This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Almost 200 students were involved in Lafayette Theater last year, in either acting or backstage work on the two mainstage productions, two Black Box shows, or Fringe Festival. Coordinating this effort is Michael O’Neill, director of theater and producer of the annual Fringe Festival, an alternative performance workshop featuring student performers and experimental groups.
“For the students a production is a huge time commitment,” says O’Neill. “They work a minimum of 15 hours a week for five to six weeks for each show. It’s the ultimate liberal arts experience. The students learn about the time period of the play, the author, the characters, perhaps an accent. It opens their minds to another way of looking at the world. The actors, designers, and crew also learn teamwork because they have to work together.” The students do not receive any academic credit for their effort, although O’Neill feels they should for the time commitment and learning that accompanies each production.
“I’m fortunate to work with our best students, including many engineers,” says O’Neill, who personally directs at least two productions a year. “Theater students are our most creative students and some of our best disciplined students. They are very good at managing their time. You’ll see students doing their homework in the green room when they are not on stage.”
A playwright as well as a director and producer, he has written plays that have been performed in workshops and was awarded a commission to develop a review about the Broadway musical’s portrayal of the Jewish experience. The play premiered on Commencement day 2001. “It felt good to see my piece performed,” O’Neill says. “It’s good to write something and send it off, and then just show up for the performance. Although I did notice the director ignored the stage directions I had written in the play!”
During the summer, O’Neill teaches at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies for adults re-entering college. “I’m committed to helping people learn and get ahead,” he says. “It’s a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse student body. These are very committed students, in many cases immigrants or adults who didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. I feel like I’m helping people move up the ladder.”
O’Neill is passionate about study abroad. He has led two Lafayette semester-long London programs and a January interim London theater course. “I encourage my students to go abroad,” he says. “It’s an invaluable experience that changes the way they view the world and our own culture. Of course, the conflict is that if your best students are abroad they are not here to act in your productions.”
“Lafayette students are great,” he adds. “I feel privileged to work closely with them. I enjoy it.”
Actor Brian Hutchison ’93 credits O’Neill with encouraging him to try acting professionally. He is currently starring as Chris in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in San Diego. He appeared in Tom Stoppard’s Invention of Love on Broadway and was the understudy for the role of Hal in Proof on Broadway. “Michael told me he could see me going to New York and getting work as an actor,” says Hutchison. “I took his advice, along with a recommendation to apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival that summer, and that got the ball rolling. Often when you are a student you only hear how brutal and difficult it will be, and although that is obviously true, it was one of the few times I remember being encouraged to continue from a teacher whose opinion I really respected.”
“Michael was the biggest influence of my time at Lafayette,” says Josh Oshinsky ’00, production assistant, Major League Baseball Productions, New York City, who starred in several productions. “He has the kind of personality that draws you in. I cherish deeply the experiences my peers and I shared with Michael, and I always will.”
Highlights
Publications: “Glitzing the Proletariat: John Howard Lawson’s Plays of the 1920’s,” Art, Glitter, and Glitz: The Theater of the 1920s Celebrates American Diversity, ed. W. Kolb, Greenwood Press, forthcoming; “Arthur L. Kopit,” Contemporary Jewish American Dramatists and Poets, ed. J. Shatsky and M. Taub, Greenwood Press, 1999, pp. 68-78; “Through Our Eyes,” musical revue presented by the Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylvania, May 2001.
Achievements: Founder and producer of annual Fringe Festival, 1993-present; established theater minor, 1997; led study-abroad program in London, 1997 and 1999; directed Working, which was selected a finalist in region II of the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival, 1999.
Honors: Delta Upsilon Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring Award, 2001; American College Theater Festival Certificate of Merit for Directing: Sunday in the Park with George, 1995; Fulbright Fellowship to University of Gdansk, Poland, 1988-89.
Trivia: First show directed at Lafayette: Dracula, Oct. 1992; Next show to direct at Lafayette: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Oct. 2002; Lehigh Valley premieres directed at Lafayette: Assassins, 1993; Psycho Beach Party, 1994; All in the Timing, 1998; Translations, 2001. Recent shows: She Stoops to Conquer, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Nativity, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Contact: (610) 330-5326; oneillm@lafayette.edu
Michael O’Neill (left) director of theater, helps Christopher David ’04 analyze a script.