The Eugene O'Neill Festival
The Eugene O’Neill Festival is an annual celebration of dramatic theatre held in the San Francisco Bay Area which expanded to County Wexford, Ireland in 2018 under the banner "One Festival, Two Countries." Each September multiple theatrical productions exploring a common theme are presented. Festivals feature a centerpiece production of an O’Neill play at Tao House, the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, in conjunction with Classic American dramas by the likes of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee as well as concerts and lectures. In October, the festival moves to New Ross, Ireland under the title the Eugene O'Neill International Festival of Theatre where both Irish and American artists work together.
In 2008, Eric Fraisher Hayes joined the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, which organizes the festival. His first artistic contribution to the festival came in fall of 2008 when he directed O’Neill’s rarely produced All God’s Chillun Got Wings in a tribute to the creative collaborations of Eugene O’Neill and actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson. Eric was instrumental in the expansion of the Eugene O’Neill Festival to its current month-long format which began in 2013. Tao House regularly sees sold out runs and is now the leading producer of the plays of Eugene O’Neill in the world.
In 2018, Eric’s adaptation of O’Neill’s one-act Hughie was performed at Tao House and went on to Waterford, Carlow and New Ross, Ireland as part of the "One Festival, Two Countries," a partnership between Danville, CA and New Ross, Co. Wexford. New Ross, the host of the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre, has also featured EONF productions of Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2019), Welded (2022) and “Anna Christie” (2023). In the spirit of deepening the Irish-American connection, the 2022 international festival mounted a production of O’Neill’s Shell Shock featuring Irish and American actors under the direction of Eric Fraisher Hayes. The 2024 New Ross festival saw the return of Irish and American international casting with the premiere of Teddy by Sheila Forsey.
In response to the pandemic, the O’Neill Festival put a new emphasis on filming plays. In 2020, the Eugene O’Neill Festival went virtual with filmed performances of three early O’Neill plays: The Web, Recklessness, and Abortion. In 2021, the festival centerpiece was a feature length film of Beyond the Horizon. The film was supplemented by two live site-specific performances of the play on the Tao House grounds. Filmed versions of Welded and the three early plays, known as “The Lost Plays,” can be viewed on this website as well as a portion of Beyond the Horizon. The full BTH feature can be viewed at eugeneoneill.org.
2021: Beyond the Horizon
The festival saw a mixture of filmed and live events. The centerpiece was a feature length film of O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon. The play was also performed live in a progressive, site-specific presentation on the Tao House grounds. The lively performance lecture “Eugene O’Neill: 51 Plays in 51 Minutes” debuted.
2020: The Lost Plays in a Lost Year
The Pandemic redirected our festival efforts to a focus on producing videotaped recordings of three of early “lost” plays. The plays offered a glimpse into the beginnings of Eugene O’Neill’s quest to become a great dramatist.
2019: Haunted Poets
Eugene O’Neill Festival offered the soul-stirring artistic confessions of two of our greatest haunted poets: Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. These plays were powerful and poetic demonstrations of how, for these playwrights, the ghosts of the past continued to haunt the imagination. The festival production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night played multiple nights at the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre in New Ross, Ireland.
2018: Passing the Torch
Eugene O’Neill’s last theatrical hurrah during his lifetime and Arthur Miller’s first great success occurred in the same theatre season. The Eugene O’Neill Festival explored O’Neill’s connections to the generation of playwrights that followed in his wake. The festival production of Hughie traveled to Ireland where it was featured at the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre as well as engagements in Carlow and Waterford.
2017: Telling Tales
Celebrating the great tradition of Irish storytelling with powerful and poetic productions that reflect the resilience of the Irish people.