Well, this has been the longest hiatus yet between issues of the Eugene O'Neill Review.  But I hope you'll agree that the results were easily worth the wait.  I believe, in fact, that the omnium gatherum which follows, one that is exceptionally deep and diverse, can speak for itself quite well indeed, without any of the traditional preliminary “hype” from the editor.  Hence my decision to turn, herewith, to a subject that has been in our minds very much of late, and that is, in fact, the primary cause for the above-acknowledged delay in printing.

Eager that as many of you as possible will join us for the “O'Neill's People” conference at Suffolk University this May, I thought I'd try to whet appetites by following this greeting with a still-somewhat-fluid-but-close-to-firm schedule of events for that very tight-packed series of days and nights from 11 to 14 May.  (And to whet them still more, or at least to evoke some memories, a few shots of our 1984 and 1986 conferences are scattered through this issue—all of them the work of John Gillooly.)

Many of you have seen earlier, even more tentative versions of the 1995 program; but I urge you to discard them and peer herein for “the latest.”  Probably all of you saw the color brochure that first announced the event with some vague hints about hoped-for features.  One of those hopes has hit a scheduling snag, alas.  We'd dreamed of featuring, on consecutive nights, performances of Long Day's Journey by the Stratford Festival of Ontario and the Gogol Theatre of Moscow.  But the fact that Stratford's 1995 kickoff coincides almost exactly with our festival will unfortunately make it impossible for that splendid production to travel south.  (The good news is that Long Day's Journey will return to Stratford this season, with the same marvelous cast as last year.  So anyone desirous of an incomparable experience still has a chance to savor the incandescent performances of Martha Henry, William Hutt and the others.  For dates, reservations, etc., call 519-273-1600.)

No international negotiations are ever 100% sure, of course.  But it appears almost certain that the actors of the Gogol Theatre, who presented the fourth act of their (also very special) Journey at the Tao House O'Neill conference last June, will be performing the entire work on our second night, May 12th.  [Don't be daunted by the thought of a full evening of theatre in Russian.  Newcomers to Long Day's Journey will have a choice of several English-language video performances of Journey in our media room, to prepare themselves for the occasion.  They will have, for instance, a choice of four James Tyrones: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Earle Hyman and Jack Lemmon.]

The blow of Stratford's absence, while still lamentable, will be somewhat softened by a world premiere on the evening of the 13th: the first staged reading of O'Neill's The Personal Equation (1915) by members of New York's Actor's Studio under the estimable direction of Stephen Kennedy Murphy, who is himself a writer and an erstwhile artist in residence at Monte Cristo Cottage.  Conference-goers will visit that cottage, the Tyrone-O'Neills' real home, on the last day of what promises to be a memorable fiesta that began three days before with a keynote address by O'Neill biographer Barbara Gelb and the awarding of bronze medals to such O'Neill luminaries as Jason Robards, Geraldine Fitzgerald and José Quintero.  Heady doin's indeed!

If you need information about registration, travel, specially-priced housing at the Omni Parker House, or anything else, call us at 617-573-8272 between 9 and 4 EST, Monday through Friday, and we'll wing more your way or answer your questions “live.”  (Or fax us at 617-722-9440.)  We look forward to welcoming you to Boston come May!

Fred Wilkins