 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
||||||||
| > |
T Eugene O'Neill Festival Awards: Eugene O'Neill FestivalNinth Eugene O’Neill Festival Focused On Connection Between Dramatist, Robeson
|
||||||||||||||||||
he
Foundation hosts a number of events in the community of Danville,
California throughout the year, including the Eugene O'Neill Festival,
Playwrights' Theatre and Artist Days at Tao House. You can find
the details for upcoming events below: |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 Festival goers enjoyed a walkin tour of Danville that began at the Eugene O'Neill Commemorative in Front Street Park. |
|
Details:
> About ‘All God’s Chillun Got Wings’
> Highlights of the Robeson-O’Neill Connection
> About Paul Robeson
> Download complete schedule of events (PDF)
Festival News
Journalist Belva Davis Will Accept Award on Behalf of Paul Robeson
Belva Davis, a highly respected California journalist, will attend the Sept. 18 tribute to Paul Robeson. She will accept the Tao House Award that has been presented posthumously to the actor by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service.
Davis, winner of multiple professional awards, has worked continuously on television since 1966, when she became the first African-American female reporter on the West Coast. She is credited with significant contributions to television as it has become today. In addition to her broadcast career, Davis has been involved in many community organizations. She is also recognized as a labor activist and a supporter of African-American culture and history.
Paul Robeson, the legendary multi-talented African-American actor who died in 1976 at age 77, will be the focus of the 2008 Eugene O’Neill Festival, beginning September 18 in Danville, where the award-winning playwright wrote his last six plays.
Robeson appeared on stage and in movies in O’Neill plays, one of which—the rarely produced “All God’s Chillun Got Wings”-- will be a highlight of the festival. Robeson performed in the premiere in 1924. He portrayed the black husband of an abusive white woman who, resenting her husband’s skin color, destroys his promising career as a lawyer.
The play caused an uproar in America even before it opened,. One critic on hand for the opening noted that the play “had almost as much publicity as a murder . . . (but) instead of causing a riot, it was greeted with cheers and loud whistlings.”
Performances will be presented in Danville’s Village Theater, 233 Front Street, at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 18, and 8 p.m. on September 19, and 20. Tickets ($30 general, $10 students) are on sale at (925) 820-1818 and online above.
Tickets for the September 18 performance include a post-show champagne-dessert reception at the Pioneer Art Gallery, 524 Hartz Avenue, and pre-curtain tribute to Robeson.
A dialog/discussion with the director, cast and audience will follow each performance.
Performing in the leading roles of husband and wife will be Michael J. Asberry and Alexandra Matthew, both members of Actors’ Equity, the labor union representing American actors and stage managers in theatre.
Asberry has appeared in films, including “The Pursuit of Happyness,” and on TV in “Nash Bridges.” On stage, he has performed in plays at the Aurora Theater, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, The Shotgun Players and the African-American Shakespeare Company, among others.
Matthew appeared earlier this year in “Welded,” one of the plays in the Eugene O’Neill Foundation’s Playwrights’ Theatre series. She has performed with such companies as the Marin Shakespeare Company, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Pacific Alliance Stage Company, CenterREPertory Company, Berkley Repertory Company and Willows Theatre Company.
Eric Fraisher Hayes, a member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation board, will direct the play. He is an actor/director/educator. Directing credits include Solano College, St. Mary's College, New Conservatory Theatre and
the Playground. He has also directed numerous times for Cal Shakes and San Francisco Shakes educational outreach programs. Chicago acting credits include: Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Circle, Next, Stage Left and Shattered Globe Theatre Company. He has performed with the Colorado and Wisconsin Shakespeare Festivals. Eric received rave reviews for his portrayal of Jackeye Pepys in the long-running late night comedy "Gunslingers of Peoria."
The Robeson-O’Neill connection will be further explored through other events, all free, including a movie, seminar, and exhibit. See schedule of events in this issue.
The festival, originated in 2000, is produced by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service. The Paul Robeson Centennial Committee in Oakland is assisting in the event, sponsored in part by the Town of Danville and the Sunset Development Co., San Ramon.
