O’Neill Theater Center chairman Tom Viertel is resigning

Tom Viertel, who has served on the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center board for nearly three decades and has served as chairman since 2000, will step down from his position at the end of O’Neill’s 2024 season in August. He will also receive this year’s Monte Cristo Award, in recognition of his numerous contributions to the O’Neill and his many years of service in the field, which will be presented at a gala event on November 18, 2024 in New York City. .

“When George White asked me to succeed him as chairman of the O’Neill 24 years ago, he changed my life. Acquiring a founder is always difficult, and we have certainly had our challenges. But over time the O’Neill has prospered; we have been able to expand programs, create new ones, and expand our beautiful campus. The artists we have attracted to our campus are among the most important in American theater. We survived the pandemic and continue to make progress under a new and vital administration. It has been an honor and an unforgettable joy to have been chairman of the O’Neill for all these years,” said Viertel, who will remain a member of the board of directors as chairman emeritus after passing the baton to his yet-to-be-appointed successor.

“I cannot fully express my gratitude for Tom’s valuable advice, constant guidance and dedication to the O’Neill,” said O’Neill Executive Director Tiffani Gavin, who joined the organization in 2020 during the pandemic. “When Neill did so, at a time of great upheaval for the American Theater as a whole, Tom was the steady hand at the helm as we navigated these rocky waters together. Without his leadership, we would not be here today.”

Tom first came to the O’Neill in 1993 when his brother, Jack Viertel, participated in the National Music Theater Conference with his musical Time and Again. Tom joined the board a year later and is only the second person to serve as chairman in O’Neill’s 60-year history, having succeeded the pioneering new work development organization’s founder, George C. White, at his own retirement after 37 years. in charge.

The following decades under Viertel’s leadership ushered in a renaissance of sorts for the O’Neill, with programs added and/or expanded, such as the Theatermakers Summer

Intensive, a six-week offshoot of the year-round National Theater Institute; the revival of the hugely popular Cabaret & Performance Conference; and the expansion of the O’Neill’s campus with additional housing and facilities for both students and artists.

A number of critically acclaimed works also passed through O’Neill during this period, including Avenue Q by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty; Gem of the Ocean – the last of six plays that August Wilson developed at the O’Neill; Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, which she worked on during her residency in Residency in 2005; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights; Violet, by Jeanine Tesori; and Slave Play, by Jeremy O. Harris, as well as numerous other works by writers such as Dominique Morrisseau, Samuel D. Hunter, Hansol Jung, Mike Lew, Celine Song, and Quiara Alegria Huedes, among many others.

During Viertel’s tenure, the O’Neill also received not one but two major national awards: the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater (the second) and the Presidential Medal of the Arts, presented by then-President Barack Obama, in 2016.

Gavin added, “Tom has given so much of his time, talent and expertise to advance the American Theater as a whole, and I can think of no better way to thank him for his decades of service to the O’Neill and the field. then by presenting him with the Monte Cristo Award. He certainly deserves it.”

About the Monte Cristo Prize:

The Monte Cristo Award is presented each year to a prominent individual in recognition of a distinguished career that exemplifies Eugene O’Neill’s “pioneering spirit, tireless artistic commitment and excellence” and advancement of American theater.

Past recipients of the award include actors Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Jason Robards, Jr., Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy and Karl Malden; playwrights August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, John Logan, Neil Simon and Lynn Nottage; directors Harold Prince & George C. Wolfe; and Arthur & Barbara Gelb, O’Neill founder George C. White, and multi-hyphenated Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The 2024 event honoring Viertel will take place at the Edison Ballroom on Monday, November 18, 2024.

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