(IN THIS ISSUE)

NEWS, NOTES, LETTERS AND QUERIES

1. SPEAKERS AND TOPICS AT MARCH 1984 CONFERENCE.

The editor's foreword lists a number of activities that occupied participants at the March conference on "Eugene O'Neill--the Early Years," but space did not permit mention there of the centerpiece of the event--29 papers, divided into nine thematically related sessions, that filled the daytime hours on Thursday and Friday, March 22-23. The following is a list of sessions, with each's moderator, speakers and titles. (Participants' academic affiliations, etc., are available in the conference program. Page 2's foreword tells how to obtain a copy.)

A. O'Neill's Earliest Plays. (Moderator: Frederick C. Wilkins.)

Paul D. Voelker, "Biography, Autobiography and Artistry in A Wife for a Life."
R. Viswanathan, "Smith, Jones & Mowgli: Kipling's Jungle Books and O'Neill."
Thomas P. Adler, "Beyond Synge: O'Neill's Anna Christie."

B. O'Neill and the Isms, I. (Moderator: Steven F. Bloom.)

Frank R. Cunningham, "Romantic Elements in the Early O'Neill."
Brenda Murphy, "O'Neill's Early Experiments with Realistic Form."
Albert Bermel, "Ah, Wilderness! as Comedy (?): O'Neill's Vitriolic Valentine."

C. Reactions at Home and Abroad. (Moderator: Marta Sienicka.)

Jordan Miller, "From Nobody to the Nobel: Two Decades of American O'Neill Criticism." Edward L. Shaughnessy, "O'Neill's Early Plays in Ireland."
Ward B. Lewis, "O'Neill and Hauptmann: A Study in Mutual Admiration."
Liu Haiping, "O'Neill in China."

D. O'Neill and America. (Moderator: Phyllis T. Dircks.)

Joyce Flynn, "O'Neill, Paul Green and the American History Play." Michael Hinden, "O'Neill and American History."
Yasuko Ikeuchi, "O'Neill and America: A Shared Adolescence. A Study of The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape."
Susan H. Tuck, "White Dreams, Black Nightmares: All God's Chillun Got Wings and Faulkner's Light in August."

E. Provincetown Insights. (Moderator: Richard J. Dircks.)

Gary J. Williams, "Turned Down in Provincetown: O'Neill's Debut Reexamined." Robert K. Sarlos, "Dionysus in Provincetown."

F. Ideas and Influences on Early O'Neill. (Moderator: Edward L. Shaughnessy.)

Gerald L. Ratliff, "O'Neill: The Religious Impulse, 1914-1924."
Michael Manheim, "O'Neill's Early Debt to David Belasco."
John G. Peters, "Ghosts and Guilt: Mourning Becomes Electra and a Mythic Tradition."
Warren J. Maclsaac," 'Enemy Brothers': Mimetic Desire in the Plays of O'Neill."

G. From Sea to Stage. (Moderator: Kristin Morrison.)

R. Viswanathan, "O'Neill and the Sea Play."
Marc Maufort, "O'Neill's Innovative Craftsmanship in the Glencairn Cycle."
Esther M. Jackson, "Dramatic Form in The Calms of Capricorn."

H. Work Diaries and Letters. (Moderator: Steven F. Bloom.)

Virginia Floyd, "O'Neill at Work: 'A Pen in Trust to Art.'"
Travis Bogard, "First Love: O'Neill and Boutade."
Jackson R. Bryer and Travis Bogard, "The Epistolary O'Neill: Editorial Observations."

I. O'Neill and the Isms, II. (Moderator: Paul D. Voelker.)

Richard Hornby, "O'Neill's Metadrama."
Yvonne Shafer, "O'Neill and the American Expressionists."
Haskell Block, "O'Neill and European Expressionism: A Reappraisal."

