Works by James McLindon, David West Read, Anne Washburn, et al. Set for O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center announced the seven plays that will be developed at the 2010 National Playwrights Conference (NPC), running July 9 – 31. In addition to the seven plays, the Center has also announced that Alfred Uhry, Chris D’Arienzo, and Yaroslava Pulinovich will be writers-in-residence this summer

The Playwrights Conference will begin with Kathryn Walat’s Creation (July 9-10), which focuses on an evolutionary biologist who suddenly develops an obsession for music. David West Read’s The Dream of the Burning Boy, about an English teacher who is trying to move on after the sudden death of a popular student, will follow, July 16-17.

Also on the conference schedule are Dominique Morisseau’s Follow Me to Nellie’s (July 16-17), about a blues singer in 1955 Mississippi; Molly Smith Metzler’s Close Up Space (July 21-22), about a book editor coping with his daughter’s recent expulsion from boarding school; and Carrie Barrett’s The Burden of Not Having a Tail (July 23-24), about a disastrous preparation drill.

The NPC will be rounded-out with Anne Washburn’s A Devil at Noon, which centers on a science fiction writer living in the bad part of Berkeley, California in a slightly imaginary 1981; and James McLindon’s Comes a Faery, about a little girl who’s visited by a cantankerous Irish fairy while her mother has been deployed overseas.

Casting and creative teams for the pieces, which will be offered in concert readings, will be announced shortly.

For further information, visit: www.theoneill.org.