Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Announces
2007 National Playwrights Conference Season
Includes Partnerships With Chicago's Goodman Theatre And
The Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland

{Waterford, CT} The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center today announced the eight plays to be developed at the 2007 National Playwrights Conference. The works were chosen from the more than 600 scripts sent to the O'Neill, through its Open Submissions program, which uses scores of readers to choose works without authorship attribution. The selected playwrights will spend the month of July developing their work with professional creative and support staff, including directors, dramaturges, actors and designers.

This summer's lineup includes a collaboration with the Goodman Theatre of Chicago, Illinois (Robert Falls, Artistic Director) and Galway, Ireland's famed Druid Theatre Company (Garry Hynes, Artistic Director). The project from Ireland - Lucy Caldwell's Guardians - is sponsored in part by the Xerox Foundation.

National Playwrights Conference Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg said "In my third season, I am excited to create new partnerships in tandem with our commitment to the O'Neill's open submission process. The O'Neill was the first and remains one of the only theater organizations in the country committed to this process. Open Submissions allows playwrights who may not yet have agents to submit their scripts directly to the Conference. The eight plays in the season represent the next generation of playwrights whose stories emerge as timely and poignant. These writers were selected from nearly 600 submissions. These writers hail from various regions of the country and abroad. This summer, with renewed support from the Xerox Foundation, we welcome Susan Smith Blackburn Award Winner Lucy Caldwell, a playwright from Ireland, in a new collaboration with Galway's acclaimed Druid Theatre as well as Ifa Bayeza, a Chicago based playwright, in a new collaboration with Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

"In my past two seasons, we have seen more than half of the projects at the National Playwrights Conference move into significant world premiere productions in New York and regionally directly after their time at the O'Neill. Included in this list is Julia Cho's Durango (Long Wharf/Public Theatre), Jason Grote's 1001 (Denver Center Theatre), Darren Canady's False Creeds (Alliance Theatre), Eric Winick's rearviewmirror (59E59th, off B'way), Melanie Marnich's Cradle of Man (Florida Stage), and Laura Schellhardt's K of D (Woolly Mammoth, 2007-2008 season).

"Our work at the National Playwrights Conference continues to build the plays and playwrights of the future. Our impact on the art form is unique and profound. It gives me great joy to see our work move forward and for audiences around the country to be affected by these contemporary storytellers."

Executive Director Preston Whiteway noted, "The National Playwrights Conference adds to its rich dramatic legacy with these eight new plays. Wendy Goldberg has embraced the tradition of the Conference and its unique open submissions policy, while continuing to explore new ways to invigorate our mission of developing new work. The two new collaborations this year, with the Druid Theatre in Ireland and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, underscore the value both national and international institutions place on the work that the O'Neill and the National Playwrights Conference do each year. Plays developed at the O'Neill have an impressive track record of going on to full productions, and I am very proud to have Wendy on our team. "I am also honored to announce a tribute to longtime NPC Artistic Director Lloyd Richards on July 29. Lloyd's shaping of the NPC with George White, and his influence on American theater, is legendary. I look forward to welcoming alumni, friends, and family of Lloyd's to the O'Neill later this summer."

The O'Neill's 2007 National Playwrights Conference selections are:

END DAYS by Deborah Zoe Laufer
Performances: Thurs. July 5 at 8:00 pm; Sat., July 7 at 8:00 pm
Sixteen year old Rachel Stein is having a bad year. Her father hasn't changed out of his pajamas since his narrow escape from the World Trade Center on 9/11. Her mother has begun a close, personal relationship with Jesus. Her new neighbor, a sixteen-year-old Elvis impersonator, has fallen for her hard. And the Apocalypse is coming Wednesday. Her only hope is that Stephen Hawking will save them all.

THE VELVET RUT by James Still
Performances: Fri., July 6 at 8:00 pm; Sun., July 8 at 5:00 pm
Mr. Smith is a high school English teacher who used to know this for sure: He loves his students, his wife, his poetry. When a single event unravels his world and sends him free-falling into a crisis of faith, a Boy Scout named Virgil mysteriously arrives to take him on a soul-searching trek through a haunted wilderness that begins in an empty church and ends on a front porch with a red door.

THE WOODPECKER by Samuel Brett Williams
Performances: Weds., July 11 at 8:00 pm; Fri., July 13 at 8:00 pm
A tale of two worlds: the small town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and the grim reality of Guantanamo Bay. It's Jimmy's last day before joining the military: He's addicted to glue, his mom is seeing visions in the sweet potato casserole, and his wheelchair-bound dad can kick his ass. He turns to God for answers, and findsÉ an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. A dark comedy that blurs the lines between black and white, right and wrong.

THE CROWD YOU'RE IN WITH by Rebecca Gilman
Performances: Thurs., July 12 at 8:00 pm; Sat., July 14 at 5:00 pm
During a barbecue in Chicago, Jasper is faced with the toughest choice of his life: whether or not to become a father. Will he follow his heart, or follow the crowd?

