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NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
May Playwright’s Theatre: Clifford
Odets: Heir to O’Neill
In the years after Eugene O’Neill’s amazing run of success in the 1920’s and early
1930’s, O’Neill all but disappeared from the public eye. Unknown to many, he was
building a home in the Danville hills and continuing his writing. At this time,
Clifford Odets became the toast of Broadway and the heir apparent to Eugene
O’Neill. Writing in the tumultuous years of the Great Depression, Odets’ work was
seen as both social activism and entertainment.
This May, Playwrights’ Theater will feature staged readings in the Old Barn at
the Eugene O’Neill Historic Site of two of Odets’ most important plays
Waiting for Lefty on May 3rd
Waiting for Lefty by by Clifford Odets,
New Phoenix Theatre Company.
and Golden Boy on May 17th
According to Vice President of Artistic Programming Eric Fraisher Hayes, “Waiting for Lefty epitomizes Odets’
ability to bring the struggles of the common man to the stage. It is both fierce in its call for social change as well
as incredibly theatrical. By contrast, Golden Boy, the most popular and commercially successful of Odets’ works
in the 1930’s, is more of a conventional drama involving popular subjects of its time, namely boxers, corrupt
managers and gangsters.” This May highlights the broad writing talents of Clifford Odets, the most popular playwright of the 1930’s.
Reservations for both productions are available online at the Foundation website
First Two Tao House Fellows Selected for
Travis Bogard Artist
in Residence Program
Realizing a long-held goal, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao
House, launches the Travis Bogard Artist in Residence program in
April, selecting two Tao House Fellows whose projects represent
both the academic and creative fields of the performing arts.
While at Tao House, David Palmer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, will work on a manuscript relating to O’Neill’s plays, taking a “cognitive studies” approach to the analysis of tragedy which has emerged in recent
years, due to advances in brain research and evolutionary psychology. Herman Daniel Farrell III, a professional playwright and Professor of Playwriting at the University of Kentucky, aims to create
the first draft of a “postmodern” play about Eugene O’Neill, his life
and work.
Continued on page 2...
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
Playwrights’ Theatre in May …………..……..
1
Foundations’ First Tao House Fellows ….…..
1
O’Neill Festival: A Season of Desire …………
3
Student Days 2015: Experiences Shared …..
4
National Park Service Report ………………….
5
Won’t You Join Us? ……………………………..
5
Getting Ready for O’Neill Studio Retreat …....
6
NOTICE TO OUR MEMBERS: For our members, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation will continue to mail the Foundation Newsletter directly to you First
Class, giving you the convenience of a handy guide to Foundation activities
and news right at your fingertips. The Newsletter will continue to be posted on
our website (www.eugeneoneill.org) for non-members and others.
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 1
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
“Travis Bogard Artists In Residence Program”
continued from page 1...
The two Fellows were selected from ten stellar applicants for the program, which is designed to provide developing or established artists, scholars or critics of the performing arts
the opportunity to work in the solitude and quiet which inspired Eugene O’Neill, America’s
only Nobel Prizewinning playwright. The program is named for the late Travis Bogard, professor emeritus of Dramatic Arts at UC Berkeley and the O’Neill Foundation’s first artistic
director. Soon after the Foundation was formed forty years ago, Professor Bogard envisioned Tao House not only as a living memorial to Eugene O’Neill, but as a creative workplace for writers and scholars.
Travis Bogard
O’Neill Foundation Co-President, Gary Schaub, says, “For many years the O’Neill Foundation has been looking to initiate the Artist in Residence program at Tao House, a goal our early mentor Travis Bogard set for us.
The Foundation Board is very pleased that Travis’s dream is being realized with the appointment of our first
two Tao House Fellows”.
The first Fellow, David Palmer, will arrive early in April and spend a month working
on the O’Neill section of a book tentatively entitled Evolution, Ethics and Tragedy: A
Cognitive Studies Approach to the Plays of Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill.
