A power substation on the Chickasha road near Vienna Elementary School triggered in Jon a vivid memory of the set for O'Neill's rarely performed 1929 play Dynamo. In the 1993 edition of his book Scenographic Imagination, Darwin Reid Payne noted that "Eugene O'Neill, at least on one occasion, even went so far as to visit a power plant in order to make a sketch of its interior and equipment to give the scenographer Lee Simonson so that he would more nearly obtain the effect O'Neill wanted for his play Dynamo." (P. 116). Blog readers can compare O'Neill's sketch, Simonson's set, and Jon's photos. Jon, it seems to me as if O'Neill might have been seeking a sense of enclosure and darkness (to contrast with light provided by electricity) lacking in our power substation. But I see how, in this case, reality mimicks theatre design.
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