2. OF DOUGH AND DOCUMENTATION: ADVANCE WORD ON THE NEWSLETTER IN 1985. Two changes will occur when the Newsletter reaches Volume IX in the spring of 1985. The first is the subscription price, which must rise (for the first time since 1979) to cover escalating expenses. The new rates will be $10.00 for all individual subscriptions, and $15.00 for all institutional subscriptions, wherever the subscriber's place of residence. The editor regrets having to up the ante, but promises that increasing size (the Newsletter's, not his own!), continuing quality and new format and production features will keep the Newsletter a bargain, even at its augmented price. The second change will be the uniform adoption of the new MLA documentation style as described on p. 13 of the Fall 1983 MLA Newsletter and exemplified in this issue's essay by Louis Sheaffer. In brief, the format is this: purely documentary references will appear, not in foot-notes, but in parentheses within the text, and will refer to a List of Works Cited at essay's end. Footnotes will be used solely for additional comments, tangential or other. Full explanation of the new style is or will soon be available in two 1984 publications--the MLA Manual for Scholars and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. (Remember: the 1984 editions of both.) Ibid. and its ilk, I'm afraid, are out, unless a groundswell of epistolary protest forces a cancellation of the change. If it does not, submissions complying with the new MLA guidelines will have the best chance of acceptance. (P.S. I'll send a copy of the MLA Newsletter page to any requester.) --FCW.

3. PUBLICATION NOTES. (Problems of space, time and editorial energy prevent the inclusion of book reviews and abstracts in this issue. Readers--and authors--are promised that all here-mentioned works accompanied by the comment "see next issue" will be reviewed or summarized in the Summer-Fall issue.

a. Tom J. A. Olsson, O'Neill och Dramaten (Stockholm: Akademilitteratur, 1977). In Swedish with English summary. An illustrated study, with many illustrations, of the reception and production of O'Neill's plays in Sweden, especially at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. (See next issue.)

b. John Lahr, "Eugene O'Neill," in Automatic Vaudeville (New York: Knopf, 1984), pp. 63-88. Psycho-study of the playwright's "courtship of oblivion," etc. Not an essential purchase for O'Neillians. (See next issue.)

c. Horst Frenz and Susan Tuck, eds., Eugene O'Neill's Critics: Voices from Abroad (Carbondale: Southern Illinois U. Press, 1984). A marvelous collection of 30 pieces, spanning 1922-1980, by 26 writers from 17 countries. (See next issue.)

d. Beongcheon Yu, "O'Neill," in The Great Circle: American Writers and the Orient (Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 1983), pp. 141-158. (See next issue.)

e. Frederic I. Carpenter, Eugene O'Neill (Boston: Twayne Publishers, a Division of G. K. Hall & Co.) The revised edition of Professor Carpenter's major study, reviewed when it first appeared in 1979, is now available in paperback for $5.95. A bargain, and a splendid adjunct text for O'Neill courses.

f. A supplement to Jackson Bryer's Sixteen Modern American Authors, for which John Henry Raleigh is updating the O'Neill bibliography, is in the works. (The volume will be "reviewed" when it appears.) I hope that Prof. Raleigh won't think me too execrable for quoting from his recent letter: "For this task, I went through the whole file of the Eugene O'Neill Newsletter and want to congratulate you on putting out a useful, lively and entertaining journal. And, as you must know, the number of articles on O'Neill has gone up considerably since the journal's inception." Many thanks. That's especially nice to hear after the recently published MLA Bibliography for 1982 included nothing from the Newsletter in its O'Neill listings!

g. Gary Jay Williams has completed a book-length manuscript entitled "This Stage of Our Lives: The Provincetown Players and Eugene O'Neill." Two articles of his, on the Players and the Experimental Theatre, Inc., will be included in the forthcoming Eugene O'Neill Companion, ed. Margaret L. Ranald. Both are byproducts of research for the longer manuscript, whose publication (like that of the Companion) will be announced in a future issue.

h. "The Mirror as Stage Prop in Modern Drama," by Thomas P. Adler, is one of the essays included in Drama in the Twentieth Century: Comparative and Critical Essays, published this spring by AMH Press, Inc., as Part 11 of the AMS Studies in Modern Literature series. The volume, clothbound, sells for $27.50.

4. RECENT (AND OTHER) ARTICLES, BOOKS AND CHAPTERS IN BOOKS. (Again, a parenthetical "see next issue" indicates that a description or abstract will appear in the Summer-Fall Newsletter.)

Anthony, Geraldine, S.C. "Eugene O'Neill and Maxwell Anderson: Controversial Experimentalists." Canadian Review of American Studies, 13 (Fall 1982), 231-243.

Apseloff, Stanford S. "Eugene O'Neill: An Early Letter." Resources for American Literary Study, 11 (Spring 1981), 109-111. (See next issue.)

Cooley, John R. Savages and Naturals: Black Portraits by White Writers in Modern American Literature. Newark: Delaware U. Press, 1982. (Emp. Jones discussed on pp. 59-72.)

