O'Neill Foundation Announces First Event Of 2017 As 'Dynamo'

From The O'Neill Foundation: Mix a bit of “Hollywood Squares” with Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, and maybe spice it up with the drama of Days of our Lives” and you have a tale like Dynamo, Eugene O’Neill’s dramatic story of a young man desperately lost in the universe.

Written in 1929, Dynamo will be presented by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation with script-in- hand performances on Saturday, January 7 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, January 8 at 2:00 p.m. at the Museum the San Ramon Valley, 205 Railroad Avenue in Danville.

Tickets for the presentation are available online at www.eugeneoneill.org or by phone at (925) 820-1818.

“Dynamo is an excellent follow-up to The Emperor Jones, produced at the Eugene O’Neill Festival in September at the O’Neill National Historic Site in the Danville Hills,’ according to Eric Fraisher Hayes, manager of artistic programs for the O’Neill Foundation.

“In Dynamo, O’Neill utilizes multiple expressionistic devises to help the audience delve deeper into the truths of the characters. The effect is very cinematic,” says Hayes.

A cruel prank leads to a personal crisis as young Ruben Light feels betrayed by his family and his religion. In his desperate search to make sense of the world, Light strikes upon the belief that electricity is the only god that governs his life. His all-consuming devotion produces murderous results.

The cast features Bay Area theatre veterans George Maguire and Barbara Grant along with Aaron Wilton and Lindsey Marie Schmeltzer.

Four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and the only American playwright to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Eugene O’Neill lived in Danville from 1937-1944 at Tao House, now the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service, in the hills above Danville. It was here that the playwright penned his most famous and final works, including A Long Day’s Journey into Night, and The Iceman Cometh.

Dynamo is a program of the annual Playwrights’ Theatre series by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, with script-in- hand performances in January and May of O’Neill plays and works by playwrights influenced by O’Neill. Information on the non-for- profit Eugene O’Neill Foundation is available at www.eugeneoneill.org.

Image Via Pixabay