NEW YORK TIMES Cultural Writer Mel Gussow
To Receive the Margo Jones Medal
At the O’Neill Theater Center, July 13

Waterford, CT, June 28, 2002 — The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center will honor this year’s Margo Jones Medal recipient, Mel Gussow, at a brief ceremony and reception on Saturday, July 13 at 5:15 p.m. Named for a pioneer of the regional theater movement, the honor will be presented at the O’Neill for the first time this summer. The Medal is governed by a national committee of theater professionals, through an endowment administered by the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University. Past recipients of the Margo Jones Medal include Jane Alexander, Al Hirschfeld, Robert Whitehead and Signature Theatre Company founder and artistic director James Houghton, prior to his appointment as artistic director of the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. O’Neill founder George C. White was awarded the Margo Jones Medal in 1997 and the Margo Jones Award ÏWorkshop AwardÓ in 1967. Margo Jones Award recipients include Zelda Fichandler, Jon Jory, Lucille Lortel and Joseph Papp.

Mel Gussow, a cultural writer for THE NEW YORK TIMES, is the author of the biography, EDWARD ALBEE: A SINGULAR JOURNEY. He has also written books about Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Samuel Beckett as part of his CONVERSATIONS WITH series, which continues this fall with the release of CONVERSATIONS WITH MILLER by Applause Books. Gussow is the co-editor of the Library of America two-volume edition of the plays of Tennessee Williams.

His other books include THEATER ON THE EDGE: NEW VISIONS, NEW VOICES, a collection of theater reviews and essays; and DON’T SAY YES UNTIL I FINISH TALKING: A BIOGRAPHY OF DARRYL F. ZANUCK. Gussow has had profiles in THE NEW YORKER and other magazines. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

Born in New York City, he graduated from Middlebury College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Jones Committee Chair David E. LeVine commented, “We are all very pleased that Mel Gussow is this year’s Margo Jones honoree. It is an honor he richly deserves.”

O’Neill Executive Director Howard Sherman commented, “The Margo Jones Medal — and prior to it the Margo Jones Award — have a long tradition of honoring individuals and institutions which have demonstrated their commitment to new works for the American theater. We are very pleased to embark on this partnership with the Margo Jones committee. We are particularly pleased that the committee has chosen to honor Mel Gussow in the Medal’s first year at the O’Neill, because Mel’s longstanding commitment to new work for theater on a national basis has been vital to the careers of countless playwrights.”

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.