESTO (Sound Engineer/Sound Tech) is a multifaceted individual who spends most of his focus on being a Live Sound Engineer and a Photographer. He has worked thousands of shows from Manhattan to Montauk and beyond with a wide array of artists of all types and levels. When not behind a mixing board, he can be found roaming around the most remote parts of the country with his dog, Kaya, and cat, Smooch, in search of dark skies to capture the stars with one of his many film or digital cameras.

Alex J. WHITE (Sound Tech) has worked in a variety of music, theatre, corporate and private live event productions for well over a decade. He’s developed a diverse skill set that makes him an adaptable asset to any production. From his time in Manhattan, to his work on the East End of Long Island and countless events and productions in between, he has had the liberty of working with some of the best in the business as a Sound Engineer, Stage Manager and Guitar Tech. He is also a seasoned musician, whether it be guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards, drums, or anything else, who’s enjoyed all of his time spent in the music industry.

KELLY WERESNICK (Lighting Tech) has worked with HTC on previous shows including Boeing Boeing, Now and Then, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play, and The Portuguese Kid. She studied technical theatre with a concentration in theatre lighting at Suffolk County Community College. She was the lighting designer and board operator for Cry Baby, A Catered Affair and Spamalot at North Fork Community Theater in Mattituck. Thanks to her parents and sister Colleen for support; her mom and Uncle Billy for the drive and inspiration to pursue technical theatre.

TERESA L. LeBRUN (Costume Designer) is the resident costume designer for Hampton Theatre Company, and has been with the company just shy of its 40-year anniversary. She began helping with costumes in 1986, and has designed the costumes for all the company’s productions since 2006. She has also costumed for Westhampton Beach and Center Moriches High Schools. Earlier this spring, she had the privilege and pleasure to costume for The Suffolk’s production of 12 Angry Men. A special thanks to artist Beth Giacummo for creating the airline logos for the bags in Boeing Boeing. And to Kathy Loizides for always helping in a pinch! Much love to her sons Josh and Noah, family and great friends.

JULIA MORGAN ABRAMS (House Manager) After retiring from the legal department of Bristol Myers Squibb, Julia began a second career as a volunteer, initially for Literacy Suffolk, HTC, t

Hampton Theatre Company Delivers a Piercing ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’

By Marc Horowitz – Dan’s Papers
5/29/2025

An unflinching vivisection of an American marriage, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is one of the most monumental works ever written for the American stage.

As a booze-addled night at a New England college professor’s house morphs into what amounts to a war game masquerading as a social event, a young couple attempts to make sense of the cryptic storytelling and vitriol oozing from their middle-aged hosts.

The action begins when a newly-hired faculty member and his wife join the daughter of the college’s president and her husband, a history professor, for a nightcap. The entire play takes place in and around the older couple’s living room over the course of a single late night afterparty that stretches into the morning of the following day.

The result is three hours of theater at its best. Before it’s all over, no one has been spared, including the audience. The nature of the young couple’s relationship has been changed – or at least exposed. All the pretense and masks have fallen away, and the couple’s exceedingly non-gracious hosts have managed to fillet both their guests and each other with excruciating effectiveness.

The original stage production in 1963 and the subsequent film version in 1966 were among the most lauded works of the last half-century. The play is simply a tour de force opportunity – for actors, directors and everyone involved with the production. And the Hampton Theatre Company has taken that opportunity and run with it.

The Company’s new production, which opened May 22 and runs through June 8 at Quogue Community Hall, finds not only the complex cruelty – the emotional and psychological pain human beings are capable of inflicting upon each other – but also the subtlety and dark comedy in Albee’s Tony Award-winning script.

Directed by HTC veteran George Loizides and starring Andrew Botsford (George) and Rosemary Cline (Martha), both of whom have been mainstays with the company since its founding 40 years ago, this Woolf is not only brutal but also properly irreverent and profane, just as Albee intended.

The two younger cast members, Cameron Eastland (Nick) and Amanda Griemsmann (Honey), certainly have some fine moments, especially Griemsmann. Her Honey is heartbreakingly vulnerable as she quickly gets caught up in a whirlwind of intensity and conflict she wasn’t expecting when she rang George and Martha’s doorbell.