GOOD BOYS AND TRUE by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Performances: Weds., July 18 at 8:00 pm; Fri., July 20 at 8:00 pm
Prep school senior Brandon Hardy is every parents' dream: captain of the football team, straight-A student, accepted to Dartmouth, Early Decision. But when a disturbing video tape is found on campus, the 17-year-old's world starts to crumble and his mother is forced to question everything she believed about her son...

THE BOOK CLUB PLAY by Karen Zacarias
Performances: Thurs., July 19 at 8:00 pm; Sat., July 21 at 5:00 pm
The intricate rules and relationships of a book club are challenged when the tightly-knit group invites a new member to join. A comedy about people who read books, people who say they read books, and people who prefer books to other people.

GUARDIANS* by Lucy Caldwell
Performances: Weds., July 25 at 8:00 pm; Fri., July 27 at 8:00 pm
'I'm making a list of everything we have. Because we have everything. We have more than everything.' Conor and Molly, a young couple in Belfast, have been married for less than two years. But already their marriage is falling apart, and neither knows why-or what to do to save it.

THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL** by Ifa Bayeza
Performances: Thurs., July 26 at 8:00 pm; Sat., July 28 at 5:00 pm
Chicago, 1955: Emmett Till is lynched, and the modern civil rights movement begins. Anchored by interviews with friends, family and witnesses, this provocative new drama explores the powerful truths at the heart of the story, creating a work of vibrant theatricality and music, a poetic elegy pierced with the poignancy of real life.

*GUARDIANS is a collaboration with Galway, Ireland's Druid Theatre Company, Garry Hynes, Artistic Director

**THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL is a collaboration with Chicago's The Goodman Theatre, Robert Falls, Artistic Director

Schedules are subject to change. Tickets will be on sale beginning Wednesday, June 13. Please call the O'Neill Box Office at 860-443-1238 for times, prices and reservations. Outdoor performances will be moved indoors in the event of rain.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, is the pre-eminent center for the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. It has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full productions at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, off-Broadway and major regional theaters. The O'Neill is itself the winner of a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. The O'Neill's programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, Puppetry Conference, Cabaret Conference, National Critics Institute, and the fully accredited National Theater Institute, which includes semester-long, fully accredited intensive theater-training programs and a six-week accredited summer program, Theatermakers. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, a National Historic Landmark and the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill. For more information regarding the Center, please visit the O'Neill website at www.TheONeill.org or call 860-443-5378.

BRIEF PLAYWRIGHT BIOGRAPHIES - NPC 2007

Deborah Zoe Laufer
Deborah Zoe Laufer's plays include The Last Schwartz (world premiere, Florida Stage, 2002; nominated for a Carbonell Award for Best New Work); The Gulf of Westchester (commissioned by Florida Stage and the National New Play Network; world premiere, Florida Stage, 2004); Fortune (at The Juilliard School, where she was Playwright-in- Residence, and the Marin Theatre Company, 2005) and Out of Sterno (Cherry Lane). Her plays have received several productions in theaters around the country. Short plays include Saturday (City Theatre, 2005), The Prom (City Theatre School Tour, 2003; finalist, Actors Theatre of Louisville Ten-Minute Play Contest); The Record, The Juilliard School, 2005). Awards: two-time winner of the LeCompte du Nouy grant from The Lincoln Center Foundation. First winner of the Sklarz-Shapiro Award for Playwrighting. Fellowships: The Juilliard School, The Dramatists Guild, the Cherry Lane Alternative.

James Still
James Still's award-winning plays have been produced throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. He is the playwright in residence at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, a winner of the William Inge Festival's "Otis Gurnsey New Voices in American Theatre" award, and recipient of the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Playwright Award for Distinguished Body of Work. His plays include: Iron Kisses; A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters (Pulitzer Prize nominee); Searching For Eden; Looking Over the President's Shoulder; He Held Me Grand; Amber Waves; And Then They Came For Me; A Village Fable. Mr. Still performed his solo play The Velocity of Gary (Not His Read Name) in its New York premier at the Ensemble Studio Theater; it was later produced off-Broadway and across the country. New projects include Interpreting William for the IRT and Winking At Nirvana. Mr. Still is a television and film writer and producer and has been nominated for five Emmy's, a Television Critics Association Award, and twice a finalist for The Humanitas Prize.

Samuel Brett Williams
Samuel Brett Williams hails from Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was raised by strict Southern Baptist parents. His plays use Arkansas as a background to explore issues of global importance-religion, racism, war, and family. B.A.,English and Political Science, Ouachita Baptist University; M.F.A., Playwriting, from Rutgers University, where he studied with Lee Blessing. Brett has received staged readings at Rorschach Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Flashpoint Theatre (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 13th Street Repertory Theatre (New York, New York), and Working Man's Clothes Productions (New York, New York). Brett's work has been selected for the Philadelphia New Play Festival, The Hatchery Festival, and the New Plays from the New South Festival. His plays have been produced at Mile Square Theatre (Hoboken, New Jersey), New Orleans Theatre Experiment (New Orleans, Louisiana), Readers Theatre Repertory (Portland, Oregon), and the District of Columbia Arts Center (Washington, D.C.). Brett teaches Screenwriting and Expository Writing for Rutgers University.

