Viewing "Hughie" in Danville, CA Eugene O'Neill Fdtn Production 01/11/15
HUGHIES LONG JOURNEY TO TAO HOUSE
Enjoyed this short play(one hour) one of the last plays Eugene O'Neill wrote while at Tao House and in his life. I could see how Sam Shepherd and David Ware are indebted to the new ground he broke. He represents the American male very well. This play is about a "gambler" and a monologue, occasionally responded to, by the night clerk...with incisive humor at the delusions and illusions of the "gambler", played as counterpoint to the resignation of the night clerk. A fascinating preoccupation with background "noise" in the city, keeps the clerk going; these are fascinating, on one level, allusions which are the only inspiration for the night clerk's own transcendence of his boring situation, with imagination about the sounds. The insistent self agrandizement and simultaneous degradation of his persistence in picking up "Folies" blondes and winning and losing money, is played against the "croaking" or recent death of the night clerk, who has been a foil all these years to the "gambler"... The actors(a narrator,Charles Hughes the new night clerk) and Erie Smith, from Erie Pennsylvania, the imparter of his wiles and wisdom? John Tessmer plays CH, and ES is played well by Aaron Murphy in a dramatic reading of the parts, with the narrator played by Dirk Alphin, who imparts the interior mental play of CH, as he says hardly a word. At the time the play was an experiment for O'Neill....the Direcctor is Eric Fraisher Hayes, who is the Artistic Director of Role Players Ensemble. . .
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation owes much to "Hughie" and to actor Jason Robards. Written at Tao House between 1940-42, as part of a series of shorter plays envisioned by the playwright, Hughie is the only one of those to survive. But, it took several years before Hughie had its U.S. Premiere. Hughie had its world’s premiere at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden on September, 1958, attended by King Gustaf Adolf and Queen Louise. The play was scheduled to have its American premiere in New York in March 1960, to be paired with O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones.At Carlotta O’Neill’s request, however, the production wasdelayed. The official English-language premiere was at the Theater Royal in Bath, England in June, 1963, starring Burgess Meredith. The production later was moved to London. Hughie finally has its American premiere at the Royal Theatre in New York in December, 1964 with Jason Robards cast as Erie Smith. In July 1975, Robards and Jack Dodson traveled to California where they recreated the U.S. premiere of Hughie as originally stages on Broadway by director Jose Quintero.
The performance was at Zellerbach Auditorium at UC Berkeley. All the proceeds from the evening went to preserving Tao House. According to her early history of the O’Neill Foundation, co-founder Lois Sizoo notes that “the success of the Berkeley performance caused Robards and Dodson to perform Hughie for two weeks in Los Angeles at the Westwood Playhouse for the Foundation’s benefit.” Their efforts contributed greatly to the O’Neill Foundation success in raising sufficient funds to take title to Tao House and the adjoining property in 1976. After establishment of the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site later in 1976, the property was turned over to be owned and operated by the National Park Service.
NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014
Robards in Hughie at New York
Royal Theatre, 1964
Jason Robards with Jack Dodson
Enjoyed this short play(one hour) one of the last plays Eugene O'Neill wrote while at Tao House and in his life. I could see how Sam Shepherd and David Ware are indebted to the new ground he broke. He represents the American male very well. This play is about a "gambler" and a monologue, occasionally responded to, by the night clerk...with incisive humor at the delusions and illusions of the "gambler", played as counterpoint to the resignation of the night clerk. A fascinating preoccupation with background "noise" in the city, keeps the clerk going; these are fascinating, on one level, allusions which are the only inspiration for the night clerk's own transcendence of his boring situation, with imagination about the sounds. The insistent self agrandizement and simultaneous degradation of his persistence in picking up "Folies" blondes and winning and losing money, is played against the "croaking" or recent death of the night clerk, who has been a foil all these years to the "gambler"... The actors(a narrator,Charles Hughes the new night clerk) and Erie Smith, from Erie Pennsylvania, the imparter of his wiles and wisdom? John Tessmer plays CH, and ES is played well by Aaron Murphy in a dramatic reading of the parts, with the narrator played by Dirk Alphin, who imparts the interior mental play of CH, as he says hardly a word. At the time the play was an experiment for O'Neill....the Direcctor is Eric Fraisher Hayes, who is the Artistic Director of Role Players Ensemble. . .
The Eugene O’Neill Foundation owes much to "Hughie" and to actor Jason Robards. Written at Tao House between 1940-42, as part of a series of shorter plays envisioned by the playwright, Hughie is the only one of those to survive. But, it took several years before Hughie had its U.S. Premiere. Hughie had its world’s premiere at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden on September, 1958, attended by King Gustaf Adolf and Queen Louise. The play was scheduled to have its American premiere in New York in March 1960, to be paired with O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones.At Carlotta O’Neill’s request, however, the production wasdelayed. The official English-language premiere was at the Theater Royal in Bath, England in June, 1963, starring Burgess Meredith. The production later was moved to London. Hughie finally has its American premiere at the Royal Theatre in New York in December, 1964 with Jason Robards cast as Erie Smith. In July 1975, Robards and Jack Dodson traveled to California where they recreated the U.S. premiere of Hughie as originally stages on Broadway by director Jose Quintero.
The performance was at Zellerbach Auditorium at UC Berkeley. All the proceeds from the evening went to preserving Tao House. According to her early history of the O’Neill Foundation, co-founder Lois Sizoo notes that “the success of the Berkeley performance caused Robards and Dodson to perform Hughie for two weeks in Los Angeles at the Westwood Playhouse for the Foundation’s benefit.” Their efforts contributed greatly to the O’Neill Foundation success in raising sufficient funds to take title to Tao House and the adjoining property in 1976. After establishment of the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site later in 1976, the property was turned over to be owned and operated by the National Park Service.
NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014
Robards in Hughie at New York
Royal Theatre, 1964
Jason Robards with Jack Dodson
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