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October 29, 2004|Volume 33, Number 9



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Performance at Long Wharf marks
launch of O'Neill at Yale project

Playwright and Yale alumnus A.R. Gurney DRA '58 will be honored on Monday, Nov. 1, with a performance of his most recent play, "Mrs. Farnsworth," starring another former School of Drama student, Sigourney Weaver.

The performance, which will take place at 7 p.m. at the Long Wharf Theatre, marks both Gurney's birthday and the launch of the O'Neill Studio at Yale. The event is free to members of the Yale community, but seating is limited. To reserve a seat, contact Patricia Willis at (203) 432-2962 or via e-mail at patricia.willis@yale.edu.

"Mrs. Farnsworth" is currently running off-Broadway at The Flea, where it is directed by Jim Simpson and produced by Carol Ostrow, both Yale alumni. In the play, the title character -- portrayed by Weaver -- writes an autobiographical story that features a man with whom she was romantically linked at Yale. Her creative writing instructor identifies the character in the story as George W. Bush.

Gurney, who recently donated his papers to the Beinecke Library, has retained his connection to the University through his involvement in O'Neill at Yale. Among his many works are "The Dining Room," "The Cocktail Hour," "Love Letters" and "Sylvia." He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Weaver has appeared in such films as "Ghost Busters," "Alien," "The Ice Storm," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Holes" and "The Village." She is also a film producer.


The new O'Neill Studio

The O'Neill Studio in New Haven and New York is part of the O'Neill at Yale project, which is under the auspices of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Gurney has made public appearances, mentored and taught a master class for O'Neill at Yale since the project was established in 1996. It invites students and faculty from the School of Drama, the theater studies department, the Yale Dramatic Association and the New Haven Public Schools to perform the plays of Eugene O'Neill, as well as to write and produce new works based on them. The Yale students and New Haven schoolchildren work collaboratively on the productions, which are shown at the Long Wharf Theatre.

Through the O'Neill Studio in New Haven and New York, Yale alumni based in New York, current students, affiliates of the Playwrights Theater and New Haven youth will write new works through a "chain of mentorship." As a condition of membership in the O'Neill Studio, Yale alumni and students will agree to mentor New Haven children via e-mail and in-person sessions on the Yale campus.

The collaborative script development process will culminate in the new Eugene O'Neill playwriting competition, an annual event in which winners will be selected in three categories: Yale alumni, current Yale students and New Haven youth. The winners in each division will receive a New York production at the NYC Provincetown Playhouse and at Yale. Alumni of the University will perform and stage the new plays.

The competition will require playwrights to write new two-person, one-act plays built on scenes from classic plays, something for which Gurney himself is well known, most notably with his comedy "Another Antigone." The competition celebrates Eugene O'Neill -- who wrote such works as "Mourning Becomes Electra" and "Orestia" -- as a bridge between the European masters and American modern playwrights. In line with the classical theme of the competition, the audience will judge the contest after the fashion of playwriting competitions in ancient Greece.

O'Neill at Yale was founded by Stephen Kennedy Murphy, artistic director of the project, and Patricia Willis, the curator of the Beinecke Library's American Literature Collection. Murphy also founded the Playwrights Theater with Arthur Gelb, a noted biographer of O'Neill and former managing editor of The New York Times.

The Long Wharf Theatre is located at 222 Sargent Dr. in New Haven.


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