New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to Celebrate the O'Neill's 50 Years with Talkback Series, Summer 2014

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, in partnership with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, presents a series of conversation to coincide with the Library's public exhibition on the O'Neill, "Launchpad of the American Theater: The O'Neill since 1964." The three programs -- May 29, June 19, and August 7 -- are held in The Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Auditorium and are free and open to the public.

Says Preston Whiteway, Executive Director: "The O'Neill is a launchpad for new work and new careers, and has been since our founding in 1964. These three fascinating evenings will explore not only our immense legacy of work, but our continuing and vital evolution to serve the artist."

50 Years Later: The Developmental Path to Production
Thurs., May 29 | 6pm

George C. White (Founder, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference; Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director of Manhattan Theater Club; and O'Neill alumni playwrights John Guare (House of Blue Leaves, NPC 1966), Samuel D. Hunter (A Great Wilderness, NPC 2013 & Norman Rockwell Killed My Father, NPC 2005) and Quiara Alegría Hudes (The Happiest Song Plays Last, NPC 2011 & In The Heights, NMTC 2005).

The O'Neill was created at the dawn of the regional theater movement to support the development of new theater. Through trial and error, the Center invented the signature "O'Neill process" - a four-week retreat for top theater processionals culminating in public, staged readings of early draft plays. Special alumni guests deconstruct that process, and share how it changed the trajectory of their careers and the American theater at large.

Thanks to the O'Neill: A Tribute to the National Theater Institute
Thurs., June 19 | 6pm

Rachel Jett, Artistic Director of the National Theater Institute, moderator

Special Alumni Guests TBA

Thousands of actors, writers, and directors found a launchpad in the O'Neill's National Theater Institute. The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center offers six intensive credit-earning semesters taught by industry professionals and has given rise to award-winning artists. In a conversation moderated by Artistic Director Rachel Jett, special guests share memories of their time at NTI and how it shaped their career and craft. The discussion will be followed by audience Q&A.

Capturing American Theater History: Writing the Story of the O'Neill
Thurs., Aug 7 | 6pm

Jeffrey Sweet, Author, "The O'Neill: The Transformation of Modern American Theater"

Preston Whiteway, Executive Director, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

Since its founding in 1964, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has shaped the course of the American and world theater, creating standard practices and discovering new artists and new work in every discipline. How does one capture that in a single book? Author Jeffrey Sweet and Executive Director Preston Whiteway share their experience co-authoring the recently published book (Yale University Press), noting favorite stories & anecdotes recorded along the way.

The exhibition "Launchpad of the American Theater: The O'Neill since 1964" is free and open to the public until September 16 at The Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center. For more information, visit www.nypl.org/lpa.

About the O'Neill: Founded in 1964, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for American theater. In the bold tradition of its namesake 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 to more than 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.

Recipient of a 2010 Tony Award for Regional Theatre and 1979 Tony Award for Theatrical Excellence, 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 (NTI). NTI offers intensive theater training programs for academic credit, including the Moscow Art Theater Semester (MATS), a semester of study abroad, and six-week summer program, Theatermakers.

The O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark. For more information about the O'Neill, visit www.theoneill.org.

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