Gilman, Etc. to Develop Plays at O'Neill Center Conference

Variety reports that Rebecca Gilman and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will be among the eight playwrights who will see their plays developed this summer at the 2007 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

The conference will run in July and include projects developed with Ireland's Druid Theater and Chicago's Goodman Theater.  The selected plays were chosen out of more than 600 scripts sent to the O'Neill. The conference will also include a one-night tribute to the late Lloyd Richards, the conference's former Artistic Director.

Selections for the conference are as follows:

The Crowd You're In With, "a play by Gilman (Spinning Into Butter) about a man deciding whether to become a father."

Good Boys and True, the latest from Aguirre-Sacasa (Based on a Totally True Story), "about an all-American high school star whose rep is tarnished by an incriminating video tape."

Deborah Zoe Laufer's End Days, "which follows a teen girl, her eccentric family and the imminent Apocalypse."

The Velvet Rut, "James Still's tale about the life crisis of a high school English teacher, and a Boy Scout named Virgil who leads him on a journey."

Samuel Brett Williams' The Woodpecker, "a dark comedy revolving around small-town Arkansas and Guantanamo Bay."

The Book Club Play by Karen Zacarias, "about a reading group and its new member."

Guardians, "the collaboration with the Druid, a play by Lucy Caldwell (Leaves) about a young couple in Belfast."

The Ballad of Emmett Till, by Ifa Bayeza, "the team-up with the Goodman about the 1955 lynching of black teenager Emmett Till"

Visit www.oneilltheatercenter.org for more information. 

Photo of Robert Aguirre-Sacasa by Ben Strothmann