Dutta, Ujjal. "The Iceman Cometh: O'Neill's Theatre of Alien Vision." Journal of the Department of English (Calcutta U.), 17 (1981-82), 72-78.

Eben, Michael C. "Georg Kaiser's Von morgens bis Mitternachts and Eugene O'Neill's
Emperor Jones: Affinities in Flight." In Pausch, Holger A. and Ernest Reinhold,
eds., Georg Kaiser: eine Aufsatzsammlung nach einem Symposium in Edmonton, Kanada
(Berlin: Agora, 1980), pp. 263-276.

Egri, Péter. "'Belonging' Lost: Alienation and Dramatic Form in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape." Acta Litteraria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (cited below as ALASH), 24 (1982), 157-190.

Egri, Péter. "The Genetic and Generic Aspects of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage." ALASH, 22 (1980), 333-348. (O'Neill-related in its comparison [on pp. 345-346] of Crane's 17th chapter and Orin Mannon's war experiences as re-counted in Part Two of Mourning Becomes Electra, Act III. Orin's and Henry Fleming's stories at that point are strikingly similar.)

Egri, Péter. "The Plight of War and the Predicament of Revolution: Eugene O'Neill's The Personal Equation." ALASH, 23 (1981), 249-260.

Frenz, Horst. "Eugene O'Neill and the European Connection." In Literary Communication and Reception..., ed. Zoran Konstantinovic et al. (Innsbruck: AMOE, 1980), pp. 385-390.

Frenz, Horst. "Marco Millions, O'Neill's Chinese Experience and Chinese Drama." Comparative Lit. Studies, 18 (1981), 362-367.

Gillespie, Michael. "Eugene O'Neill: The Theatrical Quest." Claudel Studies, 9 (1982), 43-51.

Goldhurst, William. "Misled by a Box: Variations on a Theme From Poe." Clues: A Journal of Detection (Spring/Summer 1982), pp. 31-37. (Poe's "The Oblong Box" as an influence on, among other works, O'Neill's "In the Zone.") (See next issue.)

Grimm, Reinhold. "A Note on O'Neill, Nietzsche, and Naturalism: Long Day's Journey Into Night in European Perspective." Modern Drama, 26 (Sept. 1983), 331-334. (See next issue.)

Higgs, Robert J. Laurel & Thorn: The Athlete in American Literature. Lexington: Kentucky U. Press, 1981. (Pp. 55-62 treat Gordon Shaw in Strange Interlude.)

Norton, Elliot. "30 years later, a look at Eugene O'Neill's long journey into night." Boston Sunday Globe (Nov. 27, 1983), pp. 85, 89. (Moving account of the playwright's sad last days.) (See next issue.)

Oku, Yasuko. "An Analysis of the Fourth Act of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night: Mainly His Application of the Comic Perspective." Studies in English Literature (Tokyo), 58 (1982), 43-61.

Orr, John. Tragic Drama and Modern Society. London: Macmillan, 1981. ("Eugene O'Neill I: The Living Tragedy," pp. 165-182; "Eugene O'Neill II: The Life Remembered," pp. 183-205.) (See next issue.)

Oswald, Josef. The Discordant, Broken, Faithless Rhythm of Our Time: eine Analyse der spaten Dramen Eugene O'Neills. Frankfurt: Bern, 1981.

Snyder, Phillip A. "A Wanderer's Tether: The Meaning of Home in O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! and Long Day's Journey Into Night." Encyclia: Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 57 (1980), 103-109.

Strickland, Edward. "Baudelaire's 'Portraits de maîtresses' and O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh." Romance Notes, 22 (Spring 1982), 291-294.

5. CONTENTS OF IMMINENT BOOKS ON O'NEILL. Critical Essays on Eugene O'Neill, ed. James J. Martine, will be published in September by G. K. Hall. The contents of the book are listed below (left). All who know Prof. Martine's Critical Essays on Arthur Miller, and notice a number of Newsletter regulars among the included authors, will recognize that the book promises to be an important one. ISBN 0-8161-8683-9. Price: $28.50 (export, $30.50), approx. 208 pp. A review will appear here after publication.

