Ghosts at the O’Neill

Ghosts at the O’Neill

Thursday noon — “Not only did we get to ride on a school bus, we also got to show&tell.” Thus spake Leonard Jacobs, one of the intrepid gaggle of ATCA members who, Thursday morning, clambered off the yellow beast and up the steps to the boyhood home of Eugene O’Neill, site of his Ah, Wilderness and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

(Right: Herb Simpson and Brad Hathaway in front of Monte Cristo.) 

Following a sojourn amongst ghosts in the preserved rooms of the cottage, we squeezed together with NCI fellows for a rousing panel on the (now) obligatory subject, “Critics in the New Age” wherein Jacobs, Gail Burns, Andy Probst, Lauren Yarger and Wendy Rosenfield waxed forth on “what the hell do we do next and how do we do it?” under the probing moderating of Jay Handelman. Next up—The Goodspeed, the Gelston House and “Carnival.”

— Lynn Rosen, Bellingham, Wash.