English and Dramatic Literature Students Participate in Eugene O’Neill Festival
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| O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night is in production at Arena Stage as part of the Eugene O’Neill Festival |
Members of the GW English department participated in the citywide Eugene O’Neill Festival last week, giving two nights of readings of O’Neill’s early Sea Plays, “Moon of the Caribees,” “In the Zone,” “Long Voyage Home” and “Bound East for Cardiff.” The readings were directed by Rick Foucheux under the auspices of Arena Stage. Foucheux, a prominent local actor, teaches in the theatre department at GWU and acted in “The Merchant of Venice” last fall.
English major Zachary Shelton read each evening and Amanda Demczuk, Kayla Knapp, David Marshall, Amanda Newman, Terry Loles, Rita Suri, and Max Young-Jones, students in the Dramatic Literature program, worked on the dramaturgy under the direction of Theater Professor Jodi Kanter.
The dramaturgs wrote that “These four one-acts demonstrate O’Neill’s genius even from his beginnings as a playwright and reflect his life as a young wayfarer aboard a merchant marine ship. The plays remain early examples in O’Neill’s quest to break from the melodrama of 19th century theater toward a more realist and humanist expression that defined a modern America.”
– Submitted by Prof. Pati Griffith