6. CLASSROOM KUDOS--O'NEILL MULTIPLY FETED AT BYU. A three-p award (for praiseworthy pedagogic practice) goes to Jean Anne Waterstradt, Professor of English
at Brigham Young Univ., whose efforts during 1983's fall semester drew much attention to O'Neill in Provo, Utah, during the season of his 95th birthday. The members of her biennial O'Neill seminar, comprising majors in English, theatre arts and computer science and ranging from Honors Program freshmen to graduate students, wrote two papers each which underwent peer evaluation, leading to the selection of one by each to be delivered at a commemorative symposium on November 17. She was then able to secure funding from the BYU Honors Program to have all the papers printed, by the English Department's Word Processing Center, as a 101-page "Class Journal," a handsome publication whose imminence clearly inspired the students to exercise their critical and literary powers to the full. (One paper, on Mourning Becomes Electra, was delivered by its author, John G. Peters, at the Boston conference last March.) The cover, created by Kathy Hallock, a freshman in Computer Science who was confronting O'Neill for the first time, is reproduced above (right). At my suggestion, Prof. Waterstradt has agreed to send a copy of the publication to any requester who provides name and address and a check or money order (to the English Dept., BYU) for $6.00 to cover copying and postage. Her address is 3128 JKHB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. Congratulations to Prof. Waterstradt for devising a project most worthy of emulation! --FCW.

7. O'NEILL AT NEMLA '84. On March 29, members of the Northeast Modern Language Association braved an intense winter storm to attend the Association's annual convention in Philadelphia, where, for the first time, a session was devoted exclusively to O'Neill. Chaired by James J. Martine (St. Bonaventure U.) with Jackson R. Bryer (U. of Mary-land) as Secretary, the session featured four papers dealing with O'Neill's oeuvre from literary, theatrical and biographical perspectives.

In "Jung, Masks and The Great God Brown," Joseph S. Tedesco (St. Bonaventure U.) argued that O'Neill's use of masks in Brown reflects a Jungian perspective on the human personality and its development, especially as seen in the central character(s) of Dion Anthony/Billy Brown.

Ellen Kimbel (Penn State U.-Ogontz), in "O'Neill Visits Middle America: A Reading of Ah, Wilderness!," contended that the play should be read and (more important) staged with full attention to its comic insights into the mores of "middle America," illustrating her contention with examples of the "lighter" domestic picture the play presents.

Steven F. Bloom (Emmanuel Coll.) offered "Drinking and Drunkenness in The Iceman Cometh: A Response to Mary McCarthy," in which he detailed the extent to which McCarthy erred, in her review of the original production, in criticizing O'Neill for not portraying drunkenness accurately. In fact, Bloom argued, the behavior of the alcoholics is largely responsible for the play's emotional impact.

In "Eugene O'Neill in the Far West," Travis Bogard (U. Cal.-Berkeley) illustrated through informative and amusing passages from the playwright's correspondence that, while O'Neill wrote most of the important late plays on the west coast, he remained an easterner in heart and mind, as is so clearly evident in the plays themselves.

In addition, Prof. Bryer described his and Prof. Bogard's current project--searching for, and indexing by computer, all of O'Neill's correspondence--and issued a plea (as he had in Boston a week earlier) for leads from anyone who knows of letters the team may not have examined.

8. O'NEILL AT NEMLA '85: A CALL FOR PAPERS. Good news: after this year's auspicious debut, an O'Neill session will be an annual feature of NEMLA conventions hereafter. Jackson Bryer will chair the session at the March 27-29, 1985 convention in Hartford. It will be an "open" session (no set topic), and Prof. Bryer welcomes 20-minute papers, which should be sent to him at the Dept. of English, U. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. While the topic is open, the deadline is not: papers should reach him by September 15th.

9. O'NEILL AT ATA IN AUGUST. Three sessions at this year's American Theatre Association Convention in San Francisco will be of particular interest to O'Neillians:

"What Is American About the American Drama?" Chair: Paul D. Voelker. Panelists: Travis Bogard, Gerald Bordman, John Henry Raleigh and William Reardon. Sunday, August 12, 8:00-9:30 p.m.

"The Puritan Influence in Representative American Plays: O'Neill, Miller, Shepard." Chair: Alvin J. Keller. Speakers: Michael L. Greenwald, Jerry V. Pickering and Shelly Regenbaum. Monday, August 13, 8:00-9:30 p.m.

"Directing Ibsen, Molière and O'Neill." Chair: Linda Burson. Speakers: Allen Fletcher, Charles Metten and Jerry Turner. Tuesday, August 14, 6:00-9:30 p.m.

A report on the proceedings (by Paul Voelker) will appear in a subsequent issue of the Newsletter. Information about the convention is available from ATA headquarters, 1010 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007.