Special Ceremony Sept. 18
O’Neill Foundation Will Present Award Posthumously to Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson will be honored posthumously with a Tao House Award from the Eugene O’Neill Foundation at a ceremony on Sept. 18.
The ceremony will kick off the ninth annual O’Neill festival, focusing this year on the O’Neill-Robeson connection.
The award ceremony, including a video tribute to Robeson, will begin Sept. prior to the curtain for “All God’s Chillun Got Wings,” in Danville’s Village Theatre, 233 Front Street. Performances are also scheduled at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19, and 20.
Tickets for Sept. 18 include a post-performance champagne-dessert reception in the Pioneer Art Gallery, 524 Hartz Ave. There, guests will have an opportunity to see “A Hero for All Time,” an exhibit on the life and career of Robeson.
Joining in the Sept. 18 award ceremony will be recording artist Lawrence Beamen, a baritone whose singing was influenced by Robeson. Beamen will sing Jerome Kern’s “Ol’ Man River,” which Robeson, with his deep baritone voice, introduced in “Show Boat” and is regarded as the definitive version of the song in both stage and screen productions.
In addition to his career as an actor on stage and in films, Robeson is regarded an exceptional athlete, singer, author, cultural scholar, and political activist.
His first acting roles were in 1922 in “Taboo,”(a play later renamed “Voodoo”) in Harlem. Two years later he won acclaim for his performance in the title role of O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.” He repeated the role in the 1933 movie version.
Robeson is credited with being the first artist to bring old spirituals to the concert stage.
The Tao House Award is named after O’Neill’s estate, now a National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service, in the rolling hills above Danville. The award is given to individuals who have served the American theater with distinction.
The first recipient, in 1989, was actor Jason Robards. Others include Broadway producers Paul Libin and Theodore Mann, O’Neill biographers Arthur and Barbara Gelb, and actress Cherry Jones.
Journalist Belva Davis Will Accept Award on Behalf of Paul Robeson
Belva Davis, a highly respected California journalist, will attend the Sept. 18 tribute to Paul Robeson. She will accept the Tao House Award that has been presented posthumously to the actor by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service.
Davis, winner of multiple professional awards, has worked continuously on television since 1966, when she became the first African-American female reporter on the West Coast. She is credited with significant contributions to television as it has become today. In addition to her broadcast career, Davis has been involved in many community organizations. She is also recognized as a labor activist and a supporter of African-American culture and history.
About ‘All God’s Chillun Got Wings’
Although the black Jim Harris (Paul Robeson) and the white Ella Downey (Mary Blair) have known each other since childhood, Ella drifts away from their relationship as her awareness of racial prejudice grows, but Jim still loves her passionately. Ella takes up with a local ruffian and has a child by him, only to have him desert her and the child die. In desperation she marries Jim. But her racial prejudices continue to bedevil her, finally driving her over the brink of sanity.
Dealing with her problems causes Jim to fail his bar exams, but he remains loving and devoted. In her dementia Ella becomes like a child, yet she retains enough basic sense to recognize she has hurt Jim. She begs forgiveness and asks him to play marbles with her. “I'll play right up to the gates of Heaven with you!” Jim responds.
Critics were sharply divided on the play's merits. Heywood Broun dismissed it in the World as “a very tiresome play,” while in the Telegram-Mail Robert Welsh predicted that it was “likely to take a permanent place in the American theatre.”
Many found this serious, understanding treatment of miscegenation offensive. No one was surprised when the Ku Klux Klan issued threats to O'Neill, who replied that he had written not a “race problem play” but “a study of two principal characters, and their tragic struggle for happiness.”
However, attempts at repression came from less-expected sources. Disturbed by rumors that a black man kisses a white girl onstage, the New York City license commissioner threatened to shut down the theatre if the play was produced; and just before the first performance began, police served an injunction forbidding the use of child actors in the play.
The players got around these problems by reading from the manuscript and cutting the children's minor roles. Furious at this evasion, District Attorney Joab H. Banton promised to bring charges of obscenity and he did—against a later O'Neill play, “Desire Under the Elms.”
