Eugene O’Neill and the Village, walking tour

Join Cecilia Rubino, award-winning writer, theater director, filmmaker, and educator, as she leads you in the footsteps of Eugene O'Neill, America's first great playwright, through the Greenwich Village that inspired his revolutionary vision of the American theater.

Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and the Nobel Prize in Literature, O'Neill arrived in the Village in 1914 and found himself at the center of a remarkable community of writers, artists, political radicals, and performers who reshaped American culture. This one-hour walking tour visits the streets, theaters, and legendary gathering places that influenced both his life and his plays, from the Golden Swan saloon—known as "The Hell Hole"—to the Provincetown Playhouse, where Bound East for Cardiff launched his career. Along the way, discover the people and places behind The Iceman Cometh, Anna Christie, Ah, Wilderness!, and Long Day's Journey into Night, and explore O'Neill's connections to John Reed, Dorothy Day, and Paul Robeson, whose groundbreaking performances helped transform the American stage.

Starting location: Corner of West 10th Street/Sixth Avenue at Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas

Cecilia Rubino is an award-winning writer, theater director, filmmaker, and educator based in New York City. She wrote and directed the documentary play Gage County NE with community members in Beatrice, Nebraska which is featured in each episode of HBO’s Mind Over Murder true-crime series directed by filmmaker Nanfu Wang (director: One Child Nation and Night is Not Eternal). The series, currently screening on MAX, has been nominated for multiple awards and the play Gage County NE is highlighted in numerous reviews including the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and American Theater Magazine.