At Tao House he will focus on the late autobiographical plays and particularly Eugene’s brother, Jamie, whom he describes as “a man who is driven into crippling
shame by his confrontation with his inability to realize his idealized self.”
Herman Farrell will arrive in late May to revisit a project he
began in 1983. A few months after graduating from Vassar he
wrote an “epic play” Dreams of the Son: A Life of Eugene
O’Neill which he now describes as melodramatic, reminiscent
of the theatre of O’Neill’s father. After thirty years experience
of researching and teaching O’Neill, including being selected
three times as a playwright fellow at the National Playwrights
Conference of the Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford Connecticut, he now intends to write a different type of play. An
David Palmer
award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Farrell’s most recent ventures include a touring production of The Voices of
Student Veterans, a drama based on interviews with college student veterans of the
Afghanistan and Iraq wars and Cousin’s Table, which involves a get-together of a multicultural family who haven’t been together since a falling out over the invasion of Iraq. He
earned a Peabody Award as co-writer of the HBO film Boycott.
Herman Farrell
The Tao House Fellows will work in a specially-designed space in the Trunk House (named because it housed
Carlotta’s Louis Vuitton luggage) in the courtyard of Tao House just below the window of O’Neill’s study. They
will live at the San Damiano Retreat Center and travel a short distance to Tao House each day.
Florence McAuley, head of the Foundation’s Advisory Board Committee which has developed the three year
pilot program in collaboration with the National Park Service, explains that an evaluation panel of professionals
assessed the projects and rated the applications, recommending that this first stage of the program include
representatives from both the academic and creative fields.
Members and friends of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation support this program and donations are gratefully received.
Thank you for your support!
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 2
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
Clifford Odets – the Heir to Eugene
O’Neill
Long known as the champion of the disenfranchised, playwright Clifford Odets (1906 1963) came on the scene in the early 1930s. He was widely seen as a successor to Eugene O’Neill as O’Neill began to retire from Broadway’s commercial pressures.
While Odets was successful on Broadway and in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s,
O’Neill – having moved to the West Coast and to Tao House – rebounded with his famous
“Tao House plays” including More Stately Mansions, The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for
the Misbegotten and A Long Days Journey into Night – all written while O’Neill lived in
Danville.
Odets is most known for his socially relevant dramas which proved most influential during
the Great Depression. Waiting for Lefty (1935) was Odets’ first great success. He learned
his profession as an actor in repertory companies, including his role with the influential
Clifford Odets photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Group Theatre in New York as one of its original members. The Group Theatre emphasized an acting technique (“The Method”) based on a system devised by Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavski, and
developed further by Group Theater director Lee Strasberg. Odets became the Group’s primary playwright.
Other plays followed, including Awake and Sing, Till the Day I Die, and the notable Golden Boy (1937). In the early 1940s,
Odets transferred his interest to Hollywood as a screenwriter. His play, The Country Girl was a success in New York, and later
adapted for a film starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.
2015 O’Neill Festival:
A Season of Desire
Following up on the incredible, sold-out run of last year’s The Iceman
Man Cometh and the record-setting Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the Eugene
O’Neill Foundation is proud to announce that it will be partnering again
with Role Players Ensemble for a Season of Desire.
The 2015 O’Neill Festival will feature a production of the O’Neill classic
Desire under the Elms at Tao House, while the Village Theatre in
downtown Danville will be hosting Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar
Named Desire.
This year’s Festival will run September 4th – 27th.
Tickets for the plays and other festival events will go on sale later this spring.
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 3
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
Teen Participants Share their Experiences
from our 24th Annual Student Days
Sixteen teenagers from seven high schools assembled at Tao House in the
hills above Danville for the first of our two Student Days in March. It was a
fun-filled day of drama and art under the guidance of actor/teacher Chad
Deverman of Walnut Creek and Debby Koonce, retired art teacher from
Moraga Junior High School. “Getting over artist’s block”, “appreciating different styles”, “making new friends”, “learning new techniques”, “relaxing in
the beautiful Tao House setting…” – these were what Student Day participants, Young Bi, Samantha Carmel Cole, Cameron Hui and Janelle Doolittle hoped to experience at the 24th Annual Student Days at Tao House in
early March.
