| WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE: O'Neill on Metropolitan VIRTUAL Playhouse June 20th | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 04:46 pm EDT 06/16/20 | |
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| Early Eugene O'Neill and Guest Scholar Talk WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE by Eugene O'Neill Obsession, Mania, Hereditary Angst: O'Neill version 1.0 Online readings, Week Thirteen June 20th, 2020 at 8 PM Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse will present a free "screened" reading of WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE, a ghost story by Eugene O'Neill, via live stream video, with talkback to follow, on Saturday, June 20th, 2020 at 8 PM, EST. Running Time: 30 minutes Talkback to follow with Alexander Pettit, Editor of the Eugene O'Neill Review, including audience questions via Zoom and YouTube chat Available via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88395846819 and YouTube at https://youtu.be/sDY11ynh_X8 All links available at: www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse The program will also be simultaneously broadcast on WBAI Radio 99.5 FM and wbai.org In the ghost story WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE, Nat Bartlett is ready to give up on his father, grounded sea captain Isaiah, who cannot give up his fixation on a treasure lost years ago in the South Pacific. Convinced the "treasure" was worthless, if it existed at all, and that it will surely never be found, he calls in a psychiatrist to justify committing the old man. But when his sister discovers the plan, and his father confronts him over his disbelief, the colliding forces of devotion, doubt, and obsession shock these helpless mortals into a whole new realm. Like many of his early works, this 1918 play heralds O'Neill's later themes and craft. Shamelessly melodramatic, with innocent victims, earnest heroes, and life or death stakes, the play also introduces the inter-generational conflicts, psychological fixations, and subtle understanding of the metaphysical workings of our imaginations that blossomed in his later masterpieces, including Desire Under the Elms to Long Day's Journey Into Night, to The Iceman Cometh. Following the reading, a discussion that includes audience participation will be led by Alexander Pettit, Editor of the Eugene O'Neill Review, and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, as well as Affiliated Faculty in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of North Texas. The reading will be directed by Frank Kuhn (Leah the Forsaken. The Drunkard). The cast includes Joe Candelora, Michael Hardart, John Ingle, Dena Miller, Julie Pham, with additional characters painted by artist Pamela Lawton. EUGENE O'NEILL (1888 - 1953) The father of modern American drama, his works dominate the American canon, and include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), and the posthumously produced Long Day's Journey Into Night (1941). The first American playwright ever so honored, he earned the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936. Dropping out of Princeton he took to the life of a seafarer, stopping in Buenos Aires, Liverpool, and New York. He held jobs that varied from secretary to gold prospector to draughtsman to mule tender to newspaper reporter. He abused alcohol, contracted tuberculosis, and nearly took his own life, but on recovery through a sanitarium in 1913, he began writing plays. A prolific author, in addition to his 26 mostly shorter works before 1920, he wrote over 20 full-length plays between 1920 and 1943, though his most ambitious project was never completed. This was a cycle of 11 plays, to be performed on 11 consecutive nights, following an American family over two centuries. A Touch of the Poet was the only play he completed of that cycle, while More Stately Mansions was a rough draft of a second. Both were published and performed after his death. ARTISTS' RELIEF Metropolitan presents these readings as a way of keeping the theater's pilot lit. They also serve to help us compensate performing artists, so particularly affected, during this long "pause." Information about the theater's ARTISTS RELIEF FUND may be found at www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/covidaid The VIRTUAL PLAYHOUSE began on March 28, 2020, with Alice Gerstenberg's "He Said and She Said," and continued the following week with Eugene O'Neill's "The Rope," with five times the attendance. Beginning with Gerstenberg's "Hearts," the program is simultaneously broadcast on New York's Pacifica Radio Station WBAI, 99.5 FM. For this period of social distancing, with Metropolitan Playhouse's facility closed, actors read parts to the camera from their homes, using the Zoom platform, which enables all characters in a scene to be onscreen simultaneously. Weekly readings are in progress, with mid-week programing in develpment, all drawn from the rich trove of lost American theater. The playhouse is honored and fortunate to be able to continue its mission of exploring America's diverse theatrical history during these trying times. The presentation of the forgotten one-act plays is an ideal way to pursue the theater's mission and extend its current season, devoted to plays and themes of DISSENT. METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE, in its 28th season, explores America’s diverse theatrical heritage through lost plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. The theater received a 2011 OBIE Grant from The Village Voice for its ongoing productions that illuminate who we are by revealing where we have come from. Called "invaluable" by the Voice and Backstage, Metropolitan has earned further accolades from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Other awards include a Victorian Society of New York Outstanding Performing Arts Group, 3 Aggie Awards from Gay City News, 21 nominations for NYIT Awards (3 winners), and 6 AUDELCO Viv Award nominations. |
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| Link | https://youtu.be/sDY11ynh_X8 |
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