O'Neill Theater Festival: "Starkweather" by Jim Daglish

A charming young con man wanders into Starkweather - a prairie town in the very center of both North America and nowhere. He meets his match when he breaks into the home of a woman “of mature years” with god on her side. "Nothings more dangerous than a man with nowhere to go and an eternity to get there."  - Mrs. Cook

Jim Dalglish (Playwright / Director / Production Designer)

Jim is a playwright, director, filmmaker, and producer with more than 30 plays and films to his credit. These works have been produced and screened around the world and have won awards in New York, Boston, London, and Dublin. A few of his plays have been anthologized in best play collections. Jim has directed more than two dozen theatrical productions, eight of which he also independently produced.  He has been employed by a variety of theaters in New England as a managing director, marketing director, and box office manager. Jim has a master’s degree in creative writing/ playwriting from Brown University. His thesis advisor was Paula Vogel. He works as an independent contractor and has consulted with clients such as Harvard University, Yale University, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, CIEE, and others. Jim is also the Founder/President of Helltown Players, the Cape’s newest theatre collaborative. When he isn’t busy writing, directing, or producing plays and films, he and his husband Rob Phelps enjoy sailing Delphina – their 17-foot O’Day Daysailer – along the sheltered harbors of New England.

The O'Neill Festival of New Works returns for its fourth year, once again devoted to the development of new dramatic works by Cape Cod playwrights.

The festival is produced by Margaret Van Sant, Producing Artistic Director of Provincetown Dramatic Arts, and named after Eugene O'Neill, the Nobel Prize–winning dramatist who launched his career in Provincetown with the original Provincetown Players.

Inspired by the creative community that fueled O'Neill more than a century ago, this year's festival will workshop new works by four Outer Cape playwrights. Each playwright works with a director and dramaturge throughout the process, and all public presentations are followed by audience discussions led by the dramaturges.

All performances are staged readings — actors perform with scripts in hand and minimal blocking, bringing the plays to life while keeping the focus on the writing. Each reading is followed by an audience discussion led by the dramaturge, giving audiences a rare chance to participate in the development of new work. Between weekends, playwrights incorporate audience feedback and present revised versions at their second reading the second weekend.

• MARGARET VAN SANT is a playwright, theater director, festival organizer, educator, and the Artistic Director of Provincetown Dramatic Arts (PDA). The O’Neill Festival of New Works is the most recent production of PDA.

She also wrote: Goody: The Witch of Eastham, part of the O’Neill Festival of New Works 2024; “Pulse”, one of four plays in “Quickies”, which performed in Provincetown and International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival; Wartime in Provincetown, commissioned by Tennessee Williams Festival 2009; The Test, read at Theater J, Washington, DC, 5X5 program in response to The Disputation; The Pennimans, historical play about Cape Cod whaling family developed for radio broadcast on WOMR; and Cha-Cha-Changes, environmental play about monarch butterflies presented at Cape Cod National Seashore.

She has directed at Virginia Stage Company, Long Wharf Theater, Arena Stage, Yale University (National Conference on Portuguese Theater), Yale Cabaret, Berkshire Theater Festival, University of Massachusetts/ Dartmouth, City Studio Theater, Payomet Center for the Performing Arts, and Provincetown Theater.

She is a member of the Stage Directors and Chorographers Society and a proud Trustee of Helltown Players.