Directors for O'Neill's 2008 Conferences Announced

Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, and Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of the O'Neill's National Music Theater Conference, today announced the Directors of the projects selected for the 2008 Conference.

The list of directors includes Obie Award winners Daniel Aukin and Lisa Peterson; Jesse Berger, Founding Artistic Director of New York's Red Bull Theater; Lucille Lortel and Helen Hayes Award winner Joe Calarco (adaptor/director, Shakespeare's R&J); Drama Desk nominated Jack Cumming III, Artistic Director of the New York theater company Transport Group; Jeremy Dobrish, Artistic Director of New York's adobe theater company; Annie Dorsen, co-creator of Passing Strange; acclaimed director Jackson Gay; Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference; Greg Leaming, Associate  Director of Asolo Repertory Theater, Florida; and Cara Reichel, an OOBR Award winning director and librettist who is the Producing Artistic Director of the Prospect Theater Company, New York.

The O'Neill's 2008 National Music Theater Conference projects and directors are:

MYTH
Book, Music and Lyrics by John Mercurio
Director:  Jeremy Dobrish
Performances:  Sun., June 29 at 3:00 pm; Weds., July 2 at 8:00 pm; Fri., July 4 at 8:00 pm; Sat., July 5 at 8:00 pm

IN TRANSIT
Book, Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russell M. Kaplan and Sara Wordsworth
Director:  Joe Calarco
Performances:  Sat., July 5 at 3:00 pm; Sun., July 6 at 3:00 pm

MAX UNDERSTOODBook by Nancy Carlin; Lyrics by Nancy Carlin and Michael Rasbury; Music by Michael Rasbury
Director:  Jack Cumming
Performances:  Fri., July 11 at 8:00 pm; Sun., July 13 at 3:00 pm

IRON CURTAIN
Book by Susan DiLallo, Lyrics by Peter Mills, Music by Stephen Weiner
Director:  Cara Reichel
Performances:  Sat., July 12 at 8:00 pm; Weds., July 16 at 8:00 pm; Fri., July 18 at 8:00 pm;
Sat., July 19 at 3:00 pm

The O'Neill's 2008 National Playwrights Conference projects and directors are:

THE NEAR EAST by Alex Lewin
Director:  Lisa Peterson
Performances:  Thurs. July 3 at 8:15 pm; Sat., July 5 at 8:15 pm

BOX AMERICANA by Jason Grote
Director:  Jackson Gay
Performances:  Fri., July 4 at 8:15 pm; Sun., July 6 at 5:15 pm

SMUDGE by Rachel Axler
Director:  Daniel Aukin
Performances:  Thurs., July 10 at 8:15 pm; Sat., July 12 at 8:15 pm

MAGNOLIA by Regina Taylor
Director:  TBA
Performances:  Fri., July 11 at 8:15 pm; Sunday, July 13 at 5:15 pm

THUNDER ABOVE, DEEPS BELOW by A. Rey Pamatmat
Director:  Jesse Berger
Performances:  Thurs., July 17 at 8:15 pm; Sat., July 19 at 2:15 pm

MISTAKES WERE MADE by Craig Wright
Director:  Wendy C. Goldberg
Performances:  Fri., July 18 at 8:15 pm; Sun., July 20 at 5:15 pm

THE LEGEND OF MINNIE WILLET by Ann Marie Healy
Director:  Annie Dorsen
Performances:  Thurs., July 24 at 8:15 pm; Sat., July 26 at 8:15 pm

WITHOUT YOU by Ursula Rani Sarma
Director: Greg Leaming
Performances:  Fri., July 25 at 8:15 pm; Sun., July 27 at 5:15 pm

MAGNOLIA is a collaboration with Chicago's The Goodman Theatre, Robert Falls, Artistic Director. WITHOUT YOU, The Irish Project at the O'Neill, is sponsored in part by a grant from the Xerox Foundation.

Schedules are subject to change. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, June 11.  Please call the O'Neill Box Office at 860-443-1238 for times, prices and reservations. 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 & Performance 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, the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill. For more information regarding the O'Neill, please visit our website at www.TheONeill.org or call 860-443-5378.