Alcohol is such an integral part of Albee’s play, it’s almost a character unto itself. During the show’s entire three-hour-plus running time, barely three minutes go by before someone is freshening someone’s drink. Though all four characters consume copious amounts of booze, Griemsmann is the sole cast member who is tasked with acting seriously tipsy. Playing drunk convincingly is an underrated skill in an actor’s toolkit. Griemsmann does it very well, avoiding the “I really love you, man” stereotypes and instead finding the intersection between booze-induced truth-telling and genuine emotion.

Unlike Honey, who is an easy target for George and Martha’s relentless probing for weakness, Eastland’s Nick begins the evening outwardly cocksure and privileged as a promising new hire in the Biology Department. And unlike his wife, who spends a good chunk of the evening passed out on the bathroom floor, Nick can hold his liquor. He goes drink for drink with veteran sots George and Martha. And for a while at least, he manages to parry George’s barbs and verbal legerdemain, even getting in some licks of his own. But ultimately, it’s Martha who beguiles Nick, using him as little more than a handsome young prop in her ongoing battle with George. As Nick is slowly – almost surgically – broken down then tossed away by both George and Martha, Eastland does his most effective work showing the audience what that might feel like.

Andrew Botsford’s George is every inch the Albee protagonist, the embodiment of middle age ennui. On one level, he detests his wife. Yet he has more than a grudging respect for her. While Martha never wastes an opportunity to belittle him and to remind him of his failings as an academic and as a husband, George knows he needs her, though he may not know why. The stunningly cruel games they play and the cudgels they use to bash each other have at this point become the only things that keep their relationship afloat. And it’s all either anesthetized or enhanced (take your pick) by cocktail after cocktail after cocktail.

Botsford delivers many of Albee’s most cutting lines with the subtlety and nuance they cry out for, that is to say in smooth-assassin style. But it’s his physical demeanor that makes his performance special. Paunchy, slouched and defeated most of the time, George seems to rise up and become more ferocious, more masculine and yes, somehow happier and more alive, when he’s at his cruelest. This is not an accident. It’s a veteran actor making an artistic choice, finding a defining feature of his character and making sure the audience sees it.

Director George Loizides and the entire cast and crew are at the top of their game here, helping to deliver a trenchant and visceral version of Albee’s masterpiece. Nevertheless, this production belongs to Rosemary Cline. In one of the meatiest roles ever written for a female actor, Cline is incandescent, her decisions spot-on.

Yes, her Martha is savage. But she’s also multifaceted, and occasionally even vulnerable. The more we learn about Martha, the more terrifying she becomes. But in Cline’s hands, she’s much more than a monster – though she can certainly feel like one on the page and is often played that way.

Martha is a frustrated academic wife with a rich university president daddy who thinks she married below her station, yet she can be doting and sentimental about her husband; she’s a childless middle-aged woman who was unable to conceive; she’s a seductress; she’s a cruel, castrating bitch; she’s a narcissistic boozehound with regrets and shame that stretch for miles; she’s a master game player; and on and on and on.

Like Botsford, her co-star, Cline deftly uses physicality to add shading to her character’s inner life. She doesn’t sit on a couch, she seems to hover just above it, drink in hand. When she’s about to deliver a broadside, she actually looks coiled. And when she does stand up to release a cutting comment, she feels 12 feet tall.

Albee’s script makes it almost impossible to like Martha, but Cline mines just enough humanity in her character to at least make her capable of eliciting a soupçon of sympathy from the audience – especially at the play’s climax, when George brings the couple’s destructive game to its inevitable conclusion.

We’ve watched her tear into George, humiliate Honey and transform Nick from a confident young stud into an emasculated puddle – and she seemed to be enjoying herself. Nevertheless, as a key chapter of her story ends, Martha is devastated. You know that she deserves every inch of what she gets. But Cline’s reactions are so authentic that you can’t help but feel something besides schadenfreude for this deeply damaged woman and this hellscape of a marriage.

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East Hampton Star

By Denis Hartnett
May 29, 2025

As the saying goes, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” Well, in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” it’s really “all fun and games and everyone gets hurt.”

Now at the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, this is a draining show, physically and emotionally, for the actors as well as the audience. The onetime Montauker’s 1962 play is long, written in three acts with two 10-minute intermissions, which are needed, as each act runs a little under an hour. Audience members can not only stretch their legs, they can take a break from the emotional turmoil they’re witnessing onstage, which is delightfully uncomfortable.

