Applications Are Open For Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Cabaret & Performance Conference Junior Fellows Program

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is accepting applications for the Cabaret & Performance Conference Junior Fellows Program through March 18. Under the direction of concert artist, music director, composer, and teacher Brad Simmons (Camp, The Last Five Years, Lysistrata Jones, Hello Again), the program will take place August 8-21, 2022, on the O'Neill's seaside campus. Simmons will be joined by Broadway arranger Michael Holland (12 Angry Men, Clue, Godspell). There is no fee to apply.

The premier pop music performance program for Connecticut's 15- to 18-year-olds, Junior Fellows offers a select group of students the opportunity for in-person professional vocal instruction, movement training, and hands-on artistic guidance in the art of performance. Students gain valuable interaction with world-renowned guest artists and professional faculty, and acquire skills needed to make performance an important part of their creative lives.

"Now in its thirteenth summer, the Junior Fellows have become the darlings of The O'Neill," says Broadway music director Brad Simmons, who oversees the Junior Fellows program. "Studying the new American songbook has always been the focus. Studies have included The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, The Bee Gees, Kenny Loggins, Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, and Queen. I am very excited to say that this year we will tackle the music of ABBA-for the immediately hummable hit songs, the vocal complexity, the costumes, the band, and the dance floor!"

The program includes two weeks of master classes and performance opportunities alongside the O'Neill's professional guest artists at the 2022 Cabaret & Performance Conference.

Cabaret & Performance Conference Artistic Director John McDaniel says, "We are so excited to gear up for another incredible summer at the O'Neill. Our Junior Fellows program is definitely one of the highlights and we are thrilled to open auditions for this season's cohort of this strenuous but exciting program."

Junior Fellows alumni have gone on to further creative pursuits at: Royal Conservatory of Scotland, UC College-Conservatory of Music, NYU, UCLA, Northeastern University, University of Miami Theatre, Sony Music Entertainment, and NBC's The Voice.

Interested students should record and submit two short videos of contrasting ABBA songs (verse & chorus). To learn more and apply, visit theoneill.org/junior-fellows.

About the Cabaret & Performance Conference

Led by Grammy and Emmy Award winner John McDaniel, the Cabaret & Performance Conference reexamines, redefines and revitalizes the Cabaret art form for the 21st century, using a definition of cabaret as "any kind of live performance in an intimate space that often breaks the fourth wall." The Conference brings some of the biggest names in cabaret theater to perform at the O'Neill each summer and provides valuable development and performance training for select up-and-coming performers on the cabaret scene.

Recent Conference artists include: Judy Kuhn, Tonya Pinkins, Norm Lewis, Molly Pope, Melissa Manchester, Karen Mason, Christina Bianco, Joyce Breach, Brad Simmons, Matt Baker, Eric Yves Garcia, Mark Hartman, Brian Nash, Natalie Douglas, The Skivvies, Nick Adams, Shirley Jones, Jim Caruso, Billy Stritch, Mimi Hines, Susie Mosher, Betty Buckley, and Tommy Tune.

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About the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center:

The Launchpad of the American Theater, the O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. Founded in 1964, and named in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at theaters around the world. O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute - which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The O'Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts. www.theoneill.org.

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