Welcome to another year of Page to Stage!

GREETINGS ALL!

Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece, never performed during his lifetime and only published after his death (and perhaps contrary to his dying wishes), Long Day’s Journey Into Night is, at this very moment, being rehearsed and made real for our theater-going pleasure at Prospect Theater Project. Despite O’Neill’s reluctance to see this now-revered work in the world, shortly after the playwright’s death Long Day’s won the Tony for Best Play and O’Neill was granted a posthumous Pulitzer (his fourth overall).

And so it seems fitting that Prospect Founding Artistic Director Jack Souza, as he takes gentle strides toward his own retirement, would lead the fictional Tyrone family playing the role of aging actor James. He is joined on stage by the cream of a rising local crop of terrific young talent — Thomas Maden, Noah Thompson, Ally Munson — and the featured return of Jenni Abbott.

ABOUT THE PLAY: 

The play, as hinted at in the title, invites us into a typical day with James, his long-suffering wife Mary, their sons Jamie and Edmund, and the housemaid Cathleen. It spans one day in August 1912 as the characters battle the garden hedges, the coastal fog, their chemical dependencies, their memories, their resentments, time itself, and one another. It is a tragedy about the collapse of a man and a family, an analysis conducted through our shared inability to communicate, to love and to allow ourselves to be loved in turn, but bolstered against our ability, as wisely observed by director Carin Heidelbach, to persist. 

THEMES:

Both the play and the playwright have been written about extensively. There is a particular pride among literary and theater critics (and readers) that O’Neill is American and deeply situated in all that it means to be American at the start of the century, at the mid-century mark, and, brilliantly, now–some 70 years after his death. And so for this particular play we are going to do something a little different.

Rather than writing out for you the themes that we, your hosts for Page to Stage, find particularly salient, we are going to direct you to two outstanding resources. Of course, there are more–Google and/or your local library will both be good pals if you just can’t get enough on the subject. 

First, though, if you would, please take some time to look at the study guide from Geffen Playhouse’s 2017 production of Long Day’s. (Here’s a link to copy and paste in case you need it: (https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/site/assets/files/6103/1485889194_long_days_journey_-_study_guide.pdf ). We found this to be a particularly thoughtful look at addiction in light of this play. And some of the other questions posed in the guide are worthy of consideration. Now, sure, you can probably skip the “audience etiquette” section aimed at newbies to theater going–we know you know not to have a rousing cell phone conversation during the performance. But there’s still plenty here to sink your teeth into while you ponder:

What it means to “succeed”

How we navigate addiction (both the addicted and their loved ones)

Health and wellness

Old wounds

Caretaking–of self and others

Finally, take a gander at PBS’s “American Experience” section on O’Neill: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/oneill/ . It provides a brief but meaty discussion of O’Neill, an overview of a documentary about the playwright, and even a transcript of the documentary. If you are a PBS member, you may even be able to find the video to view yourself. If you do, take notes to share with the group!

SALUTATIONS:

If you haven’t read it already, copies of the play are available everywhere books are sold or lent. You can get one of a limited number through the Prospect Theater Project front office by emailing info@prospecttheaterproject.org.

We have it on good authority that the script will be thoughtfully trimmed for this performance (it’s a play that can run 4 hours in its full glory). But we’ll read the whole kit and caboodle–because we are just that extra!

As a reminder, Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill opens March 22, directed by Carin Heidelbach.

The page to Stage discussion will be in the PTP’s Artist’s Lab on Sunday, March 24, following the performance. We look forward to seeing you then for a rousing conversation! 

Yours, 

Scott, Shannon, and Linda