About the Director
Eric Fraisher Hayes, a member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation board is an actor/director/educator. Directing credits include Solano College, St. Mary's College, New Conservatory Theatre and the Playground. He has also directed numerous times for Cal Shakes and San Francisco Shakes educational outreach programs. Chicago acting credits include: Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Circle, Next, Stage Left and Shattered Globe Theatre Company. He has performed with the Colorado and Wisconsin Shakespeare Festivals. Eric received rave reviews for his portrayal of Jackeye Pepys in the long-running late night comedy "Gunslingers of Peoria."
Local acting credits include: the Magic, Playhouse West, Alternative Theatre Ensemble and the Playground. Eric's theatrical debut was at San Ramon Valley High School in the shadow of Tao House. He is very proud to be back in Danville, many years later, directing one of Eugene O'Neill's most powerful and rarely produced plays.
A resident of Danville, Hayes is a member of Actors’ Equity. He is employed at Solano College, where he is on the staff of the youth theatre program. He works with the California Shakespeare Festival and its intermediate and high school teachers’ program. Hayes also is involved with the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he teaches workshops for teens in acting, filmmaking and summer stock.
Highlights of the Robeson-O’Neill Connection
May 15, 1924
Despite uproar begun by racist journalists and critics and threatening letters the from Ku Klux Klan, opens, in New York, in Eugene O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings, aplay about an interracial couple. An instant success, with Robeson receiving rave reviews for his performance, the play runs for 100 performances, through October 24.
May-June, 1924
Stars in play The Emperor Jones, to divert attention from controversy over All God’s Chillun; plays through June.
January, 1925
Reopens in The Emperor Jones on Broadway, for a limited run.
September 10, 1925
Opens in The Emperor Jones, at the Ambassadors’ Theatre, London, and is called back for 12 ovations on opening night. Receives wide acclaim from theater critics and thunderous applause from each audience throughout the run of the play.
March, 1930
Performs The Emperor Jones, for one week, in Berlin.
August 25-31, 1930
Gives 8 special performances at the Savoy Theatre, London. Programs include Negro spirituals, extracts from The Emperor Jones and classical concert songs.
May, 1931
Opens in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, in London; but after five performances, due to a bout with laryngitis and the need to preserve his voice for his upcoming concert tour, he leaves the play.
March 12, 1933
Opens in a three-week run of All God’s Chillun Got wings at Embassy Theatre, London, followed by another four weeks at the Piccadilly Theatre, where he gives a special benefit performance for Jewish refugees from nazi Germany. Years later, states that this benefit marked the beginning of his political awareness because, in reference to the Hitler regime, “Really, it was like seeing the Ku Klux Klan in power….Brown shirts instead of white sheets, but the same idea.”
May, 1933
Stars in his first “talkie,” The Emperor Jones. The film is criticized for perpetuating stereotypes.
June, 1939
Stars in a week-long revival of The Emperor Jones, at the Ridgeway Theater in White Plains, NY, demanding that the n… word be deleted from the script: “Either that, or I won’t play in it.”
August, 1940
Stars in a two-week stock-company revival of The Emperor Jones at the Theatre
About Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson was a famous African American athlete, singer, actor and advocate for the civil rights of people around the world. He rose to prominence in a time when segregation was legal in America and black people were being lynched by white mobs, especially in the South.
Born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, Paul Robeson was the youngest of five children. His father was a runaway slave who went on to graduate from Lincoln University, and his mother came from a family of Quakers who worked for the abolition of slavery. His family was familiar with hardship and the determination to rise above it. His own life was no less challenging.
In 1915, Paul won a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University. In spite of open violence and racism expressed by teammates, Robeson won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball, basketball, track) and was twice named to the All American Football Team. He received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior year, belonged to the Cap Skull Honor Society and was the Valedictorian of his graduating class in 1919. However, it wasn't until 1995, 19 years after his death, that Paul Robeson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
At Columbia Law School (1919 to 1923), Paul met and married Dr..Eslanda Cordoza Goode, who was to become the first black woman to head a pathology laboratory. He took a job with a law firm, but left when a white secretary refused to take dictation from him. He decided to leave the practice of law and use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote African American history and culture.
