Eugene O'Neill Theatre Opens To Public Saturday

The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center is opening up its doors Saturday to the public as part of the 10th Annual Connecticut Open House festivities statewide.

Visitors to the theatre’s Waterford campus will get the chance to tour the facilities and win a ticket to any one of the six upcoming National Playwright Conference shows this summer, according to the theatre. It is also giving a sneak peek into their National Puppetry Conference, an event for puppet artists from the U.S. and around the world to engage in workshops and performances.

“There are only two major puppetry conferences in the world, the other is in France,” remarked the theatre’s Special Events Manager Ainslie Seeber to Patch.

The puppet artists will perform in showcases on Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m., and 10 p.m., featuring marionette acts and recitations of the Chinese fable Hua Mulan.

The theatre is also opening their Monte Cristo Cottage, the restored 1840s family home of theatre namesake Eugene O’Neill.

Festivities are a part of the statewide Connecticut Open House Day, an event the Connecticut Offices of Culture and Tourism website describes as showcasing Connecticut’s diverse world of history, art, and tourism.

Waterford’s O’Neill Theatre Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary, opened this month in 1964. The Waterford facility is unrelated to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York City.