The O'Neill National Theater Institute

What's Happening at the O'Neill?

The O'Neill National Theater Institute hosts events and other opportunities for alumni throughout the year. Additionally, the students are always busy. Here's a snapshot of what's going on now. Scroll to the bottom of the page for more information about alumni-specific events and opportunities.

April, 2006 -- The company had a remarkable and safe time in St. Petersburg. Brian Hashimoto took a great many photos, and was kind enough to let me use his camera as well. He will try to put together a photo CD of the trip. We saw two productions at Lev Dodin's Maly Theater, his new King Lear and his Uncle Vanya, an extraordinary puppet show by a Buryatin theater company from Mongolia, which won Russia's foremost theater prize, the Golden Mask, the Kirov Ballet's Don Quixote at the Mariinsky Theater, an adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Orchestra, an adaptation of Dostoevsky's story The Village of Stepanchikovo, a diploma production of Our Town directed by Sergei Tcherkasski, and a wonderful one-person puppet production of Sleeping Beauty. This was complemented by tours of the city, the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, and the Emperor's Palace at Peterhof. And of course a full schedule of classes in voice and speech, singing, movement, dance, and acting classes.

March, 2006 -- There are three special performances coming up here at the National Theater Institute, and we invite you to join us at any or all of them. All three are the culmination of the NTI Workshop Week process, in which three guest artists join us at the O'Neill for a week of intensive work.

Friday, March 31, 8:00pm - Dina Merrill Theater - NTI Cabaret Evening - The students perform songs they've been working on with Beth Falcone, composer, musical director, and O'Neill Cabaret Conference participant

Saturday, April 1, 8:00pm - Dina Merrill Theater - Greek Chorus Performance - The students present selections from the Greek tragedies under the guidance of Michael Hackett, Professor at Department of Television, Film, and Theater at UCLA. This work is ensemble-based and is extraordinarily dynamic, physically and vocally.

Sunday, April 2, 8:00pm - Location TBA - Solo Performances - The students present the product of their work with David White, O'Neill Center Literary Manager and playwright. Each student will present a five-minute self-created performance. Please call 860-443-7139 for information regarding performance venue.

These presentations will be no longer than 90 minutes each, and provide a great opportunity to see the NTI students in their process. Please join us.

February, 2006 -- The NTI Spring '06 class has arrived, and is now settled in for the semester. Beyond their normal 7-day-a-week schedule, they recently had the opportunity for a special contact improvisation workshop with David Dorfman, and are looking forward to seeing SITI Company's Death of the Plowman at Wesleyan College, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Odd Couple at Broadway's Signature Theater, and The Wooster Group's production of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones.

December, 2005 -- The fall 2005 NTI class will perform their final projects in the Dina Merrill Theater at 8:00 P.M. on Friday and Saturday, December 16 & 17. Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the O'Neill's National Playwrights Conference, will direct the project, which represents the culmination of the NTI students' semester of study with theater professionals. Ms. Goldberg said, "The final project has been conceived to be an extension of the National Playwrights Conference as well as Playwrights Week at NTI, in an effort to give the students a greater appreciation of working on theatrical material by contemporary, living writers. For two weeks, the students will explore the unique relationship between working as an actor, director, and designer with a living playwright."
Performances are free and open to the public; reservations are recommended. Call 860-443-5378, x288 for reservations.

Elizabeth LaCompte, founding member of The Wooster Group, works with NTI students

November, 2005 -- The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has formed an unprecedented educational partnership with two important, innovative performance companies from New York City: The Wooster Group and Anne Bogart's SITI Company. Both of these distinguished companies, known for their unique approaches to theatrical material, voice work and physical movement, will be conducting special workshops in New York and at the O'Neill Theater Center with students enrolled in NTI's training program.
Leading members of SITI Company, including J. Ed Araiza, Barney O'Hanlon, and Stephen Webber, will lead a two-week intensive workshop in Suzuki, Viewpoints and Composition methods with NTI students at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. The studio sessions will culminate in two free events that are open to the public on November 19: A Suzuki/Viewpoints Lecture Demonstration from 10:00am - 1:00 pm with SITI Company members; and, at 7:30 p.m. in the Dina Merrill Theater, NTI students will present the Composition Project, Vaudeville Vanya.
The full O'Neill press release can be found here.

NTI Alumni Events

A 30th Anniversary Celebration was held on April 29, 2001 at the O'Neill Theater Center to commemorate the program's three decades of growth and achievement. Over two hundred alumni, faculty and guests met for the one-day event, which included workshops, panel discussions with theater professionals, a shared dinner in the Barn, and a performance by Chicago's NeoFuturists, headed by NTI alum Greg Allen.

An informal gathering of alumni was held June 20, 2002 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City. Alumni were free to meet with NTI Director David Jaffe, O'Neill Theater Center Executive Director Howard Sherman, Chairman of the O'Neill Board of Trustees Tom Viertel, as well as other NTI alumni residing in the New York vicinity.

NTI Alumni Workshops at The O'Neill Theater Center

NTI is invested in the development and growth of its alumni as active theater artists. In that spirit, the O'Neill Theater Center opens use of the spaces in Waterford to NTI alumni as a workshop facility or as a place for creative retreat. Contact the NTI Office for details regarding available times and alumni rates.