10. O'NEILL SESSION AT MLA '84. The special session on Eugene O'Neill at next December's MLA convention in Washington, D.C., moderated by O'Neill Society president Albert Wertheim, has as its subject "The Possessors Dispossessed." No list of chosen speakers and titles has as yet been received by the Newsletter, but the grapevine indicates that the program will include papers by Martha Bower and Susan Tuck. More information, if any arrives, next time.

11. LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

Flushing, New York
January 22, 1984

Dear Professor Wilkins:

Thanks very much for reprinting "Tomorrow" [Winter 1983, pp. 3-13]. I've been looking forward for a number of years to having the pleasure of reading the story and now, not only have I read it, but thanks to you I also have a copy of it.

I saw the Roundabout's production of Ah, Wilderness! [See report in Winter 1983 issue, p. 31.] Another flaw besides Scott Burkholder as Richard was Robert Nichols' performance as Sid. In the dinner scene Nichols was stumbling and bumbling about the stage and slamming walls at times. I have never seen the Sid drunk scene played this way before. Another major flaw was cutting part of the Red Sisk story--they stopped about halfway through and as a result Sid's punch line fell flat (I don't know if the story was cut or the actor blew the scene). There were some good performances in the production, however. Both Philip Bosco (who didn't "look" like Nat Miller but won me over with his performance) and Dody Goodman [as Essie] were good, and I thought that Jean Hackett's Belle was especially fine.

Sincerely,
John J. Virtes

12. A QUERY FROM THE E. O. SOCIETY SECRETARY. Jordan Miller, returning home from the Boston conference with the names and membership forms of the many new and renewing members who signed and paid up at that time, discovered $20 for which he could not account. If you paid him $20 in Boston, drop him a line (at English Dept., U. of R. I., Kingston, RI, 02881) in case it's your $20 that went astray!

13. IN MEMORIAM. George H. "Pat" Quinby, director of dramatics at Bowdoin College for 31 years until his retirement in 1966, died in Brunswick, ME, on Sunday, May 27, at the age of 83. A multi-year member of the Eugene O'Neill Society and loyal supporter of the Newsletter, he described the experience of directing O'Neill in Iran (including The Straw), in the September 1977 issue (pp. 10-12), and he later let me reprint his prize-winning undergraduate oration (of 1923) on O'Neill as "Humanitarian Playwright," along with O'Neill's previously unpublished letter responding to the oration (September 1978 issue, pp. 8-12). Since I am a fellow Bowdoin alumnus, who learned some-thing of theatre's wonder when acting under Pat's direction, the loss is personal as well as professional.

14. WHAT'S IN A NAME? Thanks to Michael Billington for pointing out, in his Manchester Guardian Weekly review of the London production of Strange Interlude (April 22), a significance in the protagonist's name that probably everybody but the editor knew already: "It is the story of one woman ... and her possession of three men: Nina leads and others follow." (Italics mine.) He should also be thanked for pointing out the oft-forgotten fact that Eugene O'Neill "was a very funny writer."

15. MEMORABLE MOTS. Often, hidden in periodical reviews of individual productions, are more general comments that deserve remembering. The M. M. section, herewith inaugurated, will try to assist such propagation. This time, two--the first from the above-mentioned review by Michael Billington:

O'Neill was that rare writer: one who detects mankind's absurdity without forfeiting his compassion.

The second is from Richard Schickel's review of the new Broadway Moon for the Misbegotten in Time (May 14, 1984, p. 75):

Eugene O'Neill was, supremely, a vernacular poet who found his most haunting rhythms in the profoundly mixed emotions of his characters, his most memorably dissonant sonorities in the muddled motives with which they confront memory, fate and each other.

Submissions are welcomed for future installments. Please include full documentation.

