Actor Jeremy Holm will be blogging about his rehearsal and performance experience in the role of Biff in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Join him here on his journey every day - and feel free to post your questions and comments at the end of each entry.
posted by Jeremy Holm
January 29, 2008 - First rehearsal
Always an important day in the life of a Character. The tone of the entire process begins with the first meet and greet, the introduction of the Artistic Staff, the Theater staff, Board members and of course cast mates. Molly Smith set the tone with her introduction of the idea for the Miller rep, and explained the genesis of the project from the first words to the present moment. Let me back up just a bit here....This blog is my experience as I go about creating Biff for this production so let me start with my reflections about the first day from my first venture to the meet and greet. The Metro here is so much cleaner and spacious than the MTA (Subway) in New York. The exit from the Metro into Crystal City was so exciting, like performing a play in an underground airport-city. Hearing about all of the sweat and work that went into getting the new space ready for this season was inspiring. So here I am getting ready to play Biff in Death of a Salesman, one of the greatest American plays, by one of the greatest playwrights in American history at our country's first and most important regional theater...what a sense of history shrouds this entire production. The first read took place in a tiny conference room barely big enough for our team to sit in, and hot enough for a sweat lodge. No one complained and in fact, once the read started I didn't even notice. Our dramaturg didn't even catch typo's in the script until page 62 (it was retyped for our production). He said he was too caught up in the play to notice. The story is so inevitable, Timothy Bond, our director, wants us to fight against that urge. He wants us to mine out the hope and light in the play. Day one was thrilling, inspiring and energizing. Having had a drink after the rehearsal, I went home with my wife who is staying with me for the entire run, a rare treat for a regional theater actor.
I was doing a search for Jeremy after looking at pictures from UWM. Is there a way he can contact me?
Posted by: Lori (Fensin) Fisher | December 25, 2009 at 09:30 AM