David Auburn and A. Rey Pamatmat Join O'Neill Center's 2014 National Playwrights Conference

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced an addition to its writers-in-residence, and a new play being developed during the National Playwrights Conference.

Playwright David Auburn will join Sam Hunter as writers-in-residence during the 50th Annual Conference, both working on current projects. Mr. Auburn's Lost Lake was developed during the 2013 conference. He is best known for his Pulitzer Prize (2001) winning Proof, adapted for film in 2005 starring Anthony Hopkins, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

A. Rey Pamatmat has been selected as the Conference's sixth playwright, developing his new play A Power Play; Or, What's-its-Name. The 2012 Hodder Fellow in Playwriting and the 2011 PoNY Fellow, his plays include after all the terrible things I do, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, High/Limbo/High, A Spare Me, DEVIANT, and Thunder Above, Deeps Below, developed at the Playwrights Conference in 2008.

Pamatmat replaces Christopher Oscar Peña, previously selected to develop his play Icarus Burns.

Tiger Style! by Mike Lew
I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard by Halley Feiffer
Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino
The Imaginary Music Critic Who Doesn't Exist by David Mitchell Robinson
A Power Play; Or, Whats-its-Name by A. Rey Pamatmat
Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield

> Play synopses' and playwright biographies

Says Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg: "Like all our alumni, David, Sam and Rey are family; an important part of the National Playwrights Conference. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, I want to continue to build on our legacy of seeking out new artists while remaining an artistic retreat to those who have spent summers with us in the past. We look forward to welcoming them back."

The National Playwrights Conference is the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's founding program. Under the artistic leadership of Ms. Goldberg (10th Season), each play will undergo the O'Neill's signature development process, employing acclaimed professional creative and support staff, including directors, dramaturgs, actors, and designers to bring the six new plays to life for the first time. Playwrights spend three weeks in July developing and presenting public staged readings of their work during NPC's 50th season.

The six selected works were chosen from a record-breaking pool of over 1,200 plays received through the O'Neill's open submissions process, which allows any playwright - with or without agent representation - to submit. Readers from across the country chose plays based on merit, without any authorship information.

The National Playwrights Conference begins Wednesday, July 2 through Saturday, July 19 at the O'Neill campus in Waterford, CT. Schedules subject to change. Member advance ticket sales open now through June 11, when Box Office (860) 443-1238) and online tickets are available to the public.

For more information, visit www.theoneill.org.

About the O'Neill: Founded in 1964, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014. It is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for American theater. In the bold tradition of its namesake Eugene O'Neill - four-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature - the O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and to more than 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.

Recipient of a 2010 Tony Award for Regional Theatre and 1979 Tony Award for Theatrical Excellence, O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute (NTI). NTI offers intensive theater training programs for academic credit, including the brand-new National Music Theater Institute, the Moscow Art Theatre Semester (MATS), a semester of study abroad, and six-week Theatermakers Summer Intensive.

The O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark.

Pictured: David Auburn discussing his new play Lost Lake with National Playwrights Conference Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg at the 2013 National Playwrights Conference. Photo by A. Vincent Scarano.