Writers Chosen for
2002 O’Neill Playwrights Conference

Waterford, CT, May 23, 2002 – James Houghton, artistic director of the O’Neill Playwrights Conference (OPC), has announced the playwrights selected for OPC 2002. These writers, chosen from over 700 applicants, will join a cross-section of theater professionals from around the country at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center to form a community in support of new work for the stage. During their month-long residencies each play is given a four-day rehearsal period culminating in two staged public readings.

The OPC 2002 plays are as follows:
UNTILWEFINDEACHOTHER by Brooke Berman; WHORES by Lee Blessing; MOONTEL SIX by Constance Congdon; HINDUSTAN by William di Canzio; THE ZERO HOUR by Madeleine George; THE BALLAD OF BILLY K: ÏTHE TALL TALE ADVENTURES OF THE CRAZY K KIDÓ by Katherine Griffith; MAE by Letitia Guillory; MILLICENT SCOWLWORTHY by Rob Handel; KLONSKY AND SCHWARTZ by Romulus Linney; MOTHERHOUSE by Victor Lodato; PRO BONO PUBLICO by Peter Morris; THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Carey Perloff; an untitled one-act by Mark Ravenhill; LEVEE JAMES by Sherry M. Shephard-Massat and THE BEBOP HEARD IN OKINAWA by Mat Smart

Writers Jim Grimsley, Julia Jarcho, Janet Neipris and August Wilson will be in residence during the conference, but will not present work for a public audience.

The Playwrights Conference will continue its free series of lunchtime speakers, featuring playwrights A.R. Gurney and David Henry Hwang, Slam poet Patricia Smith and Moscow Art Theatre Associate Artistic Director Anatoly Smeliansky, among many others.

Submissions to the annual O’Neill Playwrights Conference are evaluated by a national team of more than 50 readers, comprised of theater professionals and assembled with the assistance of consultant Fran Kumin. After several readings, a smaller number of scripts were passed on to the final play selection committee. This year’s committee included Daniel Aukin, Kathleen Chalfant, Jane Cox, Michael Dixon, Amy Freed, A.R. Gurney, David Henry Hwang, Marion McClinton, and Regina Taylor. After consulting with the selection committee, Houghton decided which playwrights to invite to OPC 2002.

Playwrights who were in residence at the O’Neill last summer have maintained a high profile in the theater world this year. Gina Gionfriddo received the Helen Merrill Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Jeffrey Hatcher was named the first Donald & Darlene Shiley artist-in-residence at the Globe Theatre in San Diego. Susan Johnston and Allison Moore each received a Jerome Fellowship. Victor Lodato received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Helen Merrill Award and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays’ Roger L. Stevens Award.

In addition, plays presented at the O’Neill last summer went on to major openings in theaters across the country. Lee Blessing’s BLACK SHEEP premiered at Florida Stage and will open at Barrington Stage July 17, Adam Rapp’s FINER NOBLE GASES debuted at the Humana Festival and Keith Reddin’s FRAME 312 premiered at London’s Donmar Warehouse.

The 2002 O’Neill Playwrights Conference is sponsored by Pfizer Inc, with major support from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, Norton Family Foundation, Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964 and based in Waterford CT, is dedicated to the advancement of new work for the theater and creates and operates programs which complement that goal. These include the Puppetry Conference, Playwrights Conference, Critics Institute, Music Theater Conference and the National Theater Institute, a college-accredited training program for theater artists. The O’Neill also owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, childhood home of America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O’Neill, and holds an annual celebration honoring the life and works of its namesake every October.

OPC 2002 public readings will be held Tuesday through Sunday, July 5 through July 28. Ticket prices range from $8 to $12. To reserve tickets or receive a summer schedule, call the O’Neill Center at 860-443-5378 or the box office at 860-443-1238 (after June 11).

OPC SUMMER SCHEDULE