I. MINUTES OF THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE EUGENE O'NEILL SOCIETY.  Recorded by Secretary Thomas F. Connolly.

 

The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Eugene O'Neill Society was held at 12:00 p.m., 30 December 1993, in the Huron Conference Room of the Sheraton Center Hotel in Toronto.  The minutes of the previous meeting were approved, as were the reports of the Secretary and Treasurer.  They will be printed, along with these minutes, in the next issue of the Eugene O'Neill Review.

 

The Chair of the Board of Directors, Stephen A. Black, then spoke in tribute to Jordan Miller.  He cited Professor Miller's service to the Society for over fifteen years as Secretary and Treasurer: “Jordan Miller has kept the Society going.  He has encouraged membership from all over the world.  Jordan has been the heart and soul of the Society.”  Jackson R. Bryer added to the Chair's tribute: “Jordan's dissertation was an inspiration to me.  It showed me how a bibliography could be a work of creative scholarship.  I owe him a great debt.  Jordan has been the backbone of the organization.”

 

Nominations for the Society's offices were offered by the Board as follows: Jackson R. Bryer for President, Margaret Loftus Ranald for Vice President and Thomas F. Connolly for Secretary and Treasurer.  There were no nominations from the floor and the slate was elected by acclamation.

 

The Chair then proceeded to new business.

 

(1) There was discussion about reviving the Newsletter, which had disappeared when the Eugene O'Neill Newsletter became the Eugene O'Neill Review.  It was agreed that the new Newsletter should be a clearinghouse and that members must contribute items.  The format should be informal, publication at least semiennial.

 

(2) An index of videotaped performances of O'Neill productions should be established.  All performances of any O'Neill plays should be listed.

 

(3) News of three conferences was offered.  There will be two O'Neill sessions at the ALA convention in San Diego, 2-5 June 1994: a panel of papers about Long Day's Journey Into Night and an open seminar on teaching this play.  Eugene Hanson will preside over these.  The Tao House Conference, “O'Neill on World Stages,” will be held 23-26 June 1994 in Danville, California.  Jackson R. Bryer mentioned that confirmation was awaited as to whether Jason Robards and Jack Dodson would perform Hughie there, and from some Russian and Chinese acting troupes who hope to perform at the conference.  He added that the emphasis of this conference would be performance.  A third conference, whose tentative title is “O'Neill's People,” was announced for 11-14 May 1995 at Suffolk University in Boston.  Jackson R. Bryer asked if anyone wished to chair the 1994 MLA session.  There was a discussion of possible themes for the session.  Then Bryer noted that, since there was enthusiasm for a variety of topics, a general call for papers should be made.  Those wishing to submit a paper were asked to send them to Professor Bryer.

 

(4)    The Chair called for a recruitment effort.  He suggested that the old mailing list be used to revive lapsed memberships.  The benefits of joining the Society, especially for younger scholars, were discussed.  The congenial and particularly collegial atmosphere of the organization was mentioned.  President Bryer commented that he was quite pleased to see several new faces in the audience.

 

(5)    The Chair introduced the issue of attendance of non-MLA members or non-registrants at the MLA convention at meetings of member societies each December.  It was agreed that the MLA is a huge bureaucracy, and all were in accord that non-MLA member attendance should be allowed.  It was mentioned that there are O'Neill Society members who join MLA (at not inconsiderable expense) solely to attend our meeting and paper session.  The question was asked whether there might be a larger O'Neill Society membership if the MLA affiliation did not exist.  The Chair indicated that the theatre community was one group that was not well served by the MLA affiliation.  President Bryer suggested that letters should be written to MLA to encourage flexibility, that there was a mechanism for non-member attendance, but it was not easily applied.  It was mentioned that ASTR and ATHE should be contacted.  The Chair stated that this was a longstanding issue.  It was suggested that Jordan Miller's poll of MLA-allied organizations should be consulted.  If we had a sense of what others thought, we might be able to form a united front.

