Norm Lewis, Karen Mason & More Will Take Part in Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 2016 Summer Season!

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today the 2016 summer season of plays, musicals, and other works in development at the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Puppetry Conference, and Cabaret & Performance Conference.

Preston Whiteway, Executive Director of the O'Neill says, "The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center boldly continues our mission as Launchpad of the American Theater with our 2016 professional season. The artists selected across our programs, from over 2,000 applicants, are adding exciting and necessary ideas and pieces that will play our nation's stages for years to come. I'm grateful to my partners - the four artistic directors leading the National Playwrights Conference, the National Music Theater Conference, the National Puppetry Conference and the Cabaret & Performance Conference and encourage all those looking for the best and brightest new talents in American theater to join us this summer."

Cabaret & Performance Conference

John McDaniel, Artistic Director

Performances: August 3 - August 13

The conference brings some of the biggest names in Cabaret Theater to perform at the O'Neill each summer, providing valuable development and performance training for select Cabaret Fellows - up-and-coming performers on the cabaret scene. Headliners for 2016 include:

Brad Simmons- "In the Company of Strangers: The Music of Paul Simon" - Thurs., Aug 4

An Evening with Norm Lewis! - Fri., Aug 5

"Molly Pope Likes Your Status" - Sat., Aug 6

The Barb Jungr & Lennie Watts Show - Sun., Aug 7

Grammy Award-winning Melissa Manchester - Tues., Aug 9

Karen Mason- "Mason's Makin' Music" - Fri., Aug 12

Applications for the Fellows are accepted through April 29.

Junior Fellows are accepting video submissions through April 15.

More at http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/cabaret/submission-info/.

National Playwrights Conference

Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director

Readings: July 7 - July 30

The O'Neill's founding program. Each play will undergo the O'Neill's signature development process, employing acclaimed professional creative and support staff, including directors, dramaturgs, actors, and designers to bring new plays to life. All eight plays to be workshopped were chosen from a record-breaking pool of more than 1,400 plays received through the O'Neill's open submissions process. Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephen Karam (The Humans, Sons of the Prophet) was invited to join as a Writer in Residence.

Aurin Squire, Brooklyn, NY - Running on Fire (bio)

Mike Lew, Brooklyn, NY - Teenage Dick (bio)

Matt Schatz, Los Angeles, CA - The Burdens (bio)

Kathryn Walat, Savannah, GA - Small Town Values (bio)

Sylvia Khoury, New York, NY - Against the Hillside (bio)

Kate Tarker, Brooklyn, NY - Laura and the Sea (bio)

Tegan McLeod, Austin, TX - Girls in Cars Underwater (bio)

Keith Huff, Chicago, IL - Up The Hill (bio)

Stephen Karam, Writer in Residence

More at www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/npc/

National Music Theater Conference

Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director

Readings: June 25 - July 15

Since its founding in 1978, the National Music Theater Conference has developed more than 130 new musicals, including early works of award-winning writers and composers such as Kirsten Childs, Tan Dun, Andrew Lippa, Robert Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, Paul Oakley Stovall, and Jeannine Tesori. Selected from a record-breaking 285 submissions, the following three new musicals will be developed:

David H. Bell (Book & Lyrics) & Daniel Green (Music & Lyrics) - The Museum of Broken Relationships (bios)

Zakiyyah Alexander (Book & Lyrics) & Imani Uzuri (Music & Lyrics) - GIRL Shakes Loose (bios)

Daniel Zaitchik (Book, Music, & Lyrics) - Darling Grenadine (bios)

More at http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/nmtc/

National Puppetry Conference

Pam Arciero, Artistic Director

Performances: June 17 & June 18

Puppetry performances are an extraordinary mix of devised work from throughout the Puppetry Conference, featuring guest artists, artists-in-residence, and a vast array of performance styles. With rehearsals and workshops in building, writing, music, marionettes, and more, this year's conference will also include workshops by acclaimed puppeteers, Richard Bradshaw and Art Grueneberger.

More at http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/puppetry/

National Theater Institute - Theatermakers

Rachel Jett, Artistic Director

FREE Performances: Mondays, June 20 - July 25

Theatermakers trains students in acting, directing, and playwriting alongside the O'Neill's professional artists. Join us each week as students share their works-in-progress with the public.

2016 Summer Gala: Frozen in Summer

Celebrating the music of Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez

July 23, 2016 | 6:00pm | Sunken Garden

We are pleased to announce that Bobby Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez will return to the O'Neill on July 23. The evening will celebrate the music of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, & Tony) recipient Bobby Lopez and Grammy & Oscar recipient Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

The annual Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Summer Gala is one of Connecticut's favorite summer events! More than 250 guests gather in the O'Neill's Sunken Garden, with sweeping views of Long Island Sound, while enjoying some of the region's finest cuisines catered by local favorite Ivy's Homemade of Waterford, CT.

Box Office opens to the public May 31. Advance ticket sales are available to O'Neill members May 17. For more information, visit www.theoneill.org or call 860-443-1238.

**Funding for the summer season provided by Actors' Equity Foundation; BMI Foundation, Inc.; Walt Disney Parks & Resorts (Creative Entertainment); Burry Fredrik Foundation; Dramatists Play Service; Dramatist Guild Fund; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation; The Jane Henson Foundation; The Frederick Loewe Foundation, Inc.; National Endowment for the Arts; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964 in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. The O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, the Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute - which conducts semester-long intensive theater training, and a six-week summer program, Theatermakers. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. Childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark. The O'Neill has received two Tony Awards - including the 2010 Regional Theatre Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theatre Excellence, and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award.

For more information, please visit the O'Neill website, www.theoneill.org, call (860) 443- 5378 ext. 213 or email theaterlives@theoneill.org.