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THE EUGENE O'NEILL SOCIETY SECTION

I. SOCIETY ACTIVITIES AT MLA '86.

As in the past, the 1986 annual meeting of the Eugene O'Neill Society will be a part of the Modern Language Association convention, whose English sessions will this year be held at the Marriott Marquis in New York City (1535 Broadway, 10036) from 27 to 30 December. The meeting will take place on the morning of Tuesday, December 30, immediately following the annual meeting of the Society's officers and board of directors, and immediately preceding this year's O'Neill paper session, which will be chaired by Jackson R. Bryer. Here are the details of our triple bill of convention-ending activities which, as theatre historians will surely note, will occur atop the dust of the Morosco Theatre, where O'Neill's first Broadway production (of Beyond the Horizon) had its premiere on February 20, 1920.

8:30-9:45 a.m., Suite 3748, Marriott Marquis:

Closed meeting of the Society's officers and board of directors.

10:15-11:30 a.m., Gotham, Marriott Marquis:

Paper session on "O'Neill: The Composition Process, "Professor Bryer presiding. Titles and speakers:

1. "The Evolution of Bound East for Cardiff: From Conrad's Novel to the Theater on the Wharf," Paul D. Voelker, University of Wisconsin Center, Richland.

2. "The Shifting Shapes of O'Neill's Cycle Plays: A Case Study of The Calms of Capricorn," Martha Bower, University of New Hampshire.

3. "O'Neill's Scenarios: The Beginning of the Journey," Judith E. Barlow, State University of New York, Albany.

Noon - 1:15 p.m., Gotham, Marriott Marquis:

Annual Business Meeting of the Society, President Wilkins presiding.

All Society members, and all who wish to become Society members (new memberships and renewals can be arranged on the spot) are urged to attend the 10:15 meeting and the noon session. Despite the "bitter end" of the Morosco, we plan to conclude the MLA convention with more bang than whimper!

II. VIRGINIA FLOYD RESIGNS AS TREASURER. For reasons of health and geography (she is moving to Florida), Virginia Floyd has had to announce her resignation as Treasurer of the Society, a position that she has held with distinction and aplomb since the Society's birth. The President has accepted her resignation with deep regret, and will ask the Board, in accordance with the by-laws, to name a successor at its meeting on 30 December. In the interim, Secretary Jordan Y. Miller will assume the organization's fiscal reins. The Society has no more loyal and dedicated member, and the field of O'Neill studies has no more productive scholar, than Virginia. We salute her for her outstanding accomplishments as Treasurer, wish her well in the new home to which she will move later this fall. and know that she will remain as active a member and scholar as she has been in the past. Her new address will be 2536 Longboat Drive, Naples, FL 33942. --FCW.

III. PAPERS SOUGHT FOR MLA '87. Jordan Y. Miller will chair the O'Neill session at the December 1987 MLA convention in San Francisco. The general subject is "O'Neill and the Orient"--his interest in it, its influence on him, etc.--and Professor Miller hopes to hear very soon from anyone interested in presenting a paper at that session. Send papers, abstracts, prospectuses, inklings, whatever, to him at the Department of English, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881 (tel. 401-792-4660).

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