O'Neill's Music Theater Conference Selects When We Met, String, A Good Man and The ToyMaker | Playbill

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News O'Neill's Music Theater Conference Selects When We Met, String, A Good Man and The ToyMaker When We Met, String, A Good Man and The ToyMaker are the four new musicals that will be developed this summer by the Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference.

The 35th annual season, presented June 20 through July 13 in Waterford, CT, brings theatre writers together with professional actors and directors to develop new works for the stage. The public is invited to attend performances at the end of the workshop period.

The four new works were selected from 167 scripts received by the O'Neill through an open submission process. Paulette Haupt serves as artistic director of the Music Theater Conference. Preston Whiteway is the executive director of the O'Neill.

Details on the 2012 selections follow:

When We Met
Book by Dan Collins
Lyrics and music by Julianne Wick Davis
in collaboration with Sally Wilfert and Michael Winther
(Performed June 20, 22 and 24)
"When We Met is a story about two comfortably single, middle-aged people who reluctantly meet on a blind date. Their encounter throws all their certainty about being alone into question. In a world that pits theory against faith, When We Met explores how a quantum physicist and animal communicator struggle to understand one of the greatest intangibles of all: love."

String
Book by Sarah Hammond
Lyrics and music by Adam Gwon
(Performed June 23, 25, 27 and 29)
"A workaholic Greek god gets tangled up with a security guard in the basement of the tallest building in the world. One mistake leads to another - a lost pair of scissors, a kiss, a stolen string - and soon Atropos is breaking her own rules to offer forever to an ordinary man. Can the fabric of the universe stand a flaw? An original musical about the three Fates in the modern city." A Good Man
Book and lyrics by Philip S. Goodman
Music by Ray Leslee
(Performed June 30, July 1, 3 and 6)
"Just after World War II in rural Mississippi, Albert Clayton, a black sharecropper, decides to paint his tenant house white, and his world turns upside down. He struggles with a desperate wife, a frightened landlord, a sexy sister-in-law, and a furious, closed-minded town."

The ToyMaker
Book, lyrics, and music by Bryan Putnam
(Performed July 7, 8, 11 and 13)
"An 'uncommonly powerful' tale of enduring passion and hope, The ToyMaker tells the story of Sarah Meeks, a young woman who is struggling in her marriage after two failed pregnancies. Rumors of a childless toy maker of the past set her on a desperate search for the last toy made by this man. Thus begins a journey that spans the globe and time itself. Sarah's quest to find the 'childless toy' and solve the mysteries of a village destroyed by war lead her to a destiny of fulfillment she once thought impossible."

Single tickets to the Music Theatre Conference performances go on sale to the general public June 8. Member tickets begin sale May 16. Phone (860) 443-1238 or visit www.theoneill.org.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center was founded in 1964 and is based in Waterford, CT. Programs at the Center include the Puppetry Conference, Playwrights Conference, Critics Institute, Music Theater Conference and the National Theater Institute. The Monte Cristo Cottage, O'Neill's childhood home, is also owned and operated by the group.

 
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