The play takes place in the early hours of the morning after a faculty party in a New England college town, with two couples meeting up for drinks. Rosemary Cline and Andrew Botsford are Martha and George, with Cameron Eastland and Amanda Griemsmann as a younger couple, Nick and Honey, guests for the evening. Martha is the daughter of the college’s president, and George is a long-term professor there. Nick is the newest faculty member, and he and his wife have recently moved from the Midwest.

The biggest irony of the show is that Martha invited the couple over because her father had told her they should “be nice to them.” But what occurs over their time together is anything but. It’s an evening full of lies, games, and jabs, with two young people caught in the crossfire of a decades-long battle of wits.

Mr. Botsford and Ms. Cline expertly play out this battle. George and Martha are hard characters full of love and bitterness, and the relationship feels lived in and real. As Mr. Eastland keeps up with them, his character is really a prop the two use to hurt each other, while Ms. Griemsmann brings good comic relief when scenes get tense. This is a play about marriage, its complexities, how two people can simultaneously love and hate each other, the years of resentments boiling over, the shared trauma leading to co-dependent coping mechanisms. George and Martha like to poke each other until the pokes become knives to the stomach. They also share a special relationship to reality, with illusions built up to shield themselves from it. The hardest hits they land result from breaking part of their shared illusion out of spite.

But even though they continuously prod and try to rile each other up, the twisted love beneath it all reveals itself. In the third act, after all she’s done to torture George, Martha insists to Nick that George is only person who gets her. He is the only one who can keep up in their battle of wits.

The production is directed by George Loizides, produced by Mary Powers, with set and sound design by Meg Sexton, lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski, and costume design by Teresa Lebrun. Gary Hygom is the production stage manager.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” runs until June 8, with performances every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. There is an additional afternoon show on Saturday, June 7, and there will be two cast talkbacks following the evening performances tomorrow and Friday, June 6. Tickets are $40 at hamptontheatre.org, $36 for senior citizens, $30 for veterans and Native Americans, and $25 for students.

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Review: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Sensational!

by T.J. Clemente – Hamptons.com

The Hampton Theatre Company’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened Memorial Day weekend to a standing ovation at the Quogue Community Hall. In this powerful finale to their 40th season, Director George A. Loizides masterfully creates an intense, pulsating drama brought vividly to life by world-class performances from a cast led by Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline. This may be one of Director Loizides’s finest efforts, as he breathes life into Albee’s extraordinarily complex play with both bombastic flair and tender, touching moments.

To say that Andrew Botsford is excellent in the demanding role of GEORGE, the seasoned history professor, would be an understatement. With his soothing voice and unique stage presence, Mr. Botsford navigates the stage like both a tiger poised to strike and a lamb ready for sacrifice. He channels the high-pitched emotions of the play and Albee’s feverish dialogue into the hearts, minds, and souls of the audience. It was truly a standing ovation-worthy performance. This reviewer would not be overstating things to say his portrayal evoked shades of Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison, and the everyman charm of Alan Alda. Botsford’s performance is that good.

In the role of NICK, Cameron Eastland is outstanding. Director Loizides takes full advantage of Eastland’s many stage talents. As the tall, handsome new biology professor, Eastland excels in his interactions with fellow actors and skillfully navigates the web of psychological complexity that Albee has woven. His performance was met with well-earned audience appreciation.

Amanda Griemsmann, in the role of HONEY, Nick’s wife, touches the audience with vulnerability and gentleness. Her expressive eyes—conveying delight, shock, and naiveté—highlight her impressive acting skills. Griemsmann charmed the audience and quickly had them on her side.

Then there is Rosemary Cline as MARTHA, the explosive and clever daughter of the college president and George’s long-time wife. Ms. Cline is the anchor of this production. Her onstage chemistry with Botsford is palpable. Through her portrayal of Martha, Cline unleashes every human emotion in a feverish display. Her performance is a roller-coaster ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat—wincing, laughing, thinking, and at times, stunned. Cline’s performance alone is worth the price of two tickets. She brings the power, drive, and complexity the role demands, carrying the play through all three acts with seemingly effortless energy. She makes this marathon of a role feel like a sprint to a cozy chair, a nightcap, and a bit of mischief.

This three-act production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the result of extraordinary behind-the-scenes collaboration. It truly takes a village to produce a successful show and run a vibrant theater company. The show runs until June 8.

