Canadians at the O’Neill

Abstract

This past summer, a group of 16 Canadian theatre people participated in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s much praised National Playwrights Conference. The group was brought to the O’Neill under the sponsorship of the Canadian Theatre Review and with the financial support of the Department of External Affairs, the Ontario Ministry of Culture, the Floyd S. Chalmers Foundation, Imperial Oil of Canada, the Ford Foundation of New York, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Portugal, York University and other private and public agencies. The goal was not to “learn” from the American experience as much as it was to analyze what made the O’Neill the world s most successful script development centre. The Canadian contingent participated in all aspects of the O’Neill operation from playwriting (Michael Cook and Beverley Simons) to administration (Susan Feldman of the Canadian Guild of Playwrights) to dramaturgy (Peter Hay and Don Rubin) to performance (Edward Atienza, Denise Fergusson, Kenneth Welsh, Bill Meilen, Ken Kramer, Sue Kramer, John Juliani, John Horton and Brenda Donohue) to technical support (Mimi Mekler and Suzanne Jones). Other Canadians worked at the O’Neill as well, although not officially part of the delegation. These included actress Gale Garnett and director Sheldon Larry. In the following essay, Peter Hay, editor of Vancouver’s Talonplays, articulates what the experience meant to him and what he believes it could mean for the Canadian theatre.