In the Zone: Provincetown Players

In 1913 O’Neill’s father subsidized publication of his first book of short plays as well as tuition for playwriting classes at Harvard in 1914. Like Princeton, he only lasted one semester there. In 1916 he joined a group of amateurs summering in Cape Cod to stage his and others’ plays in a
shed built over a wharf. The group dubbed themselves “The Provincetown Players” and opened a theatre in Greenwich Village later that fall, calling upon the talents of many of the bohemian writers and artists there. O’Neill had found a perfect setting in which to learn his craft and
experiment with artistic freedom and collaboration.

O’Neill’s writing was influenced not only by poetic realism of literature but the “radical” theories of philosophical anarchism, communism and anti-imperialism prevalent in the social circles and bookstores of Greenwich Village. His plays centered on characters who spoke in
authentic American vernaculars and on the fringes of society, struggling with despair, addiction, abuse, suppression and more. It was a far cry from the prevalent theatre world of his father, which offered light entertainment and escape from the harsh realities of the world.