Founded in 1964 in Waterford, CT, by George C. White in honor of Eugene O’Neill, America’s only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is the nation’s preeminent organization dedicated to the discovery and development of new works and new voices for the American theater. Informally known as the Launchpad of the American Theater, O’Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute – which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O’Neill owns and operates Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. Artists discovered and supported by the O’Neill include: Lin-Manuel Miranda, August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Meryl Streep, Christopher Durang, Michael Douglas, John Krasinski, and Kristen Lopez. Winner of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.

"At the O'Neill, we were all engaged with full-hearted passion in sometimes the silliest of exercises, and all in service of finding that wiggly, elusive creature, a new play."—Meryl Streep

"I would not be who or where I am today without the O'Neill."—Michael Douglas

As the old ways of the commercial theater were dying and American playwriting was in crisis, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center arose as a midwife to new plays and musicals, introducing some of the most exciting talents of our time and developing works that went on to win Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards. It inspired Robert Redford in his creation of the Sundance Institute. The O’Neill is a theatrical laboratory, a place that transformed American theater, film, and television.