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posted by Vijay Mathew
Here's an excerpt of Arthur Miller being interviewed by Charlie Rose in 1992. Miller gives his opinion of what defines and distinguishes "giant" playwrights from the others and why the current situation in American theater can no longer support new, great playwrights.
Do you agree with his definition of a great playwright and with his view on today's theater culture? Post your comments here.
posted by Jamieson Baker (directing intern for the Arthur Miller Festival)
These pictures are from the original Broadway productions of Death of a Salesman (1949) and A View from the Bridge (1955). Now that rehearsals are under way for both productions in the Miller Festival, the actors, directors and creative team are discovering new ideas about bringing the plays to life.
Director Daniel Aukin began the first rehearsal for A View from the Bridge by sharing some of his ideas about the play. On one level, the play was Miller's response to the film On the Waterfront, which was directed by his longtime collaborator, Elia Kazan. Kazan had directed the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman, and Miller later approached Kazan with a screenplay for a film that dealt with the experiences of longshoremen in Brooklyn called The Hook. Miller and Kazan parted ways after Miller criticized Kazan's decision to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and in 1954 Kazan made On the Waterfront, which starred Marlon Brando as a heroic longshoreman who informs on the mob. The film also starred Lee J. Cobb, who originated the role of Willy Loman. This is the film's original trailer:
Continue reading "Arthur Miller Festival: Inside Rehearsal" »
posted by Jeremy Holm
February 9, 2008
Today was a difficult day....I'm getting this bug that is going around and it really messed with my concentration. I felt okay this morning, we did movement work with David Leong, and then went to our secondary space to rehearse (View had the primary space today) and as the day went along I was taken over by this flu stuff. We ran the scene a few times and fine tuned some movement issues. These discoveries about Willy's will to do are huge and drive the rest of the play. Hap is in denial. Biff can no longer just think of himself and what he needs, and Linda must finally ask for help and tell the naked truth to her sons. A great scene, nowhere to hide here, it is all out on the table.
February 8, 2008
More work today on the bedroom scene and the first flashback scene. Rick Foucheaux is amazing to watch work. He is in every scene and is always prepared and always drives what he is doing so well. This is a great learning experience for me, to watch a master at his craft move through this process. A light day for me, time to learn lines and work on scenes with Hap.
February 7, 2008
Good progress on detailing the bedroom scene today. More clues unraveling about the entire play. Like most plays the first scene is always the most difficult because so much must be established, both for ourselves and for the audience. There are many discoveries which the audience never knows about directly, but which the actor uses to feed the soul of a play. For me my thoughts, memories and feeling about objects like the football, the trophy, the collection of memories is useful both to tell the story but to feed me for the events that will take place later. Tim Bond is great at identifying when something needs a move or an adjustment of some kind.
posted by Jeremy Holm
February 7, 2008
It was great to see Tim Bond again as he was away for the past few days while we rehearsed A View from the Bridge. We blocked the remainder of the play today and struggled for a good deal of the time, occasionally unearthing a good beat of work. I was not as prepared as I would like to have been. Toward the end of the day we ran the last scene a third time and found that it had some really good listening going on. Every play requires listening, but this play is impossible to do truthfully without good listening in every single moment. It occurs to me how much trust is needed for good art to be made. All of us bring in our own way of working and all of us must adjust to every other artist's way of working. We must then begin to find a way to create a new way of working together. I think that our team is on the verge of doing just that. There is too the very good feeling of having finished blocking the play and knowing now, a lot more about what we don't know, as well as having planted some anchors in the text. wonder blame freedom dreams whispers
posted by Vijay Mathew
The first time Arena Stage produced Death of a Salesman was in 1974 at which time Arthur Miller visited the cast and crew backstage of the Fichandler. The production was directed by Zelda Fichandler with Robert Prosky as Willy Loman and Dorothea Hammond as Linda. Ms. Hammond was also in Arena's 1956 American premiere of Miller's A View from the Bridge as Beatrice.
posted by Vijay Mathew
Arena Stage produced the American premiere of A View from the Bridge in November 1956. Here are the production stills and the program from our files:
See the program for A View from the Bridge, November 7, 1956.
This production was the premiere of the full-length, two-act play that Arthur Miller wrote after its unsuccessful reception on Broadway in 1955 as an one-act play paired with another Miller one-act play A Memory of Two Mondays. The final version of View that Arena premiered in 1956 is considered the definitive version and will be the one that Arena is producing in the upcoming Arthur Miller Festival.
Arena's original production of View was directed by Alan Schneider, one of the most prominent directors in the history of American theater. Schneider directed several productions at Arena over a thirty year period and also led the theater during the 1973-1974 season while Zelda Fichandler was on sabbatical.
If you saw this production or know of someone who may have seen this production, please have them post a comment here!
posted by Jeremy Holm
February 3, 2008
Today we began act two and got to somewhere around page 105. Everyone is ready for the day off, but up to the last minute on Sunday night, we were forging ahead. It feels great to have the bones in place so during our next few days away from Salesman we can start hanging the meat. Dreams now invading my thoughts about the play, a good sign. We now shift gears and come back Tuesday to do a first read-through of A View From The Bridge. I am fascinated to know what this will feel like doing two Miller plays at the same time, and to note the differences and similarities in how our directors lead the same cast. A great first week. An amazing amount of work accomplished. Not one of the actors I spoke with is actually taking our day off. Everyone I spoke to has another job, a voice-over, a staged reading, or some other kind of work that they are doing, which reminds me what a labor of love our work is. And now home to watch the Giants beat, or at least test the Patriots!
posted by Jeremy Holm
February 2, 2008
We finished the first act and then ran through the entire first act of the play. Unbeleivable to get so far. Big swaths, with lots of beat to beat detail work to go back and catch. I am left with more questions than answers and feel that I need to come up for air, and let things steep a bit for a fresh attack. Rick (playing Willy Loman) is a monster, an unrelenting dynamo. He just keeps going all day without sign of tiring or backing off. He is quite inspiring. There is a midpoint in acting something where the intellectual part of one's mind has to learn the lines, and the heart is struggling to take over. For me this point usually comes later, but I am already in it. I call it the dark time, and it is very uncomfortable. I hope to get through it quickly.
posted by Jeremy Holm
February 1, 2008
First day on our feet beginning the blocking process. This is usually the slowest day of rehearsal. Not so in this case. We stopped around page 33 and will pick up there tomorrow. A great many little discoveries about use of the space. How to solve scenic hurdles with implication and gestural moves. We get no real bedroom for our bedroom scene which at first was distressing to me. Then Tim and I worked out a cool way to be in the bedroom without the beds, and also to be in a space where brothers have heart to heart talks and walks down old memory lanes. Great image work on what this room looks like and how the things, the objects in this scene are distinguished from scenes in the past. Lines Lines Lines. One never knows the lines well enough or soon enough, and I feel like I'm rushing myself a bit, and yet I'm not keeping up with myself either. Strange. A great day where the size of the work is more clearly defined and the chisels are now dirty and the callouses are being thickened by the work. A very nice Dinner Party was held for us after the rehearsal at Board Intern David Shiffrin's home. A great chance to talk with our castmates and people who are really interested in Miller and in Arena Stage. Sometimes I get some really cool revelations about the work during these sorts of events. Sometimes things that have stewed for a few hours become clear during and because of a conversation in a different context. This happened tonight.
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