O'Neill Playwrights Conference: Connecticut 2006

I just finished up my two week stint as a critic fellow at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Renowned for discovering, championing and honing the works of August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Lee Blessing, John Guare and many other playwrights, the Center is a bucolic haven for theater artists. I came to the grounds to study theater criticism with Michael Feingold of The Village Voice, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, former L.A. Times chief critic Dan Sullivan and the imitable Julius Novick, a brilliant deity among drama critics.

Tonight I witnessed Charles S. Dutton and S. Epatha Merkerson perform selected pieces from the plays of the late August Wilson. Dutton performed with such power, charge, intensity...I have rarely seen an actor this goddamn good. Two of my colleagues called it "life-altering." I can't disagree.