Eugene O’Neill Expanding With 11 New Buildings

The is proposing construction of 11 new buildings on its property at 305 Great Neck Road for a new music theater program.

“It’s good for American theater education,” said Preston Whiteway, executive director of the O'Neill. “With the explosion of Glee and all the others, most students want musical theater these days. And everything on Broadway, 95 percent, is a musical. We would like to accommodate the demand there.”

The new, 32-person program will increase revenues to the Eugene O’Neill by 33 percent, Whiteway said. It should solve the theater’s money problems, and allow it to do things it cannot do now, he said.

“That would stabilize the O’Neill,” Whiteway said. “We could devote a lot more money into endowments, scholarship support; just make the organization long-term fiscally healthier.”

The Full Plan

The O’Neill has submitted a plan to the Conservation Commission to add 11 buildings to the site, along with 11 new parking spaces. The construction will happen in phases, Whiteway said.

First, seven new dormitories and a rehearsal building, all structures necessary to start the music program, Whiteway said. Next, a new theater will be built, “a bonus,” he said.

The O’Neill leases the property from the Town of Waterford. First Selectman Dan Steward, as the owner, had to sign off on the new construction.

“It will bring the (theater) up to a level which is really appropriate,” Steward said. “It is a good expansion in our eyes.”

At a Conservation Commission meeting Thursday, where Whiteway and his team presented the design, both Environmental Planner Maureen Fitzgerald and Conservation Chairman Gary Johnson were cautiously optimistic.

“We are certainly in support of what the Eugene O’Neill is doing,” Fitzgerald said. “We just hope it goes well, it is the crown jewel of the town.”

Johnson largely agreed.

“The town is extremely interested in low-impact development,” he said “I expect stellar implementation.”

The Music Program

The program is set to open in the fall of 2013, if the approval process and donations for construction come in as planned, Whiteway said. Currently, the Eugene O’Neill serves 32 students with its drama program; this would add another 32, he said.

Students from any college can apply to the one-semester program, which will count for college credit, Whiteway said. Students will be in class every day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with just two days of break the entire semester, he said.

“It is basically giving the students a taste of what the conservatory experience is like,” he said.

It would be the first such music theater program in the country, Whiteway said. It gives students an experience they otherwise would never have, he said.

"There is no program like it,” Whiteway said. “There are plenty of wonderful four-year programs learning musical theater but there is not the one-semester experience.”