NPC At The O'Neill Continues 45th Year With HOUSE OF GOLD 7/16-17 & SPOON LAKE BLUES 7/18-19

The National Playwrights Conference (NPC) at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center continues its 45th year with staged readings of House of Gold by Gregory Moss on July 16 at 8:15 pm and July 17 at 3:15 pm and Spoon Lake Blues by Josh Tobiessen on July 18 at 8:15 pm and July 19 at 3:15 pm. The conference, founded in 1964 and led by Lloyd Richards from 1968-1999, is now helmed by Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg.

Goldberg, now in her fifth year as Artistic Director and the only woman to ever hold the position, has seen numerous National Playwrights Conference shows go on to world premieres including Magnolia by ReGina Taylor (NPC 2008), Antebellum by Robert O'Hara (NPC 2005), End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer (NPC 2007), Durango by Julia Cho (NPC 2005), The Receptionist by Adam Bock (NPC 2006), and The Crowd You're In With by Rebecca Gilman (NPC 2007). Having re-established the conference as a national leader in the field, in the past four years, projects under Goldberg's tenure were seen in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Cherry Lane Theater, and regionally at The Goodman, The Magic, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth Theater and Actors Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival among others.

Following Spoon Lake Blues is Carthage by Emily Schwend on July 23 at 8:15 pm and July 24 at 7:15 pm; and Bogwog by Abbie Spallen on July 25 at 8:15 pm and July 26 at 3:15 pm.

House of Gold by Gregory Moss
Director: Sarah Benson
Performances: Thurs., July 16 at 8:15 pm; Fri., July 17 at 3:15 pm
CAST: Karen Briscoe*, Megan Byrne*, Rob Campbell*, Matt D'Amico*, Stephen Ellis, Evan Enderle, Kevin Geer*, Ben Gunderson, and Karack Osborn.
*member of Actors' Equity Association

"A lost little girl is brought back to a house, very much like the one she grew up in, by a suspicious Man and Woman, who have recently lost (or misplaced) their own child. While negotiating with the strange characters that inhabit this home - a seedy Detective who lives in the basement and a shady man with a van who sits parked outside - the girl befriends Jasper, a plump, surly 13 year-old white boy who lives down the street. The children form an awkward friendship, in an attempt to survive the increasingly menacing forces threatening them from inside their own homes."

Spoon Lake Blues by Josh Tobiessen
Director: Kyle Donnelly
Performances: Sat., July 18 at 8:15 pm; Sun., July 19 at 3:15 pm
CAST: Michelle Beck*, Scott Drummond*, Ryan King*, and Makela Spielman*.
*member of Actors' Equity Association

"In an attempt to save their family home from a constant barrage of debt collectors, two brothers, Denis and Brady, start robbing the homes of their rich neighbors in the quickly gentrifying mountain town of Spoon Lake. Everything is going according to plan until Brady develops a crush on Caitlin, a young African American college student whose wealthy family Denis and Brady robbed The Day Before. While Caitlin immediately takes pity on the brothers' dire situation her attempts to help out the locals end up causing problems of their own."

All schedules and artists subject to change. Please call the O'Neill Box Office at 860-443-1238 or visit http://www.theoneill.org 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, is the pre-eminent center for the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. It 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 productions at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, off-Broadway and major regional theaters. The O'Neill has received a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. The O'Neill's programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, National Critics Institute, and the 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, a National Historic Landmark and the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill. For more information regarding the Center, please visit the O'Neill website at www.theoneill.org or call 860-443-5378.

 

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