Executive Director, Board Chairman, Founder

Preston Whiteway was appointed Executive Director in January 2007, after serving the O'Neill as General Manager since 2004, and now leads the venerable and vital institution and its many national programs into the future.  Under his leadership, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center was awarded the 2010 Regional Theater Tony Award.  Mr. Whiteway joined the O'Neill upon graduating from Duke University, where he received a BA in Economics.  While at Duke, Mr. Whiteway served as the Chair of Broadway at Duke, leading and managing the major arts presenting organization, bringing national touring Broadway shows to the Durham, NC campus.  Mr. Whiteway also worked with National Playwrights Conference Artistic Director, Wendy C. Goldberg, at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.  Since coming to the O'Neill, he has served on panels at Duke University, Theater Communications Group and has been profiled in the New York Times and the Hartford Courant, and serves as a Trustee of the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce.  A native of Virginia, Preston now lives in New London, Connecticut.

Tom Viertel has produced a wide range of plays and musicals on and off Broadway, in London and on tour for over 25 years.  Shows include: A Little Night Music, Young Frankenstein, Burn the Floor, Flashdance, Hairspray, The Norman Conquests, Gypsy, The Producers, Sweeney Todd, Company, Little Shop of Horrors, The Weir, The Sound of Music, Smokey Joe’s Café, Angels in America, Oleanna, Love Letters, Driving Miss Daisy, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Penn and Teller and many others.  Upcoming:  Leap of Faith with music by Alan Menken and In Transit.  Mr. Viertel is a member of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors and Tony Management Committee of The Broadway League and Chairman of the League’s Government Relations Committee.  He is a graduate of Harvard University and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Choate Rosemary Hall School.

In addition to his work in theater, Mr. Viertel has had a 40-year career in commercial real estate as an executive of Presidential Realty Corp., a White Plains, NY based real estate investment trust.

George White’s career includes not only his 37 years as Founder and Chairman of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, but also numerous activities and accomplishments in theater throughout the world.  The son of Nelson and Aida White, George was raised in Waterford, Connecticut, and was graduated from Yale with a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. 

In addition to his responsibilities at the O’Neill, George served as Co-Chairman of the Theater Management Program at the Yale School of Drama, and regularly directed plays in such venues as the Actors Theater, the Guthrie Theater, the Hartman Theater, the Annenberg Center, and the Hedgerow Theater.  He was the Founding Chairman of the Sundance Institute, served as a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee, and served on the following Boards: National Arts Council, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Arts and Business Council, New Dramatists, Center for Inter-American Relations, International Theater Institute, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and American Soviet Theater Initiative, Camargo Foundation, and Save Venice.  George currently serves as Executive Director of the Johnny Mercer Foundation. 

George’s contributions to theater extend beyond the borders of the United States.  Beginning in 1972, he has spearheaded cultural exchange efforts in such countries as Australia, Peoples Republic of China, Russia, and Brazil.  In 1984 he directed a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie in Beijing, and in 1987 he directed Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man in that same city.  He continues to lecture throughout the world on behalf of the U.S. Information Agency.  His international accomplishments have been recognized in being awarded the Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star from King Carl Gustaf, and the French Republic’s Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres.  Of particular note are the numerous theatrical exchanges that George initiated in Russia, beginning in the cold war days of the early 1980’s.