Drama students learned to ask questions, work as an ensemble or team,
and to take risks in their work. Sounding like a combination drill sergeant
and supportive coach, Deverman lead the students in “warm-ups” including
breathing and articulation exercises followed by opportunities for students
to share perspectives: “I love the energy here (at Tao House)”, “I feel the
spirit in the peace of the surroundings.” Student participant, Evelyn McCollom of Mt. Diablo High School hopes to “base my life
around the arts.” Jacob Freeman, also of Mt. Diablo High School, says “making people laugh makes me feel alive inside.”
Monte Vista senior Janelle Doolittle, who plans to major in environmental engineering as a college
freshman next year, shared that she “finds herself in other people’s lives…[that she is studying]…
and thereby learns more about herself.” Similarly, Mt. Diablo student, Sabrina Pohyar finds she
“watches herself in acting and writing…[and thereby]…knows herself better.”
The peace of the surroundings of Tao House were explored by artist/student Cameron Hui of
Dougherty High School under the guidance of Koonz. Together, they surveyed the pastoral setting
of Tao House and chose three likely subjects for Hui’s preferred sketching style. Taking 30
minutes to complete each sketch, Koonz then supported Cameron with side-by-side painting instruction so that the process was concretely demonstrated and explained.
In the afternoon (following a pizza lunch under the shade of the oak trees), Cameron was invited to
select one of her sketches to develop further, including the possibility of painting it with oil colors.
Cameron chose to paint and the results were enthusiastically approved by the drama students
when displayed at the end of the day during the closing.
For our second Student Days, aspiring photographers and writers gathered at Tao House where
they worked in their chosen areas. The photography instructor, Lorena Castillo, brought along several old cameras for the students to inspect giving them a clear idea of the strides that have been
made in photography. One of the activities for the participants was a
scavenger hunt where the students were required to take pictures representing parameters such as hot, cool, hard, soft, and finally something
green, but not from nature.
The writers, working under the guidance of playwright Erin Edens, wrote
short scenes using various prompts and shared their writings with one
another. This summer many of the writers return for the O’Neill Studio
Retreat in July when they will write short plays which will be performed by
the acting students.
And…were their expectations realized? When asked if they would
like to return for the summer program, the students unanimously
raised their hands affirmatively!
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 4
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
National Park Service Report
By Tom Leatherman, Superintendent, Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site
In 2016 the National Park Service will turn 100 years old and we are getting ready to celebrate
our centennial through a variety of activities and events. The goal of the centennial is to “Connect
with and create the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates.” The programs
that happen at the site are right in line with this goal and we are excited about building even more
interest and involvement in these activities for 2016. Whether it is Student Days, Playwright’s
Theatre or the Eugene O’Neill Festival, we hope to use the centennial to introduce more people to the legacy of Eugene
O’Neill and the inspiration that Tao House provides.
In building towards this goal, we are already engaged in new and exciting programming at the site. With funds provided
through a National Parks Conservation Association grant obtained in cooperation with Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home
Front National Historical Park, Richmond High School students, in collaboration with the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, presented UnRapping O'Neill, a modern adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. In the performance, the students unravel the themes
of isolation, addiction, and forgiveness from O'Neill's masterpiece and connect these to the challenges and anxieties of communities in Richmond,
California. The production brings a contemporary feel to the classic play by
weaving beat boxing, rap, and break dancing into the storytelling. Our
hope is that this play can be performed at Eugene O'Neill National Historic
Site sometime in the future to help demonstrate how the legacy of O’Neill
can remain relevant and inspiring for future generations.
Won’t You Join Us?
If you are currently a member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, you’re very
special to us. If you are thinking about joining as a member, now’s the time to do it!
Our members make the Foundation happen. Even though we work very closely with the National Park Service at the Eugene
O’Neill National Historic Site, the O’Neill Foundation receives no direct financial support for the community and educational programs we produce each year – programs such as last year’s sell-out production of The Iceman Cometh, or the upcoming May
Playwrights’ Theatre staged-reading of Clifford Odets’ provocative
Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy.