Rebecca Gilman
Rebecca Gilman's plays include Dollhouse, Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl, Blue Surge, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball and The Glory of Living. Her plays have been produced in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre, in London at the Royal Court Theatre, and off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theatre, Joseph Papp's Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Manhattan Class Company, as well as other theaters around the country and abroad. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, The Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, and The George Devine Award. Ms. Gilman was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her play, The Glory of Living. She is currently writing the book for the musical The Boys are Coming Home, which will premiere at the Goodman Theatre in 2008, with music and lyrics by Leslie Arden.Ms. Gilman teaches playwriting in the MFA program for Dramatic Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is a 2003 graduate of the Yale School of Drama and has written many plays, including The Muckle Man (City Theatre, Pittsburgh), Dark Matters (developed at the 2003 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, later produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, NYC), Based on a Totally True Story (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Mystery Plays (2econd Stage Theatre), The Velvet Sky (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington D.C.), Rough Magic (Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, New York), and The Weird (an evening of short pulpy plays at Dad's Garage Theatre, Atlanta). His comedies Golden Age and Say You Love Satan were both nominated for GLAAD Media Awards and have been produced around the country. His new plays include King of Shadows. In addition, he is working on commissions for both Arena Stage and 2econd Stage Theatre. He is the Harvey Award-winning author of Marvel Comics' The Sensational Spider-man, 4 and Nightcrawler. For Warner Brothers, he is writing a horror screenplay, The Night People.

Karen Zacarias
Karen Zacarias's plays include upcoming world premieres An American Home (Kennedy Center); and Looking For Roberto Clemente (Imagination Stage). Other plays include Mariela In The Desert (Goodman Theatre, 2006; winner, 2006 Francesca Primus Award and winner of the 2005 TCG/AT&T First Stages Award, the 2004 National Latino Playwrights' Competition, finalist for the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn prize, and short listed for 2005 Kesselring Prize); The Sins Of Sor Juana (Outstanding New Play, 2000 Helen Hayes Awards; and has been produced throughout the country). Her musical plays for young people include EINSTEIN IS A DUMMY, a flamenco version of Ferdinand The Bull; the mariachi-inspired The Magical Pi–ata; and salsa/hip-hop Cinderella Eats Rice And Beans: A Salsa Musical and have been produced at theaters which include the Goodman Theater, The Coterie, Chicago PlayWorks, The Alliance Theatre, Imagination Stage, Arden Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, and St. Louis Rep. She is the founding artistic director of Young Playwrights' Theater, an award-winning non-profit dedicated to enhancing literacy, arts empowerment and conflict resolution through playwriting in Washington, DC area schools. She is currently working on commissions for Arena Stage, Round House Theater, the Kennedy Center and South Coast Repertory.

Lucy Caldwell
Lucy Caldwell's first full-length play, Leaves, premiered in March 2007 in a co-production between Druid Theatre Company (Galway) and the Royal Court Theatre (London), directed by Garry Hynes. Leaves is the winner of the 2006 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and a joint winner of the 29th Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her first novel, Where They Were Missed (2006), was shortlisted for the inaugural EDS Dylan Thomas Prize. Lucy has written short stories for BBC Radio 4, the V&A museum and various literary journals and she writes a weekly column for the Independent newspaper. Lucy is currently working on her second novel and a short play based on Seamus Heaney's 'bog poems' which will tour Ireland in the autumn of 2007. She was born in Belfast in 1981 and graduated with a First in English from Queens' College, Cambridge and completed with Distinction a Masters in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths College, London.

Ifa Bayeza
Ifa Bayeza's works for the stage include Amistad Voices, Club Harlem and Homer G & the Rhapsodies (Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays fellowship). Her work has been performed at Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, New Federal Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, National Black Arts Festival and BRAVA Women's Center for the Arts. She is co-founder of DBA Studios, an independent production company, creating innovative theatre-based work, encouraging dialogue among races, cultures and people. Her hip-hop musical, Kid Zero, designed to give children new tools to understand math, launched the company in 2005 and, to date, has been seen by over 10,000 Chicago Public School students. In 2005, she received a fellowship from Brown University's Rites & Reasons Theatre and Providence Black Repertory Theatre for The Ballad of Emmett Till, which was later presented in the Goodman Theatre's 2006 New Stages Series. For her work on Till, Bayeza was named artist-in-residence and research fellow of the SonEdna Writer's Retreat in Mississippi. She was also awarded the inaugural fellowship from the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in Arts and Media at Columbia College, in association with the Goodman Theatre. Bayeza was dramaturg and set designer for the original, landmark production of for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf at New Federal Theatre and The Public Theater. Bayeza has collaborated with her sister Ntozake Shange as joint authors of a new novel, Some Sing, Some Cry, which will be published by St. Martin's Press. She is a graduate of Harvard University.