Tyler Junior College to present ‘Evening of O’Neill: The Glencairn Sea Plays’

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Three TJC theater professors will each direct a different one-act play to create an evening that will take you back to experience life on the sea during the WWI era.

The plays are a collection of Eugene O’Neill’s less-known early works that examine the unglamorous, and sometimes dangerous, daily life aboard ship in the early 1900s. “Bound East for Cardiff,” “Long Voyage Home” and “In the Zone” will all be presented between Feb. 22-25 in TJC’s Jean Browne Theatre.

Dr. David Crawford, TJC professor and director of “Bound East for Cardiff,” described O’Neill as the “father of American realism.” The three plays are all connected, some with recurring characters and themes, but not squential parts of the same story. Instead, they give different vignettes in the characters’ lives.

“Everything we take in as entertainment we would say is realism today, but that, through the history of entertainment and drama, has not always been the case. This man started what we all consume as our entertainment,” explained Jacob Davis, the TJC professor who will be directing “Long Voyage Home.”

“We’re trying to take people to a different place with these shows,” said Ethan Beam, interim director for TJC’s theater facilities and director of “In the Zone.”

The plays start this Wednesday night. Tickets can be bought by calling the TJC box office at (903) 510-2212.

You can get free tickets by calling between 1-3 p.m. Monday and mentioning you learned about the show through KLTV.

Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for seniors ages 65 and up, students and active military. The in-person TJC box office opens Wednesday, Feb. 15, and box office hours are 1-6 p.m. weekdays. Daily box office operations are in the Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center, with evening operations in the lobby outside Jean Browne Theatre. You can find more details on the TJC website.

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