TheaterGoing Habit

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Arthur Miller Super Study

or, is a director that follows Arthur Miller’s first hit, All My Sons, with Arthur Miller’s biggest hit, Death of a Salesman, just a fan? Will he follow with The Crucible? The director of this theater program mentions A View from the Bridge, as well. I’ve never

$50 Death of a Salesman

Does not look like this: “right-size” has become a verb. We right-size our productions used to be on Soho Rep’s website. They would choose the play, cast-size and design that seemed to match whatever the budget was for that season….I liked reading that at the

Still Not Baltimore

Still Not Baltimore

Death of a Salesman is the great American tragedy…written by a New Yorker…about New Yorkers…set in New York…played by…Baltimoreans. Of course Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman takes place in Brooklyn, not Baltimore. Most of us know that. Before I think about what works

_Death of a Salesman

Not Baltimore

Queens, quite a bit in common with Brooklyn. Last time I was preoccupied with finding a single family house for the Lomans in Death of a Salesman that was detached on all sides from neighbors. A house we could plausibly surround with apartment buildings. The house could not be as

_Death of a Salesman

King of Queens

This essay started as a not-Baltimore essay; as in, Death of a Salesman is not a Baltimore show. I will explain why we might think it is tomorrow. But! I found a particularly poignant insight on our current country while I was comparing NYC to Baltimore. So, this essay

How Colorful is this Tragedy?

_Death of a Salesman

How Colorful is this Tragedy?

Okay! So the American tragic hero is also the “hero image” for all of American theater. That is my thought. If this is true then our collective story is a tragedy with no catharsis - just a circular purgatory of coming and going and never arriving. Heavy. Theater has the reputation

Whose Hero (image)

_Death of a Salesman

Whose Hero (image)

I called this first image the hero image of American theater at the beginning of the last essay…and by the end of the essay I changed my mind, and decided it is the second one: It‘s not that the first image is worse than the second. It’s

_Death of a Salesman

Hero Image

I learned the term Hero Image from a movie and television production designer. He was sure that it wasn’t just useful, but essential, to choose just one image to represent?, guide?, summarize? a whole story. I picked up Death of a Salesman again because I feel that Willy Loman

Death of a Salesman

_Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

The producers of the original Death of a Salesman were worried that the morbid name would deter audiences. I concur. I am deterred. I also concur with Miller that it is the perfect title for this crushing show — crushing in the same way that I am feeling crushed by our