On stage in London, Robeson earned international critical acclaim for his lead role in Othello, winning the Donaldson Award for Best Acting Performance (1944) for his portrayal of “Othello” on Broadway. Robeson performed in Eugene O'Neil's Emperor Jones, “All God's Chillun Got Wings” and the musical “Show Boat. “ He is known for changing the “Show Boat “ song "Old Man River" from the lamentable lyrics "I'm tired of livin' and feared of dyin'," to a stronger and more political, "I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'." His 11 films include “Body and Soul “ (1924), “Jericho “ ,(1937) and “Proud Valley” (1939).
Paul noted that his travels had taught him that racism was not as virulent in Europe as it was in the United States. At home, it was difficult to find restaurants that would serve him; theaters in New York would only seat blacks in the upper balconies and his performances were often surrounded with threats or outright harassment. In London, on the other hand, Robeson's opening night performance of “ The Emperor Jones” brought the audience to its feet with cheers for twelve encores.
Paul Robeson used his deep baritone voice to promote black spirituals, to share the cultures of other countries and to benefit the social movements of his time. He sang for peace and justice in 25 languages throughout the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union and the Third World. Robeson became known as a citizen of the world, as comfortable with the people of Moscow and Nairobi as with the people of Harlem. Among his friends he counted future African leader Jomo Kenyatta, India's Nehru, historian W. E. B. DuBois, anarchist Emma Goldman and writers James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. In 1933, Robeson donated the proceeds of “All God's Chillun” to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's Germany.
At a 1937 rally for anti-fascist forces fighting in the Spanish Civil War he declared, "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative." In New York, in 1939, he premiered in Earl Robinson's "Ballad for Americans," a cantata celebrating the multi-ethnic, multi-racial face of America. It was greeted with the largest audience response since Orson Welles' famous "War of the Worlds."
During the 1940s, Robeson continued to perform and speak out against racism in the U.S. and for peace among nations. As a passionate believer in international cooperation, Robeson protested the growing cold war hostilities and worked tirelessly for friendship and respect between the U.S. and the USSR.
In 1945, he headed an organization that challenged President Truman to support an anti-lynching law. In the late 1940s, when dissent was scarcely tolerated in the U.S., Robeson openly questioned why African Americans should fight in the army of a government that tolerated violent racism. Because of his outspokenness, he was accused by the Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of being a Communist. Robeson saw this claim as an outright attack on the democratic rights of the many people like himself who work for friendship with other nations, and equal rights for all people. This accusation nearly ended his career. Eighty of his concerts were canceled, and in 1949 two outdoor concerts in Peekskill, N.Y. were attacked by white mobs while state police stood by complacently.
In response, Robeson declared, "I going to sing wherever the people want me to sing... and I won't be frightened by crosses burning in Peekskill or anywhere else."
In 1950, the U.S. government revoked Robeson's passport, leading to an eight-year battle to secure it and to travel again. During those years, Robeson studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace, published his autobiography, Here I Stand and sang at Carnegie Hall. In 1960, Robeson made his last overseas concert tour. Suffering from ill health, Paul Robeson retired from public life in 1963. He died on January 23, 1976 at age 77, in Philadelphia.
Biography provided by the Paul Robeson Centennial Committee,Oakland, CA
2008
O'Neill International Conference
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service and the Eugene O’Neill Society, hosted the International Eugene O’Neill Conference in June in Danville, with conferees attending from the U. S. and seven other countries. Through panel discussions and other activities, conferees learned about “O’Neill’s Global Legacy,” the conference theme.
Photo Highlights:
Gary Schaub, Eugene O’Neill Foundation president, presents prestigious Tao House Award to Robert Brustein, author, founding director of the Yale Repertory and American Repertory theatres, and a major force in the American theater.
Jackson Breyer and Robert Brustein are greeted by Carey Perloff, artistic director of the American Conservatory Theatre ins San Francisco.. Breyer is professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. He received the Eugene O’Neill Society’s Silver Medallion.
