Waterford — The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s summer season, which consists of a variety of theater-related conferences, will feature no public performances at its Waterford campus for the first time in the center’s 56-year history.

The reason is the coronavirus pandemic, and the result is that the summer programs will take place entirely online.

“With it being so unclear when we would be able to travel freely again — so many of our artists are coming in from all over the country and all over the world — that was a big impediment, as well as what resources we were going to have available to pull this off,” O’Neill CEO and Producer Preston Whiteway said.

Another question, he said, was whether people would want to gather — or even be allowed to — this summer.

So, the O’Neill team pivoted and looked for solutions online.

They still are developing exactly what every aspect of the online components will look like. Will there be actors and readings via computer? Just writers working with dramaturgs remotely? Everything is still being determined, and Whiteway said he doesn’t want to preclude anything yet.

But some things are certain. The conferences and programs will exist in some form.

It’s definite, for example, that four writers who submitted for the center’s National Playwrights Conference will get monetary and dramaturgical support as they develop their work. They also will be offered finalist positions for the NPC’s 2021 submission process. In addition, all 63 writers who made it to this year’s finalist group will automatically advance to the finalist pool for 2021.

A similar process will occur for the National Music Theater Conference, but with different numbers. Two writing teams will be given monetary and dramaturgical support and a 2021 finalist position. Four other writing teams who made it to this year’s finalist round will be offered finalist positions next year.

The first of the summer conferences is the National Puppetry Conference, which is marking its 30th anniversary. A modified five-day conference will be held online June 8-12. In honor of the anniversary, the conference will feature a five-part master class series with renowned puppetry artists online.

Asked how canceling all public performances would impact the O’Neill financially, Whiteway said, “”We are very lucky as an institution that we have a different economic model than much of American theater, so the summer shows are not a major driver of our overall revenue, since we’re offering such simply designed (shows) and such relatively low-priced offerings. So this is not a dramatic hit to our budget. Other things are. Making sure that our school stays enrolled ... that is where our attention is, from a budget point of view.”

The school he’s referring to is the O’Neill’s National Theater Institute, which is a theater program for college-aged students. Students this spring returned home and have been taking classes online, and NTI’s Theatermakers Summer Intensive likewise will be held online July 3-31.

As for staffing, Whiteway said the O’Neill has had to furlough a few people who work in the center’s kitchen and housekeeping.

A Facebook post and an email blast from the center said, “We will miss the 380 artists, 75 staff, 38 interns, 26 students, and hundreds of audience members who planned to spend their summer with us laughing at shadow puppets in the Dina, celebrating the birth of a new musical in the Barn, feeling the electricity of a new play come to life under the stars, serenaded at a cabaret table, and raising a glass with friends on Blue Gene’s Pub Patio. We grieve for moments of connection and community that will be lost by not being together this summer but are inspired by the innovation taking place within our institution as we move online together.”

Whiteway said, “One of the most wonderful things about the O’Neill in summers is the international and national artistic community joining with the southeastern Connecticut community. It’s such a vital part of the O’Neill summer, and not to have it is devastating.”

He noted, though, that the O'Neill is going to find ways to deliver programming to its members this summer and that people who become members or renew their membership now automatically will have membership all the way through 2021.

The responses that the O’Neill has gotten so far from the public about the changes have been understanding. Whiteway said that people have been disappointed and sad, but they also have been grateful and happy that the O’Neill is providing something this summer.

And he offered this reassurance to O’Neill fans: “The O’Neill you know and love is alive and well and will gather again.”

k.dorsey@theday.com