16. A CENTENNIAL SUGGESTION. Mr. Schickel's comment resurrected a thought I'd had when attending, on May 7th, the dedication of an American "Poets' Corner" in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. (And quite an event it was, with Walter Cronkite, the Master of Ceremonies, noting that the assembled were present at the making of history--sort of a literal "You Are There"; and with Robert Penn Warren, Gregory Peck and Edgar Bowers reading work by the first three memorialized poets--respectively, Walt Whitman, Washington Irving and Emily Dickinson.) Three writers will be similarly honored annually hereafter, and it occurred to me that, since the honorees need not be technically or primarily poets, Eugene O'Neill would be an ideal candidate for inclusion among the three to be selected in 1988. I intend to make that suggestion to Daniel Haberman, the Cathedral Poet-in-Residence, and I urge anyone who shares my sentiments to do the same. O'Neill will receive many official encomia in his centennial year, but few if any will address his gifts as "supremely, a vernacular poet." This one would, and would serve as a shining refutation of those who, like John Lahr, drone on about his "tin ear for the spoken word." Letters to Mr. Haberman can be addressed to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Cathedral Heights, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street, New York, NY 10025 (tel. 212-753-5966). I plan to propose, at its next meeting in December, that the O'Neill Society make an official proposal to the Cathedral's Committee of Electors; but every letter that is sent, every voice that is raised, will contribute to the cause. --FCW.

17. RECENT AND FORTHCOMING PRODUCTIONS.

Ah, Wilderness!, dir. Cicely Thomson. Alumnae Theatre, Toronto, March 22 - April 7, 1984. (Paul Voelker found the production "equally as good as the Milwaukee Rep production [of the late '70's]. You would have to go to a regional theatre in this country to find work that good.")

Desire Under the Elms, dir. Terry Schreiber. Roundabout Theatre Company (Stage One), New York City, March 20 - June 3, 1984. (Reviewed in this issue.)

Desire Under the Elms, dir. Balwant Gargi. East-West Fusion Theatre, Center for East-West Studies, Sharon, CT (one block from the Sharon Playhouse), opening in mid-June, 1984, after extended rehearsals beginning in May. It is perhaps unfair to single-out particular future productions as especially worthy of attention, but sometimes personal enthusiasm cracks the cool editorial facade, and this is such a time. Mr. Gargi is a renowned director from New Delhi, India, who has worked with such fellow craftsmen as Jerzy Grotowski and spent the past academic year as a guest professor at Vassar. But what is appealing about the project is not so much the director's credentials as the fact that this production of Desire will be set in a Punjabi village! A chance to test the universality of O'Neill's own transplantation of classical legend--purty irresistible--and I hope to get to Sharon to review it. Others who are interested can call (203) 364-5220 or (during daytime hours) 364-0081, or write to EWFT's Artistic Director, Teviot Pourchot, P.O. Box 141, Sharon, CT 06069.

The Emperor Jones, dir. Donald McKayle, with music by Coleridge Taylor Perkinson. In repertory as part of the American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia, PA, June 23 - July 15, 1984.

The Emperor Jones, dir. & choreographed by Donald McKayle with James Earl Jones and the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble. Part of Pepsico Summerfare at SUNY-Purchase. Performance dates: July 18-22 and 25-29. For information, call (914) 253-5900.

The Great God Brown, dir. David Wheeler. Laurie Theater, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, April 11-15, 1984. (Reviewed in this issue.)

Hughie, dir. Tom McDermott. One Act Theatre Company, San Francisco, March 23 - May 5, 1984.

Hughie, with Jason Robards and Jack Dodson, dir. for television by Terry Hughes, based on the stage direction of Jose Quintero. Aired on Public Television's "American Playhouse" series, May 1, 1984, after appearing earlier on a pay-cable channel, Showtime. Splendid performances by both players. (How could it be otherwise? Robards has been playing Erie Smith for twenty years, and Dodson has had an aptitude for vacancy since his Mayberry days with Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea!) But the performance is less than one could wish, given the medium. Here was the chance--with voice-overs, visual innovation and really effective sound--to give the script the cinematization it calls for. Unfortunately, the performance was filmed on stage (before what is now, disturbingly, called a "live audience"), so extra-theatrical experimentation was out. But what acting! Bless all concerned for preserving it for many audiences--not yet "live"! --FCW.

Long Day's Journey Into Night, dir. Dorothy Neumann. Warehouse Rep, Source Theater, Washington, D.C. Closed on April 15, 1984.

Long Day's Journey Into Night, dir. Margaret Booker. Intiman Theatre, Seattle, WA, June 8 - July 7, 1984.

Long Day's Journey Into Night. Announced as part of the four-play summer season of the Gateway Players, Wareham, MA. For information, call (617) 295-6768 or 295-4767.

Long Day's Journey Into Night, dir. Arvin Brown and starring Geraldine Fitzgerald. Announced as part of the exciting 1984-85 season at the Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT. A must-see reunion of two great O'Neillians that will be reviewed in a future issue of the Newsletter. For schedule and subscription information, call (203) 787-4284.

