O’Neill Playwrights Conference,
America’s Premiere Theater Laboratory, Will Accept Full Scripts,
Under New Guidelines, October 1st through October 31st, 2004

Waterford, CT, August 9, 2004 — O’Neill Theater Center Producing Director Richard Kuranda and Executive Director Amy Sullivan have announced that The O’Neill Playwrights Conference will accept open submissions of full scripts October 1st through October 31st, 2004 for the 2005 Conference.

Plays which are optioned or have already received productions or professional workshops are not eligible for open submissions; translations are also excluded. For more detailed guidelines, writers may visit the O’Neill website at www.TheONeill.org or call 860.443.5378 to have guidelines mailed to them as of Sept 1st.

More than 620 plays have evolved at The O’Neill Center since the Playwrights Conference began in 1965. Conference participants represent a wide range of experience from playwrights working on a first play to Broadway veterans; O’Neill directors and actors have also worked on and off-Broadway and in regional theaters, representing emerging artists and seasoned professionals.

Not all writers-in-residence present public readings of their work. Several writers attend each year to work on special projects, which are not always presented during their stay. Conference artists also have access to discussions with a variety of guest speakers, theater trustees, teachers and fellows as well as journalists participating in the O’Neill Critics Institute.

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, AMERICA’S PREMIERE THEATER LABORATORY, founded in 1964, has been home to more than 1000 new works for the stage and 2500 emerging artists and is itself the winner of a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award of Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award.