One of the conference panels focused on critics and featured, left to right, Harry Elam, Jr., professor of humanities at Stanford University; Carey Perloff, artistic director of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco; Jackson Breyer, Broadway producer Ted Mann, and Robert Brustein.
Conferees enjoyed a dramatic reading of “Tomorrow,” O’Neill’s only published short story, performed by the Word for Word Performing Arts Company of San Francisco, on a balmy night in the Old Barn at Tao House.
Conferees toured the Eugene O’Neill Commemorative in Danville’s Front Street Park.
Student Days at Tao House
Why Student Days (PDF) |
Artist Days at Tao House
The Eugene O'Neill Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service, announces its eleventh annual Artist Days at Tao House
The program offers Bay Area artists an opportunity to create new works in all media or artistic genre in the inspirational environment of the 11-acre site that was once the home of the legendary American playwright Eugene O'Neill. His former estate, Tao House, is a National Historic Site managed by the National Park Service. It borders the Las Trampas open space with a commanding view of the San Ramon Valley and Mt. Diablo.
Artists may apply to reserve any or all of the dates for the 2009 program. They are:
May 7, May 8, May 9, May 10, 2009 (Thursday through Sunday)
The fee is $5 per day and reservations are required.
Since private vehicles are not allowed on the property, artists will assemble at 8:45 a.m. each day at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley in Danville (205 Railroad Avenue). They will board a National Park Service van for the short trip to the site. The van will return to the parking lot at 2:45 p.m.
Because space on the van is limited, artists are asked to limit the size and volume of items they wish to bring with them. They should also provide their own food and beverages. Water, refrigeration and restrooms are available on the site.
For more information contact the Eugene O'Neill Foundation, Tao House (925.820.1818; taohouse@pacbell.net)
2008 Artists and Descriptions of Paintings
Visiting Artist Program
The first Visiting Artist at Tao House was Michael O’Neill, who visited from April 15-May 15, 2005. Dr. O’Neill is Director of Theater, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. A prolific director, he has also written for The Theatre Journal, Renascence, and The Eugene O’Neill Review.
A graduate of Fordham University, he received his PhD from Purdue University, where his dissertation was: The Evolution of Form in Contemporary Drama.
He is currently writing a book on the Irish character that was created in Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, and its shadow on subsequent Irish drama, including the works of Bernard Shaw, Sean O’Casey, Eugene O’Neill, Brian Friel and Martin McDonagh.
While at Tao House, O’Neill conducted research and writing, directed plays for the foundation’s Playwrights’ Theatre, and lectured at Rakestraw Books in Danville. His comments on his experience at Tao House are included in the September 2005 Eugene O’Neill Foundation newsletter.
<back to top>
Playwrights' Theatre
Performances May 3 and 17
Adversity-Themed Plays Top Playwrights Series in Danville
Staged readings of a new work and Eugene O’Neill’s rarely-produced war-themed plays will highlight the 2009 Playwrights Theatre series in the Old Barn at Tao House. Born Tired, by San Francisco director and playwright Bevan Lew, will open the series on May 3. O’Neill’s one-act plays - The Sniper, The Movie Man and Shell Shock – will beperformed on May 17. Performances on both dates will begin at 3 p.m.
Tickets ($25 for each performance or $40 for both) are on sale at the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in Danville (925.820-1818; taohouse@pacbell.net), as well as online below. Tickets include transportation to Tao House from downtown Danville. Private vehicles are not allowed. The transportation schedule will be provided at time of ticket purchase.
BETWEEN ENEMY LINES
Eugene O’Neill and the Lesser-Known Casualties of War
On May 17, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and the National Park Service will present three of O’Neill’s plays that touch on the subject of war. During the early years of O’Neill’s career, wars were a large part of the daily news. Three early short plays focused on the effects of life amidst these conflicts.
The Sniper tells the tale of a farmer’s troubled relationship with his God during an enemy occupation. Rougon, the farmer, struggles to maintain his dignity as travesties and indignities compile. Through out it all, he asks, “Where is God in this chaos?”