Une Lune pour les Déshérités (A Moon for the Misbegotten), performed by the Compagnie Laurence Fevrier at the Maison des Arts Andre Malraux, Paris, France, January 10-28, 1984, in the translation of Maurice Goldring and Jacqueline Autrusseau.

A Moon for the Misbegotten, dir. David Leveaux. American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA, December 9, 1983 - January 29, 1984. Subsequently transferred to the Cort Theater, New York City, opening May 1, after previews beginning April 9. (The Cambridge manifestation is reviewed in this issue.)

Take Me Along, dir. Geraldine Fitzgerald and Mike Malone, Richard Allen Center at Manhattan Community College Arts Center, New York City, March 8-25, 1984. (An all-black revival of the 1959 musical version of Ah, Wilderness! with music and lyrics by Robert Merrill and book by Joseph Stein and Robert Russell, here revised and adapted by C. T. Perkinson. Reviewed in the New York Times, April 4, 1984, p. C24, by John S. Wilson.)

Take Me Along. Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, CT. Opens Sept. 12 for extended run.

A Touch of the Poet, dir. Yvonne Ghareeb. Equity Library Theater, New York City, April 12-29, 1984. (Richard F. Shepard, reviewing the production in the New York Times [April 17, p. C13], praised the direction, the set by Dennis Bradford, and the performances of Gerald J. Quimby, Helen-Jean Arthur and Kay Walbye, the father, mother and daughter who provided "an admirably talented response to the poetry and storminess of a script that is far too lengthy and often too repetitious to keep audience members riveted to their seats in anticipation of its every utterance. The good passages are brilliant and the slack ones leave one stunned by verbiage." Harumph!)

Welded, dir. Gregg Brevoort. 725 Broadway, New York City. Closed Feb. 12, 1984.

18. O'NEILL IN FRANCE: A CHRONOLOGICAL PRODUCTION RECORD

One feature of the Paris production of Moon for the Misbegotten last January (see this issue's list of recent and forthcoming productions) was the splendid 44-page booklet of background materials created for the event by Francoise du Chaxel, who sent me a copy, noting that "French directors seem to be quite interested in O'Neill's plays, since A Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day's Journey and some of the sea plays will be produced this year."

An important item in the booklet is a "repertoire chronologique" of O'Neill productions in France. Here is the list, slightly rearranged to make it even more "chronologique" of O'Neill productions in France. Here is the list, slightly rearranged to make it even more "chronologique." I have omitted actors' names, but will send a xerox copy of the original list to anyone who requests it.
--Ed.

19. BERLIN ACTIVE IN GERMANY. O'Neill scholar Normand Berlin (Eugene O'Neill, 1983) spent academic year 1983-84 in Germany, as Visiting Professor at the University of Freiburg, where he taught a course on O'Neill and two on Shakespeare, besides "talking O'Neill" on a lecture tour of German universities. In early October, he gave a general lecture on the playwright to 60 secondary school teachers of English in Bad Kreuznach (near Mainz), "urging them to teach Long Day's Journey to their students. The reception was very good indeed."

20. AWARD TO THE O'NEILL ACTOR. The National Arts Club, on April 25th, presented its 1984 medal of honor for drama and theatre to Jason Robards. This was his second medal in six months: he received the 1983 birthday medal of the Theatre Committee for Eugene O'Neill last October.

21. CRANSTON--O'NEILLIAN--HONORED. In mid-October 1983, U.S. Senator Alan Cranston was feted at Tao House, where he received a plaque from the Eugene O'Neill Foundation in honor of his commitment to the preservation of Tao House. Sen. Cranston was active in the movement that led to its designation as a National Historic Site. (No other former presidential candidate can make that claim!) It is surely worth noting that Tip is not the only O'Neill whom Democrat Cranston reveres.

22. SEEKING EARLY EDITIONS? Contact Peter Scott @ Ridge Books, Box 58, Stone Ridge, New York 12484, for an extensive list of first and other editions of O'Neill ranging in price from $1.75 (for the vintage ed. of Misbegotten) to $60.00 (for a "very worn" and "soiled" copy of the first book, 1914's "Thirst" and Other One-Act Plays). Or ask for Catalog 284 of George McManus Co., 1317 Irving St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. Two works only, but good ones: 1st ed. of Marco ($50.00), and "near-fine" copy of the aforementioned "Thirst" ... ($200.00).

