Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Announces 2006 National Music Theater Conference Season

May 10, 2006

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today the projects selected for its 2006 National Music Theater Conference by Conference Artistic Director Paulette Haupt. Two teams of writers and composers will each spend two weeks at the O'Neill's Waterford Campus, developing their work with highly acclaimed actors, directors and music directors in an intensive series of rehearsals, discussions and public readings.

Since its founding in 1978, the National Music Theater Conference has developed and presented more than 100 musical works, including early works of award-winning writers and composers such as Tan Dunn, Kirsten Childs, Andrew Lippa, Brian Crawley and Jeannine Tesori. Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx's Avenue Q, developed at the O'Neill in 2002, went on to Broadway and won three 2004 Tony awards, including Best Musical.

Ms. Haupt stated, "Among the many exceptional works received this year for consideration, I was captured by how both of these works address what can happen when the natural order of life is turned upside down. In both pieces, the authors have taken on the challenge of writing about life altering decisions and events and blended their stories with humor, satire, romance and redemption."

O'Neill Executive Director Amy Sullivan added, "Musical theater is a truly American creation. It reflects the American spirit, humor, and spunk. It speaks to our greatest dreams and, sometimes, our deepest fears; and both creates and reflects who we are as a people and a culture. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's impact on the American musical is extraordinary, as is the National Music Theater Conference's legacy. The original Tony Award winning NINE; AVENUE Q, the 2004 Tony winner for Best Musical; SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL; Tan Dunn's MARCO POLO, which received productions worldwide and at New York City Opera, all began at the O'Neill. I am delighted and grateful that Paulette Haupt continues as our artistic director; and eager to see what she and her colleague artists will present us with this summer. I know it will be remarkable."

The O'Neill's 2006 National Music Theater Conference selections are:

KIKI BABY
Book by Lonny Price, Music by Grant Sturiale, Lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh
Performances: Sat., July 15 at 8:15 pm; Sun., July 16 at 3:15 pm; Thurs.,
July 20 and
Fri., July 21 at 8:15 pm
A four-and-a-half year old child prodigy becomes the breadwinner for her destitute family and greedy neighbors, resulting in hilarious yet scathing results. A cautionary tale about people who incrementally give up their values for fame and fortune.

TRIANGLE
Book by Joshua V. Scher, Music by Curtis Moore, Lyrics by Thomas Mizer
Performances: Sat., July 22, Weds., July 26, Fri., July 28 and Sat.,
July 29 at 8:15 pm
The present resurrects the past and the past rescues the present in two New York stories - one set in 1911 and the other in 2001. Two people in love struggle to discover what freedom truly means in these volatile landscapes when their worlds collide.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, June 15. Please call the O'Neill Box Office at 860-443-1238 for reservations or additional information.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of playwrights, composers, librettists, critics, performers, scholars and students nurtured at the O'Neill at an early stage in their career have gone on to achieve the highest recognition in the theater world, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Academy Award, the Tony Award, the Emmy, the Obie, the Golden Globe, and the Richard Rodgers Award. The O'Neill itself is the recipient of a Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award of Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore! Award. The O'Neill is home to the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, Puppetry Conference, Cabaret Conference, and the fully accredited National Theater Institute, which offers semester-long theater intensives and a 6-week summer program, Theatermakers, for college and post-graduate students. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, a National Historic Landmark and the childhood home of Nobel 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, Ext. 0.