O’NEILL CENTER ANNOUNCES
3RD ANNUAL EUGENE O’NEILL CELEBRATION
Expanded Activities Will Include Pulitzer Prize-Winners Marsha Norman and August Wilson
Waterford, CT, September 4, 2002 —The O’Neill Theater Center has announced plans for the 3rd annual Eugene O’Neill Celebration, honoring the life and works of its namesake, to be held Friday through Sunday, October 18 through 20. Free and open to the public (except where noted), the series of performances, workshops and discussions will take place at the O’Neill in Waterford as well as the Monte Cristo Cottage, Connecticut College and Garde Arts Center in neighboring New London.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Marsha Norman and August Wilson will join in Saturday’s activities. Ms. Norman will give the keynote address and Mr. Wilson is the recipient of this year’s Monte Cristo Award, which recognizes Ïdistinguished artistic achievement in the spirit of Eugene O’Neill’s pursuit of excellence.Ó The O’Neill will continue to host these activities as well as a reading of one of O’Neill’s early plays and two panel discussions. Friday and Sunday’s events are an expansion from the prior year, when the event ran the course of one day at the O’Neill’s two indoor theaters.
ÏI am pleased that we are extending the Eugene O’Neill Celebration’s activities into New London this year,Ó commented Howard Sherman, executive director of the O’Neill Center and co-director of the event. ÏMore people will be able to learn about the life and works of America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, and explore our region while doing so, over the course of the weekend. It is a keystone in the Center’s commitment to providing community service and establishing a resource for theater research and education.Ó
Event co-director J Ranelli added, ÏThe O’Neill Celebration entertains and enlightens a wide range of people, including members of our community, those visiting the area for its tourist attractions and those passionately interested in Eugene O’Neill. It is important for us to maintain the legacy of O’Neill – in the pioneering spirit of new work presented at the Center, in the continued preservation of O’Neill’s childhood home, Monte Cristo Cottage, and in recognition of his life’s work.Ó
August Wilson, this year’s Monte Cristo Award-winner, is the author of JITNEY, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, FENCES, JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, THE PIANO LESSON, TWO TRAINS RUNNING, SEVEN GUITARS, KING HEDLEY II and is currently writing GEM OF THE OCEAN, which he worked on at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference this summer. His plays have been produced at theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. He has received many fellowships and awards, including the Tony Award and Great Britain’s Olivier Award, Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships and the 1999 National Humanities Medal, presented by the President of the United States.
Marsha Norman, this year’s keynote speaker, is the author of many plays including ‘NIGHT, MOTHER (Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner and Drama Desk awards), THE SECRET GARDEN (book & lyrics, Tony and Drama Desk awards), GETTING OUT, THIRD AND OAK: THE LAUNDROMAT, TRAVELER IN THE DARK, TRUDY BLUE and LAST DANCE, which premieres at the Manhattan Theatre Club in May 2003. Ms. Norman has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She is the Vice President of the Dramatists Guild and co-chair, with Christopher Durang, of the Playwriting Department of the Juilliard School.
Those interested in learning more about O’Neill can attend the whole weekend of performances, individual speakers and panel discussions or choose the events they prefer from the following schedule:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18
All events take place in New London
Ongoing O’Neill Exhibit Shain Library, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Ave.
Exhibit of O’Neill papers and photographs from the collection of O’Neill biographer Louis Sheaffer.
4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Is Academia Killing O’Neill? Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, Shain Library, Connecticut College
Discussion with Dr. Harley Hammerman, O’Neill authority and webmaster of eOneill.com, an electronic Eugene O’Neill archive
7:30 p.m. AH, WILDERNESS! Garde Arts Center, 325 State Street, New London
Screening of the 1935 film adaptation, starring Mickey Rooney and Lionel Barrymore; suitable for all ages. Set in New London in 1912, AH, WILDERNESS! chronicles the lives of the Miller family, modeled upon New London’s McGinley family. O'Neill's play was adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, who would later win acclaim for their adaptation of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.
The film will be introduced by Morgan McGinley, editorial page editor of THE DAY.
Admission: $5; $3 for students at the Garde box office, (860) 444-7373.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
All events take place at the O’Neill Theater Center, 305 Great Neck Road, Waterford
10:30 a.m. Welcome and Keynote Address
Marsha Norman will deliver this year’s keynote address. Ms. Norman is the author of such notable plays as ‘NIGHT, MOTHER and GETTING OUT and the musical THE SECRET GARDEN.
11:45 a.m. O’Neill’s Provincetown Roots
O’Neill’s early playwriting years in Provincetown and the artistic community that fostered his growth will be explored by a panel of scholars and artists, including, Jonathan Bank, artistic director of New York’s Mint Theater; Leona Rust Egan, author of PROVINCETOWN AS A STAGE: PROVINCETOWN, THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF EUGENE O’NEILL; J. Ellen Gainor, author of SUSAN GLASPELL IN CONTEXT: AMERICAN THEATER, CULTURE AND POLITICS 1915-48 and theater historian Max Wilk. Panel still in formation.
1:15 p.m. Lunch break
$7 box lunches available for purchase by advance order only at (860) 443-5378 ext. 0. Call weekdays between 9 a.m. & 5 p.m.
2:15 p.m. The O’Neill Influence
A roundtable of contemporary American playwrights discuss the influence of Eugene O’Neill on their own work and the American dramatic canon. Panelists include Constance Congdon (TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS) and Israel Horovitz (MY OLD LADY). Panel still in formation.
4:00 p.m. WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE
Reading and discussion of O’Neill’s early one-act play, written in New London in 1918. O’Neill’s early themes of family, obsession and greed collide in this story of an aging sea captain’s fixation on his long-buried treasure and his children’s struggles to cope with the man’s incipient madness.
5:00 p.m. Monte Cristo Award
The third annual Monte Cristo Award will be presented to playwright August Wilson, author of an ongoing cycle of plays chronicling the heritage and experience of Americans, decade by decade, over the course of the twentieth century. Mr. Wilson’s works, many of which were first developed at the O’Neill, include FENCES and THE PIANO LESSON.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20
All events take place in New London
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monte Cristo Cottage Tours 325 Pequot Avenue
O’Neill’s childhood home in New London, the setting for both AH, WILDERNESS! and LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, is open for tours.
12 p.m. Tour of O’Neill’s New London Main entrance of Union Station, Water Street
New London Municipal Historian Sally Ryan will lead a walking tour of sites in New London that were frequented by Eugene O’Neill. $5 per person
The schedule and special guests are subject to change, those interested in receiving more information, please call the O’Neill Center at (860) 443-5378 ext. 0. The Eugene O’Neill Celebration has been made possible by the Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut, The Frank Loomis Palmer Fund and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
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