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Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

Theater facility in Waterford, Connecticut

Summary

Theater facility in Waterford, Connecticut

Field	Value
name	Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
image	EOTC HammondMansion.jpg
image_size	325px
caption	The Hammond Mansion, "Ironsides", in 2017
address	305 Great Neck Road
city	Waterford, Connecticut
country	United States
type	Regional Theater
opened	1964
website
embed	yes
name	Walnut Grove
nrhp_type	hd
nocat	yes
coordinates
locmapin	Connecticut#USA
built	1822
architecture	Federal, Gothic Revival, et al.
added	September 21, 2005
area	40 acre
refnum	05001044

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater company founded in 1964 by George C. White. It is commonly referred to as The O'Neill, seating just over 1,000 guests. The center has received two Tony Awards, the 1979 Special Award and the 2010 Regional Theatre Award. President Obama presented the 2015 National Medal of Arts to The O'Neill on September 22, 2016.

The O'Neill is a multi-disciplinary institution; it has had a transformative effect on American theater. The O'Neill pioneered play development and stage readings as a tool for new plays and musicals. It is home to the National Theater Institute (established 1970), an intensive study-away semester for undergraduates. Its major theater conferences include the National Playwrights Conference (est. 1964); the National Critics Conference (est. 1968), the National Musical Theater Conference (est. 1978), the National Puppetry Conference (est. 1990), and the Cabaret & Performance Conference (est. 2005). The first full-fledged National Playwrights Conference took place in the summer of 1966. The Monte Cristo Cottage, Eugene O'Neill's childhood home in New London, Connecticut, was purchased and restored by the O'Neill in the 1970s and is maintained as a museum. The theater's campus, overlooking Long Island Sound in Waterford Beach Park, has four major performance spaces: two indoor and two outdoor. The O'Neill is led by Executive Director Tifanni Gavin.

The estate, also known as Walnut Grove or Hammond Estate, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 21, 2005, for its architectural significance, and its associations with Revolutionary War Colonel William North and Edward Crowninshield Hammond, a wealthy railroad tycoon who frequently had the young O'Neill thrown off of the property when he owned it.

Major works

The following is a list of plays, musicals, and performance pieces first developed at the O'Neill that have gone on to further success.

; National Playwrights Conference

Slave Play - Jeremy O. Harris (2018)
I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard – Halley Feiffer (2014)
The Nether – Jennifer Haley (2011), Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2012
The Receptionist – Adam Bock (2006)
Fuddy Meers – David Lindsay-Abaire (1998)
Trueblinka – Adam Rapp (1997)
Seven Guitars – August Wilson (1994)
The Piano Lesson – August Wilson (1986)
Joe Turner's Come and Gone – August Wilson (1984)
Fences – August Wilson (1983)
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea – John Patrick Shanley (1982)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – August Wilson (1982)
Agnes of God – John Pielmeier (1979)
FOB – David Henry Hwang (1979)
Bent – Martin Sherman (1978)
Uncommon Women and Others – Wendy Wasserstein (1977)
A History of the American Film – Christopher Durang (1976)
Madmen and Specialists – Wole Soyinka (1970)
House of Blue Leaves – John Guare (1966)

; National Musical Theater Conference

Tales of the City (2009)
In the Heights (2005), Tony Award, (2008)
Avenue Q (2002), Tony Award, (2004)
The Wild Party (1997)
Nine (1979), Tony Award, Best Musical, 1982

; Cabaret & Performance Conference

The Story of My Life (2006)
title of show (2005)

; National Critics Conference

Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater – Davi Napoleon

Notable O'Neill alumni

; National Theater Institute

Emily Bergl
Adam Bock (The Receptionist)
Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue)
Jack Coleman (Heroes)
Michael Douglas
Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live)
Chris Elliott (Saturday Night Live)
Michael Emerson
Jennifer Garner
Paul Hodes (US Congressman, New Hampshire)
Daniel Dae Kim
Kristina Klebe
John Krasinski (The Office)
Jeremy Piven (Entourage)
Michael Portnoy
Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother)
Kate Robin (Six Feet Under)
Sam Robards
Britain Simons
Mark Teschner
Rebecca Taichman
Elizabeth Olsen
Adam Shulman
Cynthia Wade

; Conference Playwrights

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Edward Albee
Lee Blessing
Julia Cho
Kathleen Clark
Kia Corthron
Joe DiPietro
Christopher Durang
Jacob Aaron Estes
Rebecca Gilman
Gina Gionfriddo
John Guare
Willy Holtzman
Israel Horovitz
Samuel D. Hunter
David Henry Hwang
David Lindsay-Abaire
Adam Rapp
John Patrick Shanley
Sam Shepard
Regina Taylor
Wendy Wasserstein
August Wilson
Lanford Wilson

References

{{NRISref. 2009a
"Search Past Tony Award Winners and Nominees – TonyAwards.com – The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards® – Official Website by IBM". TonyAwards.com.
(September 14, 2016). "President Obama to Award 2015 National Medals of Arts". NEA.
"National Theater Institute". nationaltheaterinstitute.org.
"National Playwrights Conference (History)".
Napoleon, Davi. (June 3, 2010). "At the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Critics Institute 5Q4 Dan Sullivan". The Faster Times.
(August 31, 1982). "Inspired under the elms - The O'Neill Center: Summer camp for playwrights". The Boston Phoenix.
"New Work by Decade (1966-1969)".
"Leadership & Staff at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center".
Verde, Tom (October 7, 1996) [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/07/nyregion/eugene-o-neill-center-may-get-remains-of-tycoon-who-chased-him-off-it.html "Eugene O'Neill Center May Get Remains of Tycoon Who Chased Him Off It"] ''[[The New York Times]]''

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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