Brian Dennehy, a leading figure in American theater, renowned for his roles in the plays of Eugene O'Neill, will highlight the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 10th Annual Eugene O'Neill Celebration, presented this year in collaboration with the Eugene O'Neill Society and Connecticut College and with the support of the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund. Mr. Dennehy is an active member of the Center's Board of Trustees.
Held on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of O'Neill's birth, the Celebration will take place at Monte Cristo Cottage, New London on Friday, October 16 and Sunday, October 18, and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center on Saturday, October 17. All events are open to the public free of charge, with lunch available for purchase on Saturday. Advance registration is not required, but is encouraged.Preston Whiteway, O'Neill executive director said: "We are deeply grateful to the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund for its continued generous support, and delighted to bring the great Brian Dennehy together with O'Neill scholars from far and wide to celebrate Eugene O'Neill's legacy of literary excellence and to delve into a new and fascinating Celebration theme - "The Irish and the Yankees in O'Neill."Thierry Dubost is a Professor at the University of Caen Basse-Normandie. He is the author of Struggle, Defeat or Rebirth : Eugene O'Neill's Vision of Humanity (MacFarland, 1997 [2005]) ; The Plays of Thomas Kilroy (McFarland, 2007) as well as the co-editor of La Femme noire américaine : aspects d'une crise d'identité (PUC, 1997), George Bernard Shaw, un dramaturge engagé (PUC, 1998), Du Dire à l'être : tensions identitaires dans la littérature nord-américaine (PUC, 2000). His research interests include Irish / American / African drama. He has translated Wole Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman into French.
Sheila Hickey Garvey is a Professor of Theater at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) where she teaches Acting and Directing and directs productions each season in SCSU's Lyman Center for the Performing Arts. Her 2006 production of the American Premiere of Ellen Kaplan's Pulling Apart received the prestigious Moss Hart Award and her spring 2008 production of Shirley Lauro's A Piece of My Heart received the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region I award for Outstanding Women's Initiative Production. She has been a John F. Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Directing Fellow and is a lifetime elected member of the New England Theatre's Conferences College of Fellows. Her acting work has included performances with Long Wharf Theatre, The Kitchen Playwright's Theatre, The Weathervane Theatre, The Allenberry Playhouse and The Williamstown Theatre Festival. Dr. Garvey writes about performance topics as a member of the review staff of The New England Theatre Journal. Her articles on theatrical performance especially those pertaining to major post World War II revivals of Eugene O'Neill's plays have appeared in The Eugene O'Neill Review, Theatre Survey, The Recorder and Coup de Theatre, a journal of the Sorbonne.
She is a Past President of the Eugene O'Neill Society (2001-2003), a co-editor and a contributor to the book Jason Robards Remembered (MacFarland Inc., 2001) and a contributor to A Critical Companion to Eugene O'Neill: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, ed. Robert Dowling (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2009). She hold sa B.S. from Emerson College (Theatre), an M.A. from Northwestern University (Directing) and a Ph.D. from New York University (TISCH) in Performance Studies.
Eileen Herrmann, a two-time Fulbright recipient, has lectured at the Universities of California at Davis and Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, Johannes Gutenberg Universitat (Mainz, Germany), and Dominican University of California. She has written and lectured on Eugene O'Neill in the United States and abroad and has authored several papers on the art of Eugene O'Neill. She serves on both the boards of the Eugene O'Neill Foundation and the Eugene O'Neill Society. She is currently co-editing a book of essays addressing the political dimensions of the drama of Eugene O'Neill to be published by McFarland Press.
Kenneth Kuzmich is assistant professor and Chair of the Department of Global Studies and Director of Study Abroad at Mitchell College. He is currently developing a summer exchange program concentrating on Irish literature and the Abbey Theater of Dublin's influence on Eugene O'Neill.Robert A. Richter is director of Arts Programming at Connecticut College. He received a bachelor of arts in anthropology and theater from Connecticut College and a master in liberal studies from Wesleyan University. He has at Mystic Seaport, where he supervised and developed programs that used theater to interpret history. He continues to consult for museums and historical societies on public program development and the creation and implementation of performance based programs. His book Eugene O'Neill and Dat Ole Davil Sea was a finalist for the 2005 Connecticut Book Award.Advance registration is required. For more information, please visit www.oneilltheatercenter.org
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