Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

Death of a Salesman: Biff's Blog - Days 11-20

posted by Jeremy Holm

March 9, 2008
On stage today for the first time. It feels great to be in our new home here in Crystal City. The set gives a real sense of period and of time wearing down on this family. There is more space here, or at least we feel freer to use the space we have, space which was taped out in the room, but which we did not use because of the closeness of the tables and chairs in the rehearsal space. The acoustics are completely unknown since no plays have been performed here as yet. So this is a great deal of new ground for all of us. The sound and lights were beginning to be added today, a very exciting time for us. Many of our entrances have different timing of course and most of our positions in the space needed to be adjusted. We ran out of time towards the end of the day and could not finish the play. In this rep situation it is very important to go through all of the adjustments in the imagination, or on paper in order that during the few days away from the work one remembers all of the changes. The first scene was much better today and is starting to get clear. I'm starting to think inside the character.

Arthur Miller Festival: Inside Rehearsal

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:

Death of a Salesman: Biff's Blog - Days 8, 9, 10

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.

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: Day 7

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

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: Day 6

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!

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: Day 5

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.

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: Day 4

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.

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: Day 3

posted by Jeremy Holm

January 31, 2008

Our second day at the table, we finished reading the play today with a two-hour block spent with our fight Director David Leong. It was great to keep searching out the play and to ask more questions and really figure out the time sequence in Willy's mind. We still have many questions about the timing of events in the play, but some major ground was covered because questions which we had asked the day before were answered, or at least put into focus. The "fight call' was an exercise called "water on water" very much from the push hands tradition in the martial arts which gives a safe physical context in which to explore violence. I was struck at how useful this was to the physical life and relationship of these characters. Tim and I really found out how these brothers loved and fought, and I think this will inform a lot of how we relate. I was also inspired and impressed by the way in which all of our cast, regardless of sex, body type, or age committed themselves to this work. There is something very fearless in this community of actors. Today was a very good day....I'm sure the hopeless and tough days are coming, but right now I feel very good about where we are. Some words and phrases I am left with.......

The madness of being Willy

The woods are burning

Striving

If ya gotta tell 'em what ya are, ya ain't  -Naomi Jacobson (The Woman)

Dave Singleman was the greatest salesman in the history of the world, Dave Single Man died alone.
Facts and aspects are unimportant.

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: 2nd Rehearsal

posted by Jeremy Holm

January 30, 2008

Today is about table work and a costume fitting. 10:00 a.m. costume fitting which was great. Really cool period for clothes in our story. Costume designers are always very specific about time and place and help to focus my thoughts on the feel of the period I am speaking in. Shoes, pants, shirts, hats and the like have a huge kinetic impact on how I feel about myself as I am in the character, so that first fitting really gives me a lot of information. A great team in the wardrobe department - they even brought me coffee, a first for me!

Rehearsal: 9 hours of table work, ideas and discussion. A very open and inclusive read of the first act over the 9 hours. Mr. Bond began by saying, "So lets read and go line by line until we drop." At least five or six times today I was surprised to find something new out about the text because of those discussions. Tim Gettman (Hap) walked a few of us to a great fallafel place on 18th. A good chilly walk was invigorating. Actors hate to sit still for very long. Post break back to the text. We moved a little faster after dinner and made it to the end of the act. Big things to think about, acting the bedroom scene with no beds. Heightened sense of reality during the scenes in the past, where do they live in Willy's mind, how much of those moments is true, and how much is made only of hope in Willy's spirit. Metroed it home with Noble and had a great talk about the business. Home by 9:20. Ready to think about something else for a while.

Death of a Salesman - Biff's Blog: 1st Rehearsal

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.