Edward Albee estate denies rights to production over casting of black actor

A production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fell apart after the Edward Albee estate refused to allow the casting of a black actor in a key role.

Director Michael Streeter, working within a theater company in Oregon, had intended to use an actor of color in the role of Nick but posted on Facebook that he was “furious and dumbfounded” after being denied the rights.

“The Edward Albee estate needs to join the 21st century,” he wrote. Streeter also added: “There are valid arguments to not cast Nick as black. I believe the positives outweigh the negatives. The Albee Estate does not agree.”

A memo sent by Sam Rudy, representing the estate, to Streeter claimed that he was in “gross violation of standard agreements” for reportedly promoting the play without first obtaining rights. But Rudy also goes on to explain why a black actor would not be suitable for the role.

“...it is important to note that Mr. Albee wrote Nick as a caucasian character, whose blonde hair and blue eyes are remarked on frequently in the play, even alluding to Nick’s likeness as that of an Aryan of Nazi racial ideology,” he writes. “Furthermore, Mr Albee himself said on numerous occasions when approached with requests for non-traditional casting in productions of Virginia Woolf? that a mixed-race marriage between a caucasian and an African American would not have gone unacknowledged in conversations in that time and place and under the circumstances in which the play is expressly set by textual references in the 1960s.”

Streeter has since responded to the controversy on Facebook to say he believes that casting a black actor as Nick would have added depth to the play and confirmed that he was told by the estate that he would only be granted rights if he recast the role with a white actor.

In his lifetime, Albee, who died in 2016, also took legal action to prevent the two lead couples of the play being portrayed as gay men. But in 2003, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a performance of the play was put on with an African American actor in the role of Martha and Oscar-nominated mixed-race actor Sophie Okonedo is currently starring in a production of Albee’s The Goat in London.

“I do not question the motives of those that made the decision,” Streeter added. “I think they have some fealty to a sense of integrity to Edward Albee’s desires. But I had hoped the negative aspects of Albee would die with him.”