Without membership and community support, these programs, which
promote the legacy of America’s most honored playwright, wouldn’t
be feasible.
It’s easy to join. Just go online to www.eugeneoneill.org – the O’Neill
Foundation’s website – and renew your membership or make a commitment to join us, helping us to provide these educational programs
throughout the year. Basic membership starts at just $35/year, but
members at Playwrights’ Circle Level ($100-249), or Director’s Circle
Level ($250-499), or higher, earn special recognition and perks, as well
as the knowledge that you are helping the Eugene O’Neill Foundation
as well as making its programs available to the entire community.
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
Join us!
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 5
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
E X P A N D E D SUMMER
STUDIO RETREAT
IN THE WORKS FOR
TEEN WRITERS AND ACTORS AT TAO HOUSE
Emerging playwrights and actors interested in developing their own short
plays and having them performed will be interested in the O’Neill Studio
Retreat, taking place at the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site in Danville. The workshop runs from Thursday, July 9 through Saturday, July
19, with a day off on July 13. The retreat will be expanded this year to ten
days, from seven days in past years. Applications for participation in the
summer’s program are being accepted through June.
Sponsored by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House in partnership
with the National Park Service, the intensive workshop provides the opportunity for young writers and actors to work collaboratively with professional playwrights and stage directors in the development of short plays
(8-10 minutes). The program is geared for advanced high school students.
A limited number of writers and actors can be accepted into the intensive
workshop. The workshop meets daily from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 or 4:00 p.m.
from July 9-20. The retreat culminates with a performance in the Old Barn
Theater before a community audience on the final afternoon.
Ignacio Zulueta mentors a Studio Retreat participant ( Tom Donahoe)
The O’Neill Studio Retreat is a unique program, designed to provide a more thorough understanding of playwright Eugene O’Neill
and his place in American drama, as well as to encourage creative production by the students. The expanded program will enable
a more comfortable timeframe to develop and prepare the emerging scripts for presentation.
This is collaborative workshop in playwriting and acting, led by two experienced playwrights and an actor-educator. The workshop staff includes published playwright Ignacio Zulueta, recipient of an Emerging Playwrights Award and a 2012-13 Fellowship
from San Francisco Playground; and playwright Erin Edens who hold her MA in Dramatic Arts from UC Santa Barbara, and an
MFA in playwriting from University of Texas at Austin. Both writers have had their works produced around the country. Stage
Director/Educator Chad Deverman will also return for this summer’s workshop. Deverman is a professional actor who has worked
with many local groups, including Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep TheatreWorks, and CalShakes.
Applications for participation in the July 9-19, 2015 workshop are available online at www.eugeneoneill.org
(click on “O’Neill Studio Retreat”).
The O’Neill Studio Workshop is supported by grants from the Wood Foundation and the Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation.
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 6
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
WELCOME:
Did You Know …
...that No Reservations are needed to visit the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site on Saturdays?
Just show up at the Museum of the San Ramon
Valley, 205 Railroad Avenue, Danville, board the
NPS Shuttle at 10:00am,
noon and 2:00pm for a
ride up to Tao House.
Take a picnic!
NEW BOARD MEMBER!
Amy Glynn is an award-winning poet and essayist and
occasional actor who first got a taste for the boards in a
production of O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" as a teenager.
Her writing appears widely in journals and anthologies
including "The Best American Poetry (2010 and 2012);"
her poetry collection "A Modern Herbal" was published
by Measure Press. She
has been a James Merrill House Fellow and the
recipient of Poetry
Northwest's Carolyn Kizer Award. She grew up
in Alamo, CA and now
lives in Lafayette with
her two daughters.
