Everyone seems to have a story about the O'Neill. One of my favorites is from Wendy Wasserstein.

When the Pulitzer-winning playwright returned to the O'Neill in 2004 to give a keynote address, she spoke of her early years at the center - delivering scripts and taking dictation from playwrights conference artistic director Lloyd Richards.

She had graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1976 and was, frankly, looking for a job. She found one, as a messenger for the O'Neill New York office. She delivered scripts to readers for the playwrights conference and she took dictation from Richards. She said she remembered thinking, "If Lloyd thinks I know how to take dictation, then he deserves the letters I'm sending out."

Being a sympathetic soul, she added bits of encouragement to the letters to writers whose scripts had been rejected.

Wasserstein eventually saw her own play, "Uncommon Women and Others," chosen for the 1977 conference.

"It was a really uplifting experience ... seeing (an organization) that was not-for-profit but with the highest regard for the individual voice," she said.

Ultimately, she said, "the O'Neill is one of the most important places in my theater history."