The Eugene O'Neill Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE:

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Billy Brown (Steve Hart), wearing Dion's mask, is comforted by Cybel (Judith Wilfore) in the SUNY-Albany production of The Great God Brown, directed by Jarka Burian, that is discussed in this issue.

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EDITOR'S FOREWORD: THE CONFERENCE CORNUCOPIA

Having waxed presidential in the Society section and laced the news pages with conference notes and messages, I can (almost) hold my diaskeuastal tongue for once and list, in semi-random order, the titles (and deliverers) of papers so far scheduled for the May conference--an impressive roster that should fill most of my relinquished page.

"The Later O'Neill and Human Memory" (John Henry Raleigh).

"Calendar and Memory: The Function of Time in O'Neill's Final Plays" (Laurin R. Porter).

"Freedom vs. Fixity in the Plays of O'Neill" (Linda Ben-Zvi).

"O'Neill's Plans for the Cycle" (Donald Gallup).

"Two Versions of More Stately Mansions: A Comparison Study" (Martha Bower). "O'Neill's Transcendence of Melodrama in the Last Plays" (Michael Manheim).

"The Not-So-Noble Peasant: O'Neill's Parody of 19th Century Irish-American Melodrama in Moon for the Misbegotten" (Joyce Flynn).

"O'Neill and Comedy: The Iceman Cometh" (Normand Berlin).

"Love's Labor Dispossessed: The Complexities of a Friendship" [the O'Neills and the Comminses] (Travis Bogard).

"Robards as Hickey: One Role and Two Performances" [1960 & 1985-86] (Steve Vineberg).

"Taoism in O'Neill's Tao House Plays" (Hasping Liu).

"O'Neill in Mourning: A Reexamination of the Playwright's Life and Art" (Stephen A. Black).

"Waiting for the Dough: O'Neill's Hughie" (Steven F. Bloom).

"Gambling Themselves Away: The Survival Game in Hughie" (Yasuko Ikeuchi).

"In Ibsen's Back Room: Related Patterns in Iceman Cometh and The Wild Duck" (Yvonne Shafer).

"O'Neill's 'Death of a Salesman': The Archetypal Salesman in American Drama" (Richard Hornby).

"Wrestling with the Angel in the House: Mary Tyrone's Long Journey" (Bette Mandl).

"Ghost Stories: Mary Tyrone and Iceman's Absent Women" (James A. Robinson).

"Mothers and Virgins: Mary Tyrone, Josie Hogan, and Their Antecedents" (Judith E. Barlow).

"The Role of the 'Great Mother' in Long Day's Journey Into Night" (John G. Peters).

"A Crutch of the Poet" [Con Melody and his wife and daughter] (Albert Bermel).

"A Cold Wind from the Hell Hole: Casting and Rehearsing the Iceman of 1946" (Gary Vena).

"O'Neill and the Marionette: Uber and Otherwise" (Lowell S. Swortzell).

"O'Neill's Late Works on the Postwar German Stage" (Ward B. Lewis).

"The Tyrones in Dublin: Four Journeys to the Abbey" (Edward L. Shaughnessy).

"Edmund's Triptych: The Fusion of the Lyric and Dramatic in Long Day's Journey" (Peter Egri).

"Wonders in the Wings: O'Neill's Unfinished Projects" (Virginia Floyd).

"'Native Eloquence': Multiple Voices in Long Day's Journey" (Jean Chothia).

"American Flowers of Evil: Long Day's Journey Into Night and Baudelaire" (Marc Maufort).

"The Melodys and the Hogans: Fathers and Daughters in the Late O'Neill" (Jean Anne Waterstradt).

"'Daddy spoke to me!': Gods Lost and Found in Long Day's Journey and Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly" (Thomas P. Adler).

"The Penitent Playwright: The Confession Cycle and Eugene O'Neill" (Michael C. O'Neill).

"Preparing the World Premiere of Long Day's Journey" (Tom J. A. Olsson).

And that's not all, folks! There's also the Thursday pre-conference, a blast-off toward the centennial year co-directed by Jackson R. Bryer and Paul D. Voelker, leaders (respectively) of the scholarly and theatrical contingents. And an expanded "teaching O'Neill" panel discussion chaired by Marvis Voelker; plus a new panel on "Performing O'Neill," a sharing of views by actors, directors and designers chaired by Sheila Hickey Garvey. And a lobster dinner, a Sunday brunch, and a cash bar sponsored by the O'Neill Society. Not to mention (though I will) large screen showings of Long Day's Journey, The Iceman Cometh and Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, and a rare tape (courtesy of the N. Y. Public Library at Lincoln Center) of the 1960 "Play of the Week" tv production of Iceman with Jason Robards, directed by Sidney Lumet. And a morning memory session, "Remembering O'Neill & Co."--an hour of oral history by those who (like Paul Shyre and Charles Metten) knew O'Neill or his associates. Plus the sales room, an even more extensive media room, and, of course, three evenings to cherish: the new PBS documentary, "O'Neill - a Glory of Ghosts"; a production of Hughie; and a tribute to the playwright featuring José Quintero, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and other surprise guests (very likely a surprise to us both, dear reader!). I'm sure I've left a lot out, but I think it's safe to say that there will be something for everyone and more than enough for anyone! For fuller details on some of the above, check the news section near issue's end. See you in May--if I last till then! --FCW

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EUGENE O'NEILL - A GLORY OF GHOSTS. the documentary film on the playwright's life and works airing this summer on PBS (and earlier at the Boston O'Neill conference), was directed and co-produced by filmmaker Perry Miller Adato (lower left) and features Zoe Caldwell as Carlotta Monterey O'Neill (lower right) and Geraldine Fitzgerald and Jason Robards (seen below while filming a scene from Long Day's Journey at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, CT).

The Eugene O'Neill Newsletter, Vol. X, No. 1. ISSN: 0733-0456. Copyright (c) 1986 by the Eugene O'Neill Newsletter. Copyright © 2011 by Harley J. Hammerman. Editor: Frederick C. Wilkins. Assoc. Editor: Marshall Brooks. Subscriptions: $10/year for individuals in U.S. & Canada, $15/year for libraries, institutions and all overseas subscribers. Only one-year subscriptions are accepted. Members of the Eugene O'Neill Society receive subscriptions as part of their annual dues. Back issues available @ $5 each. Address: The Eugene O'Neill Newsletter, Department of English, Suffolk University, Boston, MA 02114 U.S.A.