2015 FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Executive Committee
Board of Directors
Advisory Board
Co-Presidents
Trudy McMahon
Gary Schaub
VP Education
Jack DeRieux
VP Programs
Eric Fraisher Hayes
Board Secretary
Joyce Michalczyk
Secretary
Carolyn Schaffer
Mary Camezon
Katy Colbath
Amy Glynn
Eileen Herrman
Susan Jackson
Florence McAuley
(Advisory Board Rep)
Merilyn Milam
Linda Best
Dan Cawthorn
Wendy Cooper
Carol Lea Jones
Jim R.K. Kantor
Beverly Lane
Florence McAuley
Claudia Nemir
Robert Rezak
Diane Schinnerer
Carol Sherrill
Brian Theissen
Administrative Assistant
Alison Bodden
Honorary Members
Stephen A. Black
Arvin Brown
Zoe Caldwell
Kiera Chaplin
Max von Sydow
Brian Dennehy
Barbara Gelb
Glenda Jackson
Paul Libin
Lois Robards
Kevin Spacey
George C. White
Gerald Eugene Stramm
Liv Ullman
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 7
NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2015
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House is most grateful to you, our supporters for your generous
contributions that allow us to provide artistic and educational programs which focus on O’Neill’s vision
and legacy. Eugene O’Neill is recognized throughout the world as America’s foremost playwright.
Please join us in recognizing the following donors through March 31, 2015. All gifts and updated donations received after that date will be acknowledged in our next publication.
Thank you also, to all our valued Crew Level and Affiliate Level Supporters.
Education Program Grants: Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation, Wood Foundation
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER CIRCLE
$1000 and above
Jack Schwartzman Family Foundation
Ms. Carolyn Schaffer
Gagen, McCoy, McMahon, Koss, Markowitz, Raines
Linda Grundhoffer
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Sehr
Kay and Carol Jones
Mrs. Merilyn Milam
Mr. & Mrs. Howard Nemir
Malcolm and Florence McAuley
PRODUCER’S CIRCLE
$500-999
Mr. & Mrs. Ray Camezon
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick J. McMahon
Mr. & Mrs. Vasili Millias
Mr. & Mrs. Don Ritchey
Gary Schaub & Maria Gounaris
Brian & Carolyn Thiessen
Diane & Don Schinnerer
John & Carol Sherrill
DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE
$250-499
Mr. & Mrs. Dan Cawthon
Wendy & Tony Cooper
Paul & Marilyn Gardner
Barbara & Rob Grant
Dr. & Mrs. Ronald Iverson
Beverly & Jim Lane
Susan Taylor
Carol & David Wynstra
PLAYWRIGHT’S CIRCLE
$100-249
Judith Abrams
Robert Arellanes
Mrs. Nancy Bartholomew
Ed & Linda Best
Karen Bonnar-Fay
Ms. Penny Chuah
Ms. Katy Colbath
Dave & Sue DeVoe
Mr. Jeff Elfont
Marianne & Bill Gagen
Amy Greacen
Ms. Eileen Herrmann
Virginia Hooper
Ms. Susan Jackson
Ms. Barbara Kuklewicz
Samantha Lemole
David Lewis
Ms. Winifred Stribling
Phil Belman
P.O. Box 402 • Danville, CA 94526-0402 • (925) 820-1818
PLAYWRIGHT’S CIRCLE (cont.)
Rosalie E. Malatesta
Ms. Susan McEvilly
David Miller
Robert O’Donnell
Ms. Judy Olson
Robert R. Rezak
Marla Roden
Mr. & Mrs. Ryan
Marian L. Shanks
Jack & Cecilia De Rieux
Roberta Eisel
David & Linn Coombs
Helen Smith
Barbara Stevens
Gerald Stram
Susan Terzuoli
Michael & Joyce Wahlig
Rodney Washburn
George C. White
Diane Wieser
Mr. & Mrs. Tony Woodward
Bill Blair
Carol Anderson
Nancy & William Lieber
Martha & William Slavin
ACTOR’S CIRCLE
$75-99
Rosalind Hirsch
Paul & Fran Sheehan
Joanne Dunec & Bruce Teel
taohouse.eonf@gmail.com • www.EugeneOneill.org
PG. 8