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The Origins of the O'Neill Renaissance: A History of the 1956 Productions of The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Sheila Hickey Garvey
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, of Theatre Arts at Southern Connecticut State University

Extract

At a press conference to publicize the opening of The Iceman Cometh in 1946, Eugene O'Neill was quoted as saying that he considered America “instead of the most successful country in the world,… its greatest failure…, the greatest failure because it was given everything, more than any other country. Through moving as rapidly as it has, it has never acquired any real roots. Its main idea is that everlasting game of trying to possess your own soul and the things outside of it, too.”

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1988

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References

NOTES

1 Quoted in Sheaffer, Louis, O'Neill: Son and Anist (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), p. 577.Google Scholar

2 Theodore Mann, Transcript for O'Neill, Channel 13 Television; Archives, The Circle in the Square: n.d., p. 3.

4 Sheaffer, pp. 585–86.

5 Mann, , O'Neill. Channel 13, pp. 23.Google Scholar

6 Mann, , O'Neill, Channel 13, p. 4.Google Scholar

7 Interview with Theodore Mann, New York City, 5 Aug. 1982.

8 Vena, Gary, O'Neill's “The Iceman Cometh”: Reconstructing the Premiere (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988), p. 27.Google Scholar

9 Sheaffer, p. 582.

10 Quoted in Gary Vena, “A Cold Wind from the Hell-Hole,” unpublished paper presented at “Eugene O'Neill: The Later Years” conference, Suffolk University, Boston, 30 May 1986, p. 19.

11 Quoted in Vena, “A Cold Wind,” p. 19.

12 O'Neill, Eugene, The Iceman Cometh (New York: Random House, 1946), p. 76.Google Scholar

13 Interview with James Greene, The Kennedy Center Green Room, Washington, D.C., 12 Aug. 1985.

14 Interview with Jason Robards, The Kennedy Center Green Room, Washington, D.C., 12 Aug. 1985.

15 In Greenberger, Howard, The Off-Broadway Experience (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971), pp. 4243.Google Scholar

16 Mann, , O'Neill, Channel 13, pp. 56.Google Scholar

17 “Eugene O'Neill: The Later Years” conference, Suffolk University, Boston, 31 May 1986.

18 In Greenberger, p. 46.

19 Sheaffer, p. 572.

20 Interview, Greene, 12 Aug. 1985.

21 Interview, Robards, 12 Aug. 1985.

22 Mann, , O'Neill. Channel 13, p. 2.Google Scholar

23 Clipping in the Archives, The Circle in the Square.

24 Interview with Theodore Mann, New York City, 20 June 1985.

25 Mann, Theodore, “30th Anniversary Commemorative Program”; Archives, The Circle in the Square, Dec. 1980, p. 3.Google Scholar

27 Interview, Mann, 20 June 1985.

28 Greenberger, p. 45.

29 Interview, Greene, 12 Aug. 1985.

30 In Greenberger, pp. 46–47.

31 Interview, Greene, 12 Aug. 1985.

32 Atkinson, Brooks, “Theatre: O'Neill Tragedy Revived,” The New York Times, 9 May 1956Google Scholar; Archives, The Circle in the Square.

33 Walter F. Kerr, “‘Little Hope of Hope,’” The New York Herald Tribune, n.d.; Archives, The Circle in the Square.

34 Sheaffer, pp. 584–85.

35 Interview, Mann, 5 Aug. 1982.

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38 Interview with José Quintero, Suffolk University, Boston, 1 June 1986. For further discussion of Quintero's approach to Long Day's Journey, see Quintero, José, If You Don't Dance They Beat You (Boston, Little, Brown, 1974), Chapter 19, pp. 229242.Google Scholar

39 Interview with Theodore Mann, New York City, 6 June 1986.

41 In'Greenberger, p. 30.

42 Theatre Arts (April 1959), pp. 27–28; Archives, The Circle in the Square.

43 Interview, Mann, 6 June 1986.

45 Eldridge, Florence, “Reflections on Long Day's Journey Into Night: First Curtain Call for Mary Tyrone,” in Floyd, Virginia, ed., Eugene O'Neill: A World View (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1979), p. 286.Google Scholar

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48 Interview, Quintero, 1 June 1986.

49 Eldridge, p. 281.

50 Eldridge, p. 287.

51 Interview, Quintero, 1 June 1986.

53 Eldridge, p. 287.

54 In McDonough, pp. 58–59.

55 Interview, Mann, 6 June 1986.

56 Interview, Quintero, 31 May 1986.

58 Interview, Mann, 6 June 1986.

59 Theatre Arts, pp. 27, 28.

60 Chapman, John, “‘Long Day's Journey Into Night’ A Drama of Sheer Magnificence,” The Daily News. 8 Nov. 1956Google Scholar, n.p.; Library of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York.

61 Donnelly, Tom, “A Long Journey But Worth Taking,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, 8 Nov. 1956Google Scholar, n.p.; Library of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York.

62 Atkinson, Brooks, “Tragic Journey,” The New York Times. 9 Nov. 1956Google Scholar, n.p.; Library of the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, New York.

63 Mann, , O'Neill, Channel 13, p. 8.Google Scholar