 

(6)    The Chair then offered a memorial tribute to Louis Sheaffer.  “Louis Sheaffer, who died last September, was author of the two-volume biography of Eugene O'Neill.  This work ranks with the finest literary biographies of this century.  He gave personal assistance to many scholars.  He was prompt in responding to scholars and seemed to answer letters by return mail.  He helped Travis Bogard and Jackson Bryer sort through over 5,000 letters for their edition of O'Neill's correspondence.  Sheaffer interviewed hundreds of people who had known or were related to O'Neill.  The record of those interviews serves as a link to O'Neill.  He amassed a formidable collection of O'Neilliana.  These papers are now in the Shain Library at Connecticut College in New London.  Louis Sheaffer's contribution to O'Neill studies is inestimable.”  Jackson Bryer responded that Connecticut College is committed to sharing this collection with the community of scholars.  Brian Rogers is its Special Collections Librarian.

 

The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas F. Connolly, Secretary

 

 

II. SECRETARY'S REPORT, PREPARED FOR THE FIFTEENTH  ANNUAL MEETING, 30 December 1993.

 

While we still continue as a widely recognized international organization, with members scattered in 19 countries outside of the United States, we have, unfortunately, lost members so that we stand currently at just over 200.  It might not be a bad idea for the new Secretary to undertake some recruitment campaign among our former members in order to get them back in the fold.

 

Financially we remain strong, as indicated by the accompanying Treasurer's report.  We continue to subsidize a number of overseas members in non-convertible countries.  We have a total of three Lifetime members.

 

The Secretary's main undertaking during the past year was to follow up on the discussion held at the 1992 Annual Meeting regarding the fee assessments required of non-members of MLA who wish to attend organizational meetings and special sessions without being fully registered for the convention.  Inquiry was sent to the MLA main office, raising the question concerning the whole matter, and a total of 59 letters from the Society were sent out to various allied organizations listed in the MLA Directory, asking if there was any interest in our doing something.

 

A gratifying return of 40 responses—68%, a remarkable return indeed—indicated strong positive interest to negative replies saying in effect, “Don't mess with the MLA.”  17 organizations indicated genuine interest; 9 were interested, but not very encouraging, and 14 said No.  The response from Phyllis Franklin, MLA Executive Secretary, was pretty much as expected.  She wrote a very cordial and lengthy letter explaining the MLA stand, indicating that there might be further discussion but that the likelihood of anything being done was not encouraging.

 

The full set of responses has been retained, and in the next year the Society may wish to enter into some kind of negotiation, with the backing of those who liked the idea, but because of the length of time it took to get out the inquiries and to receive the replies there wasn't much the present Secretary could do.  It's worth looking into.

 

One discovery made in this venture was that the Eugene O'Neill Society has a membership and dues structure very similar to most of the allied organizations that function much as we do.  Some have very large memberships—several hundred—and some charge dues exceeding ours, but we are right in the middle and we hold our own insofar as size and income are concerned.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the various officers and board members over the past 15 years who have made this job a very pleasant and rewarding one.  I have enjoyed the work and all the contacts that have resulted from it, and I will certainly miss it.  But a decade and a half is sufficient, and it is time that the torch is passed.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Jordan Y. Miller, Secretary

 

 

III. FINANCIAL REPORT FOR CALENDAR YEAR 1993.

 

 

IV. SOCIETY EVENTS AT MLA '94 IN SAN DIEGO.

 

1. Open Business Meeting of the Society, Stephen A. Black presiding.  Chicago Room, San Diego Marriott, 10:15-11:30 a.m., Friday, 30 December 1994.

 

2. O'Neill Paper Session, moderated by Jackson R. Bryer.  5B, San Diego Convention Center, 3:30-4:45 p.m., Tuesday, 27 December 1994.  (See this issue's conference news section for contents.)