The production staff is led by Director George A. Loizides and Producer Mary Powers. The beautifully crafted set is the work of Meg Sexton, who also contributed to set construction along with Joe Kenny. The Hampton Theatre Company boasts a world-class sound system overseen by Sound Engineer Jonathan Presto and Technical Director Joe Kenny, with sound design by Meg Sexton and technical support from Presto and Alex White. Lighting was managed by Kelly Weresnick and Meg Sexton, with lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski. Costume design was handled by Teresa L. Lebrun. The Production Stage Managers were Melisa DiDio and Laurie Atlas.

Fight and intimacy scenes were expertly choreographed by Cameron Eastland, who also served as Fight/Intimacy Captain. Mary Powers handled props. The vital Box Office duties were carried out by Cat Bracksmayer and Debora Jacques. Production graphics were done by Joe Pallister. Finally, a special shout-out goes to Julia Morgan Abrams, the House Manager, who has warmly greeted audiences for years.

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Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ Ends HTC’s 40th Season

Southampton Press, Staff Writer

One of the most celebrated works in contemporary theater will cap off the Hampton Theatre Company’s 40th season, when Edward Albee’s monumental drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” arrives in Quogue for a three-week run from May 22 through June 8.

The production will be the 136th in the history of the HTC, which has delivered a wide variety of acclaimed comedies, dramas and musicals to East End audiences since its founding in 1984

Directed by longtime HTC contributor George Loizides, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” features a cast headed by Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline, founding members of the Hampton Theatre Company four decades ago, who have appeared in dozens of the company’s productions over the years.

An inspired combination of caustic comedy and gut-wrenching drama, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” focuses on the festering conflicts and shared traumas connecting George, a brilliant but brooding professor of history, and Martha, his disillusioned wife and the daughter of the president of the college where George works. Following a late-night faculty party, Martha and George return home, where they’re soon joined by Nick and Honey, a young couple newly arrived on the campus.

Over cocktails, Nick and Honey find that they’re uncomfortable bystanders and then unwilling participants in an alcohol-fueled battle royale of wits, insults and insinuations involving Martha, who feels her husband has never achieved the academic heights his talents augured, and George, whose passive-aggressive personality boils over into rage as he parries, then counters, his wife’s attacks on his stalled career and diminishing manhood. Both Nick and Honey get pulled into the fray, resulting in revelations from both couples that lay bare the decaying foundations of their marriages, as well as the long-held secrets that each must purge if their relationships are to survive.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is generally considered to be the crowning achievement of playwright Edward Albee’s distinguished career, as well as one of the seminal works in the history of American theater. First staged in 1962, the play won both the 1963 Tony Award as Best Play and the 1962-63 New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best Play. The play has been revived on Broadway four times, in 1976, 2005, 2012 and 2020. A 1966 film adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, received 13 Oscar nominations, winning five, and is one of only two films to be nominated in every eligible category at the Academy Awards.

Albee, the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards and a Grammy, was also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.

Presented in three acts, with two 10-minute intermissions, the HTC production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” features a versatile cast of four seasoned actors. In addition to Botsford and Cline, who have appeared in dozens of HTC productions since 1985, rounding out the cast are Amanda Griemsmann (Honey), whose HTC credits include “Sylvia,” “A Comedy of Tenors” and “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” and Cameron Eastland (Nick) who is making his HTC debut in this production.

Performances of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” will run May 22 through June 8, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An additional matinee performance will be offered on Saturday, June 7, at 2:30 p.m. Talkbacks with the cast will be offered following the May 30 and June 6 evening performances. Tickets are $40 ($36 for seniors, $25 for students and $30 for veterans and Native Americans). Tickets are available at hamptontheatre.org or by calling 631-653-8955. Quogue Community Hall is at 125 Jessup Avenue in Quogue.

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A Crowning Achievement: HTC To Stage ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ as 40th Season Closer

East Hampton Press
by Michelle Trauring

George Loizides is currently staring down his Mount Everest — in the form of the triple-act, three-hour-long 40th season finisher for the Hampton Theatre Company.
And the director would have it no other way.
“It’s a challenge,” he said. “Why do it? Because it’s there and it’s such a great piece.”

Closing the milestone year for the Quogue company is Edward Albee’s monumental drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” — generally considered to be the crowning achievement of the playwright’s career and one of the most celebrated works in contemporary theater.

It opens Thursday, May 22, marking HTC’s 136th production since 1984 — and, arguably, one of its most challenging.

