Durning, Chalfant, Etc. Set for Eugene O'Neill Celebration

Charles Durning, Kathleen Chalfant, Harris Yulin and Brian Murray will celebrate the early works of playwriting icon Eugene O'Neill with a week of free events, starting Saturday, December 30th, at the Provincetown Playhouse (133 Macdougal St.).

The readings, presented by the Playwrights Theater of New York and O'Neill at Yale theater project, will mark the 90th anniversary of O'Neill's New York debut at the historic Playhouse, according to the New York Times.

Cabaret star Steve Ross, along with a number of Yale alumni, will perform a concert on December 30th at 8 PM.  The show will recount O'Neill's life through November 3rd, 1916, when his Bound East for Cardiff premiered at the Provincetown Playhouse.

On January 5th at 8 PM, Durning will perform a reading of the playwright's 1916 short story Tomorrow.  Chalfant and Yulin will appear in excerpts from his 1916 comedy Now I Ask You (which foreshadowed O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!) on January 6th at 8 PM, and Murray will perform scenes from the dramatist's sea plays (including Bound East for Cardiff) on January 7th at 7 PM.

Durning is a Tony Award-winner for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and has also appeared on Broadway in such plays as Gore Vidal's The Best Man, The Gin Game and Inherit the Wind.  Chalfant is a Drama Desk Award-winner for Wit, and has appeared on Broadway in Racing Demon, the Angels in America plays and M. Butterfly.  Yulin, who directed The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theatre Company, has been seen on Broadway in such plays as Hedda Gabler, The Price and The Diary of Anne Frank.  Murray has received multiple Tony nominations; Broadway credits include The Rivals, The Crucible, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night.

O'Neill, who died in 1953, penned a multitude of works that explored such themes as love, loss and illusion.  His works include A Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh, Mourning Becomes Electra, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, The Emperor Jones and Desire Under the Elms.

Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis.