O’NEILL CENTER ANNOUNCES
4TH ANNUAL EUGENE O’NEILL CELEBRATION
Event to Feature Four-time Tony Award-Winning Actress Zoe Caldwell,
Lee Blessing and David Hays
Waterford, CT, October 6, 2003 —The O’Neill Theater Center has announced plans for the 4th annual Eugene O’Neill Celebration, honoring the life and works of its namesake, to be held Friday through Sunday, October 17 through 19. Free and open to the public (except where noted), the series of performances, tours and discussions will take place at The O’Neill in Waterford as well as the Monte Cristo Cottage, Connecticut College and downtown New London.
Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell and Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Lee Blessing will join Saturday’s activities as the recipient of the Monte Cristo Award and the keynote speaker, respectively. Blessing will introduce the day’s activities and contribute to a panel discussion about O’Neill’s merits from the perspective of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize. The afternoon will continue with a talk by David Hays, founder of the National Theatre of the Deaf and designer of numerous landmark O’Neill revivals, including the premiere of LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. Following Hays’ talk will be a reading of ILE, an early short work by O’Neill, and a discussion about the play’s significance. Saturday’s events will conclude with the presentation of the Monte Cristo Award to Zoe Caldwell and a reception in the Rufus and Margo Rose Theater Barn. The award, a bronze image of O’Neill as a boy, was created by Connecticut sculptor Norman Legassie. The Monte Cristo Cottage, O’Neill’s childhood home, will be open from 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday, October 19 for guided tours, and New London Municipal Historian Sally Ryan will give a walking tour of “O’Neill’s New London” on Sunday as well.
O’Neill Executive Director Amy Sullivan commented, “The O’Neill could not be more delighted that the first woman to receive the distinguished Monte Cristo Award is Zoe Caldwell, who is truly the first lady of American theater. Her career unquestionably exemplifies ėdistinguished artistic achievement in the spirit of Eugene O’Neill’s pursuit of excellence’ and I am tremendously pleased to welcome Ms. Caldwell to the Eugene O’Neill Celebration. It is important for us to maintain the legacy of O’Neill ń 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.”
Event director J Ranelli added, “The celebration of O’Neill’s contribution to the modern American theater is at once a reflection on the past and a challenge to the future in the spirit of O’Neill’s own pursuit of excellence.”
Zoe Caldwell, this year’s Monte Cristo Award-winner, is an award-winning actor and director with an international reputation. On Broadway, she has won four Tony Awards: for SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY (1966), THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1968), MEDEA (1982), and MASTER CLASS (1996). She has directed AN ALMOST PERFECT PERSON, OTHELLO, PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD, and VITA AND VIRGINIA. On film, she has appeared in Woody Allen’s PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, and her voice can be heard in the recent Disney feature LILO AND STITCH. Caldwell’s memoir of her early career, I WILL BE CLEOPATRA, was published in 2001.
Lee Blessing, this year’s keynote speaker, is the author of many plays including A WALK IN THE WOODS (Tony, Pulitzer and Olivier nominations), THIEF RIVER (Drama Desk nomination, best play), COBB, TWO ROOMS and ELEEMOSYNARY. He has had world premieres at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre and Florida Stage, among others, and productions at the Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Old Globe and the Alliance Theatre Company among many others here and abroad. Two collections of Blessing’s plays have been published by Heinemann.
Those interested in learning more about Eugene 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 17
All events take place at Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Ave., 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. The Long Voyage: O’Neill’s Restless Quest for Home Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room, Shain Library, Connecticut College
Discussion with Brian Rogers, special collections librarian emeritus at Conn. College, who was instrumental in the college’s acquisition of the Sheaffer-O’Neill collection. Reception to follow.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18
All events take place at the O’Neill Theater Center, 305 Great Neck Road, Waterford
10:30 a.m. Welcome and Keynote Address
Lee Blessing will deliver this year’s keynote address. Blessing is the author of such notable plays as A WALK IN THE WOODS, COBB, ELEEMOSYNARY and THIEF RIVER.
11:45 a.m. O’Neill’s Honors: The Pulitzer & Nobel Prizes
O’Neill’s oeuvre and specifically his award-winning works are explored by a panel of scholars and artists, including playwright Lee Blessing (see above), scholar Brenda Murphy, author of O’NEILL: LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (a production history), and scholar Tom Porter, author of MYTH AND THE MODERN AMERICAN DRAMA. Dan Sullivan, former lead critic for the LOS ANGELES TIMES and director of the O’Neill Critics Institute, moderates the panel discussion.
1:15 p.m. Lunch break
$8 box lunches available for purchase by advance order only at (860) 443-5378 ext. 0. Call weekdays between 9 a.m. & noon.
2:30 p.m. Designing O’Neill
David Hays, O’Neill Theater Center co-founder and designer for the landmark revivals of Eugene O’Neill’s plays, as well as the premiere of LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, talks about setting the stage for the re-examination and greater appreciation of O’Neill’s work.
4:00 p.m. ILE
Reading and discussion of O’Neill’s early one-act play, written in Provincetown in 1917. Foreshadowing his later masterworks, O’Neill depicts the erosive power of pride as whaling captain David Keeney’s obsession with his quota of oil (“ile,” as it was pronounced in Nantucket) drives his wife beyond the edge of her sanity.
5:15 p.m. Monte Cristo Award
The fourth annual Monte Cristo Award will be presented to four-time Tony Award-winner and theater legend Zoe Caldwell, for “distinguished artistic achievement in the spirit of Eugene O’Neill’s pursuit of excellence.” Previous recipients include Jason Robards, Edward Albee and August Wilson.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19
All events take place in New London
10 a.m. to Noon 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. $5 suggested donation per person.
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 suggested donation 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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