“It’s a difficult show — the length of it, the intensity of it, the amount of words, the amount of ideas,” Loizides said. “But going into the last play of the season, having the reputation of the season being probably one of the best in recent HTC history, I’m looking forward to it. At this point, I can’t wait to open it.”

At its heart, the play is a love story — “though it may be an odd love story,” the director said — between George and Martha. He is a brilliant yet brooding history professor while she, his disillusioned wife, is the daughter of the president of the college where her husband works.

“Their marriage is held together by delusions and dreams,” Loizides said. “They both drink an awful lot and they play these mind games — these wicked mind games — on each other.”

Between them lies tremendous hate and resentment, as well as affection, which bystanders Nick and Honey — a young couple newly arrived on the campus — have the unfortunate fortune of witnessing following a late-night faculty party.

They watch the booze-fueled battle royale of wits, insults and insinuations involving Martha, who feels her husband has never achieved the academic heights his talents augured, and George, whose passive-aggressive personality boils over into rage as he parries, then counters, his wife’s attacks on his stalled career and diminishing manhood.

“It turns into a horror show for them, with all the bantering and bickering and hatred and mind games that go back and forth between George and Martha,” Loizides said. “There’s a tremendous revelation at the end of the play that I cannot mention — you’ll have to come and see it — that ends the play.”

The production — which first staged in 1962 — won both the 1963 Tony Award and the 1962-63 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. It has been revived on Broadway four times and the 1966 film adaptation — directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton — received 13 Oscar nominations, winning five, and is one of only two films to be nominated in every eligible category at the Academy Awards.

“It’s probably on equal territory of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Leer,’ some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays and tragedies,” Loizides said. “It’s described as the story of marriage, but it’s also the story of a marriage. It gets pretty brutal. It gets pretty intense. It can be described as a tragic comedy, or a dark comedy, because it’s also funny as hell.”

At the helm, Andrew Botsford, who portrays George, and Rosemary Cline, as Martha, have reached new levels as actors, their director said, who are both founding members of HTC and have appeared in dozens of the company’s productions.

“I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people because they’re starting to surprise me,” Loizides said, “the depth of where they’re going to go to make this play work, to make the characters work.”

Rounding out the cast are HTC veteran Amanda Griemsmann as Honey and Cameron Eastland, who is making his company debut as Nick. Presented in three acts, with two 10-minute intermissions, the play — produced by Mary Powers — features lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski, costumes by Teresa LeBrun and set design by Meg Sexton, who created George and Martha’s living room with a meticulous eye.

On the surface, it is not unusual — there’s a sofa, a chair, a fireplace and the bar — but the room is slightly askew, Loizides said, leaving the audience feeling a bit off-balance, which was precisely the goal.

“I think they’re going to come away thinking about their own marriage, in a way,” the director said. “And I want the audience to leave the theater going, ‘My God, I never knew’ — especially about the actors and the acting — ‘I had no idea.’ That’s the thought I want them to leave with, that this company would do such a magnificent job with this play.”

IHampton Theatre Company will end its 40th season with Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” running May 22 through June 8 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at Quogue Community Hall, 125 Jessup Avenue in Quogue. An additional matinee will stage on Saturday, June 7, at 2:30 p.m., and talkbacks with the cast will follow the Friday, May 30, and June 6 evening performances. Tickets are $40, or $36 for seniors, $25 for students and $30 for veterans and Native Americans. For more information, call 631-653-8955.

FROM SUNRISE HIGHWAY (ROUTE-27):
Sunrise Highway (Route 27) to exit 64S (Rte. 104 to Quogue). Rte. 104 South (approx. 3 miles) to Montauk Highway (Rte. 80). Right onto Montauk Highway to light at Otis Ford (1 mile). Left onto Jessup Avenue. 1/2 mile to theater (on right). FROM MONTAUK HIGHWAY (ROUTE-80):
Montauk Highway to light at Otis Ford in Quogue. South onto Jessup Avenue. 1/2 mile to theater (on right).

PARKING: There is limited street parking around the theater as well as a parking lot that can be entered just north of the Quogue Community Hall. WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: A handicapped accessible entrance is located on the right (north) side of the building. Please use the driveway on the north side of the theater and ring the bell marked HTC Handicapped at the ramp entrance to the building and a volunteer will assist you; or have a member of your party notify us on arrival at the box office if you’d like to use this entrance. If a member of your party requires a wheelchair in the theater, please reserve one seat at the end of a row. ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES: The theater does not have assisted listening devices at this time.