The Movie Man takes a light approach to the subject of war as entertainment. The Earth Motion Picture Company has the exclusive rights to film a war south of the border. While General Gomez has a war to fight, Hen Rogers has a film to make. See what happens when the military wants to change the shooting schedule.
Shell Shock is a study of how it is easier to take a soldier out a war than to take a war out of a soldier. Major Jack Arnold was a star football player in college and is a decorated war hero. Yet safely away from the trenches of Belgium, he struggles with what war can make a man do.
A talented ensemble of six actors, under the direction of Eric Fraisher Hayes (director of All God’s Chillun Got Wings for the O’Neill Festival last fall), will bring these tales of the lesser-known effects of war to life.
Born Tired
Born Tired, conceived by the playwright in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, examines the many smaller, localized tragedies that affected families within the storm’s wake. An aspiring musician and his mother try to reassemble their lives in a FEMA trailer, while a wealthy, young couple has their views on materialism, the world and each other put to the test as the two families collide and all are forced to reconsider themselves. Enhancing the piece will be a live jazz trumpeter to invoke the flavor of New Orleans.
Born Tired will be directed by its writer, Bevan Lew, a member of the Street School Artist Collective, a Los Angeles and San Francisco-based theatre company founded by Vince Riverside and Josh Brolin. Born Tired and several others of Lew’s plays have been produced at the Elephant Theatre in LA and the Off-Market Theatre and Stage Werx Theatre in San Francisco.
About Playwrights' Theatre
Playwrights’ Theatre, now in its 14th season, is a program of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service, which maintains Tao House as a National Historic Site. The theatre features new works as well as those by O’Neill or by playwrights who were influenced by the legendary dramatist.
In 1996, the Eugene O'Neill foundation initiated the Playwrights’ Theatre, a series of staged readings of plays in the Old Barn at Tao House. Prominent Bay Area directors and actors take part. The name of the series honors O’Neill’s Playwrights’ Theatre, formed in 1916 in New York City by the Provincetown Players who committed themselves to fostering American playwrights.
Help Your Organization Learn More About O’Neill – and the O’Neill Foundation
As part of its goal of perpetuating the life and works of Eugene O’Neill, the foundation helps spread the word through a corps of knowledgeable speakers. They’re available to speak to your organization or at informal gatherings. Their topics include the life and times of O’Neill and the activities and programs of the foundation in association with the National Park Service. Talks can be tailored to satisfy the interests and time limits of your organization. To schedule a speaker, contact us at (925) 820-1818 or via e-mail at taohouse@eugeneoneill.org.
Past O'Neill Foundation Events
Since its founding, the foundation has sponsored special educational and artistic events. A West Coast Theater Directors Conference was held in preparation for the O’Neill Centennial celebrated in 1988. The conference brought together directors from Seattle to Los Angeles. Jose Quintero and Jason Robards participated. Other centennial activities included performances in Danville and culminated in a Birthday Party on October 16, 1988 in San Francisco. The party was a cooperative venture with the American Conservatory Theater and brought together scenes from several O’Neill plays.
In 1994 the Foundation sponsored a three-day international conference, O’Neill on World Stages, focusing on the theatrical vitality of O’Neill’s writing. The conference had three components: the delivery of research papers; a performance by both a Russian and Chinese troupe of Long Day’s Journey into Night; and a visit to Tao House. The conference was organized in association with the National Park Service and St. Mary’s College. The Bay-Area O’Neill Scholars Consortium was formed in 1998 to bring O’Neill scholars together to sponsor seminars and conferences and review new books relating to O’Neill.
O’Neill Seminars are held on an occasional basis. The first was offered in 1996, and two of the most successful were in October 2001, based on A Moon for the Misbegotten, and another as part of the 2004 O’Neill Festival.
