James Macdonald directs a new production of multi Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Edward Albee’s landmark play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Edward Albee was born on March 12^th 1928 and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The Death of Bessie Smith (1959), The Sandbox (1959), The American Dream (1960), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), Listening (1975), Counting the Ways (1975), The Lady from Dubuque (1977-78), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding the Sun (1982), Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize), Fragments (1993), The Play about the Baby (1997), The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award), Occupant (2001), At Home at the Zoo: Act 1, Homelife. Act 2, The Zoo Story. (2004), and Me, Myself & I (2008). Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980. In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

James Macdonald is highly regarded for his work with Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane, recently directing Churchill’s play Escaped Alone at the Royal Court. Other recent work includes the award-winning production of Florian Zeller’s The Father and Roots at the Donmar Warehouse. Macdonald has previously directed Staunton in the Royal Court’s production of Circle, Mirror, Transformation by Annie Baker and in the critically-acclaimed production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance at the Almeida Theatre.

Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) is a West End and Broadway production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions in London and New York. Since 1990, SFP has developed, initiated and produced over 140 new productions and has won numerous Olivier and Tony Awards.

West End and Broadway productions include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, The Book of Mormon, Funny Girl, A Christmas Carol, Farinelli and the King, Hamlet, Sunny Afternoon, Bend It Like Beckham, The Nether, The River, Electra, King Charles III, Shakespeare in Love,1984, Ghosts, Mojo, Chimerica, Merrily We Roll Along, Old Times, Twelfth Night and Richard III, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Sunshine Boys, Hay Fever, Absent Friends, Top Girls, Betrayal, Much Ado About Nothing, Clybourne Park, The Children’s Hour, A Flea in Her Ear, La Bête, All My Sons, Private Lives, Jerusalem, A Little Night Music, Legally Blonde, Othello, Arcadia, The Mountaintop, The Norman Conquests, A View from the Bridge, Dancing at Lughnasa, Maria Friedman: Re-Arranged, La Cage aux Folles, No Man’s Land, The Seagull, Under The Blue Sky, That Face, Dealer’s Choice, Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, In Celebration, Boeing-Boeing, The Dumb Waiter, Rock ’n’ Roll, Love Song, Faith Healer, Bent, Eh Joe, Donkeys’ Years, Otherwise Engaged, Celebration, Shoot The Crow, As You Like It, The Home Place, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, By the Bog of Cats, The Woman in White, Guantánamo, Endgame, Jumpers, See You Next Tuesday, Hitchcock Blonde, Absolutely! {Perhaps}, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Ragtime, Macbeth, What the Night Is For, Afterplay, Up For Grabs, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Noises Off, On An Average Day, A Servant to Two Masters, Port Authority, Spoonface Steinberg and Speed-The-Plow.

Forthcoming productions include Dreamgirls with Amber Riley and Nice Fish with Mark Rylance.

Sonia recently co-produced the BBC adaption of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, starring Mark Rylance, and Executive Produced Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins.

Prior to forming SFP, Friedman spent three years as the producer for the Ambassador Theatre Group. Before joining ATG, she was the producer and co-founder of Out of Joint, one of Britain’s leading theatre companies. From 1989 to 1993, Friedman was a producer at the National Theatre, specialising in touring productions and theatre for young people, where she produced many productions across all scales.