O’Neill Schedule July 25 through 28

Waterford, CT, July 22, 2002 — The playwrights, artists, administrators and audience members attending the 2002 O’Neill Playwrights Conference will return to theater communities across the country and around the world after this week’s activities — staged readings of two original one-act plays by provocative contemporary playwrights, exploring the lives and thoughts of teenagers, and full-length works by 2002 Guggenheim Fellow Victor Lodato and American Conservatory Theater’s Artistic Director Carey Perloff.

Nineteen playwrights came together with a company of nearly 300 people to advance the following new works:

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; FASCINATION by Jim Grimsley; MAE by Letitia Guillory; MILLICENT SCOWLWORTHY by Rob Handel; THE HIGHWAYMAN by Julia Jarcho; KLONSKY AND SCHWARTZ by Romulus Linney; MOTHERHOUSE by Victor Lodato; PRO BONO PUBLICO by Peter Morris; AFTER MARSEILLES and IKAMVA by Janet Neipris; THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Carey Perloff; TOTALLY OVER YOU by Mark Ravenhill; LEVEE JAMES by Sherry M. Shephard-Massat; THE BEBOP HEARD IN OKINAWA by Mat Smart and GEM OF THE OCEAN by August Wilson.

This week’s performances are:

MOTHERHOUSE by Victor Lodato, directed by Tracy Brigden
July 25 & 26 at 8:00 p.m., Edith Oliver Memorial Theater*

Clive arrives unexpectedly at the house of his mother and his sister. He says that he is fleeing from the police — but perhaps it’s another one of his delusions. Unbeknownst to him, he has shown up on a tragic anniversary. Three years prior, his sister’s child was killed in a brutal shooting. As fate seems bent on shattering the walls, mother Mae valiantly attempts to keep house.

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES by Carey Perloff, directed by Liz Diamond
July 26 at 8:00 p.m. & July 27 at 2:30 p.m., Rufus and Margo Rose Theater Barn

South Africa, 1873: a group of young displaced Englishmen begin their quest for power and place in a strange new world, including Cecil Rhodes, who sets out to conquer the diamond industry and eventually creates the esteemed scholarships that bear his name.

Theater for the Generations
MOONTEL SIX by Constance Congdon, directed by Craig Slaight
TOTALLY OVER YOU by Mark Ravenhill, directed by Suzy Graham-Adriani
July 27 at 8:00 p.m. & July 28 at 2:30 p.m., Dina Merrill Theater

Congdon’s play, MOONTEL SIX, focuses on a colony of genetically-altered teens who leave the shelter of an abandoned motel on the moon in search of a home of their own. Ravenhill’s work, TOTALLY OVER YOU, was suggested by a short play by Moliere, in which two young women reject their suitors because they lack “courtly manners.” A special commission by the American Conservatory Theater and the Royal National Theatre in a unique collaboration with the O’Neill Playwrights Conference.

OPC 2002 public readings take place Tuesday through Sunday. Ticket prices are $10 & $12, $8 weekdays for O’Neill members. To reserve tickets or receive a summer schedule, call the O’Neill Center box office at (860) 443-1238.

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.

Performances in the Amphitheater and the Edith Oliver Theater are outdoors, but will be moved indoors in the event of rain. Performance schedule is subject to change. Please call to confirm dates and times.