AWARDS AND HONORS
THE TAO HOUSE AWARD
This award is
given to a person who, in the opinion of the board, has served the
American Theater with distinction. The recipient may be actively
involved in performance areas, including acting, directing, design
or producing and may also be a critic or scholar who has written
significantly about the theater in the United States. The first
Tao House Award was presented to Jason Robards Jr. on November 12,
1989. A longtime supporter of the foundation, Robards was instrumental
in the success of the foundation’s first benefit performance.
UC Professor
emeritus Travis Bogard, foundation artistic director, board, O’Neill
author, editor and scholar received the award in October 1993. At
the International Conference in June 1994, Dr. Donald Gallup became
the third recipient of the award. In his many years as curator of
the American Literature collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library at Yale University, Dr. Gallup made a “permanent
contribution to the American theater.”
Arthur and Barbara Gelb, authors of a biography of O’Neill,
received the fourth Tao House Award in April 1996.
In 1999 Producer Director Theodore Mann who has produced 16 plays and 2 recording of O’Neill works was presented with the award. This was followed in 2003 when Paul Libin, Broadway producer and collaborator with Mann, was honored, and in January, 2006, when the award was presented to Stephen Black, author and authority on O’Neill. A special presentation of the award was made in November 2006 to Cherry Jones, who is regarded as the finest stage actress of her generation.
Another award for 2006 was presented in January 2007 to Edward Hastings, a founding member of the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), the Tony Award winning regional theater company in San Francisco.
In 2008, the Tao House Award was presented posthumously to Paul Robeson.
THE OPEN GATE AWARD
This award honors those who have served as directors of the foundation
and whose dedication and service have enhanced the memory of Eugene
O’Neill.
It was first
presented in 1991 to Thalia Brewer, co-founder of the Eugene O’Neill
National Monument Association, which was organized to wage the campaign
that saved Tao House from destruction. The association eventually
became the Eugene O’Neill Foundation. In 1992 Darlene Blair
and Lois Sizoo. also founders of the association, were honored.
Subsequent honorees include Craig Dorman, 1993, Ruth Turner, 1995;
Frances Chumley, 1998; Linda Best, 2003; Virginia Denison, 2004;
Wendy Cooper, 2006.
THE ARTISTIC AWARD
The Artistic Award (The Genie) is given to individuals who have
been outstanding in their commitment to the Foundation’s mission
to provide artistic and educational programs, which focus on the
contribution of Eugene O’Neill to the American theater. Past
recipients are Kerri Shawn and Richard James (2003) ), well known
actors who have assisted the foundation in Student Days and other
foundation programs; and Michael Uppendal (2006), artistic director
of the Namaste Theatre Company based in Los Angeles. His company
performed O’Neill’s sea plays and “Hughie”
in the Old Barn at Tao House.
THE FREEMAN AWARD
This award is named for Herbert Freeman. He served as chauffeur
and “man of all work and friend. He is credited with helping
to make life more comfortable for the O’Neills at Tao House.
This award is presented to volunteers who have tirelessly given
their time and talents to the Eugene O’Neill Foundation.
Past recipients include Tony Cooper (2003), who has photographed
and videotaped foundation events and added content to the foundation’s
online research library; J.R.K. Kantor (2004), who worked on the
foundation library and served as a docent at Tao House; Glenn Fuller
(2005), former National Park Service superintendent with responsibilities
for Tao House; and Michael Cook (2006), for 30 years a Bay Area
theatrical designer, writer, actor and director, who also teaches
at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. He has assisted with productions
at Tao House.
LOIS SIZOO ENDOWMENT FUND
In 2001 an endowment fund was established to honor the memory of
Lois Sizoo, founding member of the foundation. This fund is the
repository for all memorial gifts to the foundation. This fund will
support the work of new playwrights.
O’NEILL COMMEMORATIVE
IN DANVILLE
In 2004 the Board of Directors and the Town of Danville approved
the installation of an O’Neill Commemorative in Front Street
Park, Danville. This public art installation celebrates O’Neill’s
life in Danville and his plays, the last six of which were written
at Tao House, that earned him recognition as the playwright who
reshaped American theater. Formal unveiling and dedication of the
commemorative took place on Wednesday, September 28, 2005. View
an interactive tour of the commemorative...
