About This Show
Take a seat in America’s premiere theatre laboratory – where writers of new plays, music theater, film, television and cabaret works join with professional actors, directors, and designers on a creative journey of discovery and collaboration. At the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, you will sit side by side with distinguished playwrights, composers, and lyricists, as they see and hear their latest projects come to life.
Playwrights Conference
Cradle of Man by Melanie Marnich, directed by Michael John Garcés
When two American couples meet near Olduvai Gorge, the birthplace of mankind, their comedic, romantic, and existential crises are exposed. Bodies come together while lives fall apart to reveal the anthropology and evolution of the human heart. Anything is possible, and survival of the fittest means only the strongest couple survives.
Antebellum, by Robert O’Hara, directed by Carey Perloff
On the evening of the world premiere of Gone with the Wind, a woman shows up on a farm outside Atlanta while a world away, a man shows up in a detention center outside Berlin, and a romance unfolds.
Snake Tank, by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg
Set in a small town in Iowa, Snake Tank is the story of a social worker who becomes embroiled in one family’s problems at the expense of her own objectivity.
Durango, by Julia Cho, directed by Chay Yew
A single father takes his two sons on a road trip through the desert Southwest. As the trip goes on longer than planned, secrets are spilled, revelations are made, and all three realize nothing will ever be the same.
Great Falls, by Lee Blessing, directed by Lucie Tiberghien
A man makes a mistake. A woman compounds it. Are families really disposable?
Rearviewmirror, by Eric Winick, directed by Carl Forsman
With your soul, self-esteem, and reputation on the line, how far would you go to fit in? In this modern-day Bacchae set in an outdoor rock festival, three disaffected twenty-somethings embark on a desperate search for artistic and spiritual fulfillment. A sexy, disturbing, 21st century-style meditation on religion and its many guises.
Norman Rockwell Killed My Father, by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Jeremy Cohen
A young artist journeys home to the family trailer in rural Idaho, desperate to reconcile himself to his estranged family. But as they soon learn, his obsession with Norman Rockwell goes far beyond artistic admiration.
The Importance of Being Orson, by Jessica Cooke, directed by Joe Grifasi
In 1931, a teenage Orson Welles persuades Hilton Edwards and his lover Micheál MacLíammóir to let him play Hamlet in their Dublin theater, The Gate. Orson blows apart the fragile relationship between Hilton, Micheál, and their favorite actress Meriel, but cannot master Hamlet without facing his own dead father.
Nixon’s Daughters, written & performed by Jacqueline Brogan, directed by Julie Kramer
It’s the summer of 1974. Even though nine year-old Maddie voted for McGovern in her school election, she still feels sorry for Nixon’s daughters. But it’s going to be a good summer anyway. Maddie’s best friend and baby-sitter, thirteen year-old Stephanie, has promised to teach her all about boys. A darkly comic, finely drawn character study of one American family’s unraveling during the Watergate era.
Music Theater Conference
Blood Drive: A Musical Triptych, by Rachel Sheinkin, Music by Joel Derfner
Three interrelated musical short stories exploring connections made and missed. Through a blood donation, an employment application, and a special TV offer, characters seeking transformation encounter the miraculous in the mundane.
In the Heights, music & lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, book by Quiara Alegria Hudes
An original hip-hop-salsa-merengue musical about two days in the life of Washington Heights, a vibrant immigrant neighborhood at the top of Manhattan. From the vantage point of Usnavi’s corner bodega, we experience the joys, heartbreaks, and bonds of a community. The eclectic Latin music reflects the rhythm of three generations as they struggle to define home.
Willy & Rupert, book & lyrics by Dina Gregory, music by Sam Piperato
Two eccentric lives, one extraordinary friendship, and an ambitious quest: to secure a place in The London Times obituaries. Willy & Rupert’s mid-life existential crisis propels them into all manner of misadventures and forms the story of this poignant comedy with a big heart and a simple message: it’s not what you achieve in life that matters most, but with whom you share it.