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Thirty Local Playwrights Visit Tao House

O’Neill Foundation Mentors High School Juniors

Eugene O’Neill Foundation Will Honor Paul Robeson, Museum and Two Leaders on January 21, 2008

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Recent News

Thirty Local Playwrights Visit Tao House
New Partnership Formed
Danville, Ca   November 7, 2009

On Sunday, November 1, 2009, thirty playwrights, from “Playground,” visited Tao House up in the hills above Danville to learn more about Eugene O’Neill and the home he built here.   After touring the house and participating in a talk about O’Neill’s contribution to the theatre, the writers were given a theme from O’Neill’s works to use as inspiration for short plays they wrote during the week following.   The theme is O’Neill’s expressionist drama, “The Hairy Ape.” A selection of plays based on this theme will be presented to the public, performed and directed by Bay Area theatre artists, at the Berkeley Rep, on Monday, November 16th at 8:00 p.m.

Three organizations are participating in this exciting new partnership:  Playground, The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, and the National Park Service, which manages Tao House as an historic site.

Since its founding in 1994, Playground has developed more than 400 original ten-minute plays by 137 early-development writers.  In the process of staging these works, Playground has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers in the Bay Area, while, at the same time, engendering the creation of a true community of theatre artists: actors, directors and playwrights.  For most, if not all of the participating writers, Playground gives the first professional staging of their work and serves to introduce them to the professional theatre community.

Playground’s alumni have gone on to win both local and national honors for their short and full-length plays, including recognition at the Humana Festival, Sundance Festival and the Drama League’s New Directors-New Works series. Directors and actors participating in Playground include some of the most distinguished local theatre professionals, regularly working on leading Bay Area stages such as ACT, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, San Jose Rep, and California Shakespeare Festival.

Most of the visiting playwrights were discovering Tao House for the first time. Malachy Walsh, one of the writers, expressed a common sentiment, “The O’Neills were peculiar in their taste, the white brick and blue ceilings seem almost austere.  Yet Eugene’s study, with its exposed wood paneling and aura of a ship captain’s cabin is completely different in feeling.   It is monumentally inspirational; you can feel O’Neill’s presence.”

Jim Kleinman, Artistic Director of Playground, is enthusiastic about immersing these talented writers in the world of Eugene O’Neill, with the expectation that knowing more about the genius of the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize will inspire them in their own writing.  During the visit, he said, “Connecting with this physical space gives the writers the understanding of the long arc, the through line that energizes a writer’s work and life.”
Discussing the theme, “The Hairy Ape,” that the writers will take for inspiration, Kleinman continued, “It is vital today to give new writers the opportunity to adapt the great works.  David Mamet and others have done it.  We’re pleased to give our writers this opportunity.”

Annie Stuart, casting director for Playground, said, “It is wonderful to see these writers make this connection to a master playwright.  This will help guide and support their own vision.”

The theatre-going public will have a unique opportunity to experience some of the plays created as a result of this visit to Tao House.  The performance is Monday, November 16th at Berkeley Rep.  Tickets will be between $15 and $10, with some “pay what you can” seats available.    See www.playground-sf.org/boxoffice.shtml  for more information.

O’Neill Foundation Mentors High School Juniors
Students to write and perform new plays at Tao House

Danville, Ca, June 10

The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, in partnership with the National Park Service, is sponsoring the second annual O’Neill Studio Retreat for young actors and playwrights.   Under the guidance of theatre professionals, 12 students will gain a deeper knowledge of Eugene O’Neill’s time at Tao House in Danville, by studying his plays and writing style.  The students will write and rehearse and conclude the Retreat with a free public performance of their work in the Old Barn at Tao House on Sunday, July 12 at 2:00 p.m.

The students were invited to attend the Retreat after participating in “Drama Day,” an all-day workshop in theatre earlier this year.   The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, with the support of The Lesher Foundation, provides a full scholarship to all of the students in the Retreat.   This year’s acting mentor is Chad Deverman, who trained at the NYU Tisch School for the Arts, Stella Adler Studio, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.   The playwrighting mentors are Erin Phillips, currently an MFA candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, and Beth Wynstra, a doctoral candidate in Theatre at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The public is invited to attend the free performance, on Sunday, July 12,  which will showcase the talents of the young actors as they premiere their new work.   For reservations and more information, please phone 925-820-1818.

Contact:
Robin Taylor,
Director, Public Relations
Eugene O’Neill Foundation
Phone: 925-837-6560
RobiTaylor@aol.com

Eugene O’Neill Foundation Will Honor Paul Robeson, Museum and Two Leaders on January 21, 2008

Legendary actor, singer and social activist Paul Robeson will be honored Jan. 21 along with two individuals and an institution for work that has embraced and supported the legacy of American playwright Eugene O’Neill and the Danville-based foundation that bears his name.

The Eugene O’Neill Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service will present awards at a dinner, open to the public, at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the Crow Canyon Country Club in Danville. Reservations at $80 per person may be made at (925) 820-1818.

The event will feature a musical tribute to Robeson by bass baritone Lawrence Beamen, whose performance career was influenced by the legendary actor. Beamen will sing Robeson’s trademark song “Old Man River” and other selections.
 
The award to Robeson, who died in 1976 an age 77, was announced in September, but the formal presentation to Paul Robeson Jr., was deferred due to the son’s illness at the time.  Robeson Jr. and his wife, residents of New York, will be present at the dinner to accept the award posthumously in honor of his father, who starred in O’Neill plays, including “The Emperor Jones” and “ All God’s Chillun Got Wings.”

Two longtime foundation leaders, Diane Schinnerer, of San Ramon, and Carol Sherrill, of Danville, will receive the foundation’s “Open Gate Award.”  The award, which Sherrill helped establish during her 18 years on the foundation’ board, is given to individuals who have worked to preserve O’Neill’s Tao House estate, a unit of the Park Service, in Danville and the playwright’s legacy.

A special “Partnership Award” will be presented to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley in Danville “in recognition of working together through exhibits and   special community projects to perpetuate the life and literary legacy” of O’Neill, America’s only playwright to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature and four Pulitzer Prizes.

Schinnerer was the first mayor of San Ramon in 1983 and is a former board member and president of the foundation.  She manages the organization’s library at Tao House. The library contains the largest and most accessible collection of resources relating to the playwright on the West Coast. Since 1999 she has been secretary of the O’Neill Society, an international organization.

Sherrill has been chairman of two international O’Neill conferences in Danville and has served as president and member of the board of the O’Neill Foundation. She and Schinnerer are currently members of the foundation’s Honorary Board, comprised of individuals who have served the organization with distinction.
           
 Robeson, Jr. is executive director of the Paul Robeson Foundation established in 1996 in New York. The foundation, dedicated to preserving the legacy of Robeson, Sr., collects, preserves and disseminates approximately 50,000 items in Robeson collections.