This Week At The O'Neill:
Performances Of Final Projects At National Playwrights, National Music Theater Conferences
NPC's "The Exchange" Joins NMTC's "Triangle"
Cabaret And Performance Conference To Begin August 2

July 25, 2006

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference (NPC) begins performances of its final project, The Exchange, by Irish playwright Ursula Rani Sarma; the piece is an international partnership with Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre, made possible by a grant from the Xerox Foundation. Director is Michael Barakiva. Cast includes Ross Bickell,* Amanda Cobb,* John Jellison,* Ryan King,* Maggie Lacey,* Annie O'Sullivan,* Makela Spielman* and Jenny Sterlin.* In The Exchange, one man struggles to let go of the past and, with the help of his daughters, to move into the future. Performances are on Friday, July 28th at 8:00 pm and Sunday, July 30th at 3:00 pm In the Dina Merrill Theater

The National Music Theater Conference's Triangle (Book by Joshua V. Scher, Music by Curtis Moore, Lyrics by Thomas Mizer), runs through July 29 in the Rose Barn Theater. Triangle is directed by Robert Longbottom; Dale Reiling is Music Director. The cast includes Heather Ayers*, Stephen Bienskie*, David Brummel*, Colin Hanlon*, Alicia Irving*, Jodie Langel*, Megan McGinnis* and Wayne Wilcox. In Triangle, two couples grapple with what it means to risk everything you have and everything you believe in for love. Performances are on Wednesday, July 26, Friday July 28 and Saturday, July 29 at 8:15 pm in the Rose Barn Theater.

The O'Neill's Cabaret and Performance Conference begins on Tuesday, August 2 and runs through August 12. The Conference features performances and new projects by some of this country's most exciting established theatrical and cabaret performance artists as well as up and coming new performers. Featured performers include Chicago's famed musical improvisation group Baby Wants Candy; a musical evening with Andre De Shields (seen on Broadway in the original cast of Ain't Misbehaving; The Wiz;The Full Monty) and his guest backup singers; Penny Fuller, Emmy Award winner and Tony nominated actress of Broadway's The Dinner Party and television's Mad About You, in a premiere evening of classic Cabaret; a Country Cabaret with Grammy-nominated songwriter Marcus Hummon (God Bless the Broken Road), joined by songstress Sherrie Austen (Streets of Heaven); a new musical by Neil Bartram and Brian Hill featuring Deven May (who played the title role in off-Broadway's sensational Bat Boy) and Jeffrey Kuhn (Broadway's Assassins, Wicked); and Ruth Williamson, stage and screen actress featured in the Tony Award-winning 2004 Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles, returning to perform the complete PURE HEAVEN, an evening about the life of songstress Kay Thompson, which began development during the 2005 Cabaret Conference. Each night through August 12 is a different show, many followed by an “Open Mic.” All performances take place in the Dina Merrill Theater.

Schedule and artists subject to change. For ticket reservations ($15 members, $20 non-members) please call the O'Neill Box Office at 860-443-1238. Outdoor performances will be moved indoors in the event of rain.

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 and 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. Today, the O'Neill is home to 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.