23. PICTURES NEEDED--HELP REQUESTED. Perry Miller Adato and Megan Callaway are interested (understatement!) in obtaining the following photographs for their public television film on the life and work of Eugene O'Neill: (1) Sarah Sandy, O'Neill's nurse; (2) Gaylord nurses & O'Neill with nurses; (3) Provinctown Players, especially Ida Rauh and Susan Glaspell; (4) early pictures of O'Neill and friends in Provincetown, 1916-1924; (5) the ship, the "Charles Racine"; (6) Smitty, O'Neill's shipmate; (7) Judge Lattimer; and (8) early shots of Agnes Boulton. If you have any or (egad) all of the above, please contact the requesters at WNET/13, 356 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019, or call (212) 560-3155.

24. DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS.

Bower, Martha. "A 'Behind Life' Approach to the Making of Eugene O'Neill's Cycle Plays: A Touch of the Poet, More Stately Mansions and The Calms of Capricorn." U. of New Hampshire, English. Dir.: Robert Hapgood. Ms. Bower describes her project: "I will be examining O'Neill's pre-writing in the form of notes, ideas, scenarios, character sketches, etc., pertinent to the three plays--material housed at the Beinecke Library at Yale. In the course of the study, I will be looking at patterns of theme and character which point to O'Neill's attitudes toward women, the land, the sea, his family and America."

Kobernick, Mark. "Semiotics of the Drama and the Style of Eugene O'Neill." U. of Michigan, English, 1983. Dir.: Richard W. Bailey.

Smith, Madeline E. "Eugene O'Neill and Sacramental Ritual." (Abstracted in DAI, September 1982.)

Tuck, Susan. "Eugene O'Neill and William Faulkner." Indiana U., English, 1984. Dir.: J. Albert Robbins.

White, Leslie. "Eugene O'Neill an the Federal Theatre Project." New York U., Ed. Theatre, 1985. Dir.: Lowell Swortzell.

25. COMING IN THE SUMMER-FALL 1984 ISSUE:

• "Eugene O'Neill: Fidei Defensor," by Michael E. Rutenberg. (A study of The Great God Brown.)

• "Politics, but Literature: The Example of O'Neill's Achievement," by Paul Voelker.

• "Current Trends in O'Neill Publication," by Frederick Wilkins. (A bibliography of works published in 1980-83, with comments thereon.)

• "O'Neill's Genres: Early Performance and Late Achievement," by Peter Egri.

• "O'Neill's Boston," by Marshall Brooks. (An illustrated walker's guide, worth saving for Spring 1986!)

• "Subversive Sexuality in Four Plays of O'Neill's Middle Period," by Birk Sproxton. (An extended abstract of his dissertation.)

• A report by Paul Voelker on O'Neill-related activities at the 1984 ATA Convention in San Francisco.

• Reviews, abstracts, and other articles currently being considered.

26 SOCIETY CALLING: HOP ON! If you are not yet a member of the international Eugene O'Neill Society, you should be. The big doin's that are afoot, leading to the 1988 O'Neill centennial and beyond, can only be realized if the Society is strong and affluent. Do consider joining now, by sending the appropriate payment for your membership category (from the list on the application for membership below). The application may be xeroxed if (as the editor hopes) you wish to keep your Newsletter intact. In addition to all 1984 issues of the Newsletter, members will receive a copy of the by-laws, a list of the names and addresses of fellow members, and regular mailings that will give details of such future events as the O'Neill session and the Society's annual meeting at next December's Modern Language Association convention in Washington, D.C. To all who avail themselves of this opportunity, a hearty "welcome aboard"!

27. APOLOGETIC SEMI-ADDENDUM TO ITEM 24. Editorial apologies to Korean O'Neill scholar Mun-Ho Cho, who visited my office during a research stay in the U.S. to consult with me about his doctoral dissertation: I lost the notes I then took, and therefore can only indicate that his general subject is expressionism in the plays of O'Neill and that he would welcome letters from fellow workers in that vineyard. (Prof. Cho's address is 288 Sooseong l-ka, Sooseong-ku Apt. #405, Taegu, KOREA 634.) I hope he will inform me again of the study's title, so I can announce it in the next issue. --FCW.

28. REPRINT AVAILABLE. Anyone who missed Colin Campbell's coverage of the March O'Neill conference in the New York Times ("Conference Explores O'Neill's World Influence,"
March 26, 1984, p. C16) can have a copy by writing to the editor and enclosing a
stamped, self-addressed envelope.

(IN THIS ISSUE)