I have a confession: I don’t really have fond memories of Death of a Salesman. (To be fair, it isn’t exactly an upper, but you know what I mean.) It conjures dull afternoons spent round-robin reading through the parts and nearly falling asleep on my English teacher’s classroom couch. But thank goodness for theater companies. The material comes alive in ways you might never expect when actors, directors, and creative teams work their magic. In fact, Proof, another notorious classroom slog, has become one of my favorite plays after catching performances in both Baltimore and St. Louis. So I’m looking forward to giving Arthur Miller another chance during The Black Rep’s upcoming production of Death of a Salesman. After talking to director Jacqueline Thompson, I’m excited to experience the story, the cast, and the ways they come together. As always, thanks for subscribing, and feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts, ideas, and questions. Until next time!
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Jacqueline Thompson will direct Death of a Salesman at The Black Rep. Images courtesy of The Black Rep.
The Black Rep brings new life to Death of a Salesman.
Director Jackie Thompson talks crafting an American classic and the ongoing relevance of the Arthur Miller–penned play.
The Black Rep is kicking off 2023 with a classic. The company’s Death of a Salesman, directed by Jacqueline Thompson and starring Ron Himes as Willy Loman, premieres January 11 at Washington University’s Edison Theatre and runs through January 29. We caught up with Thompson ahead of a busy tech rehearsal to discuss the continued relevance of Arthur Miller’s classic play and the appeal of The Black Rep’s latest production.
Five takeaways from our chat with Thompson:
The director has spent a lot of time with Willy Loman and company over the past four months. Thompson also directed Ron Himes, founder and producing director of The Black Rep, in Death of a Salesman at the Nebraska Repertory Theater this past fall. The St. Louis production is primarily a new cast and features all professional actors, as opposed to the mix of students involved in the Nebraska production.
For Thompson, the experience of working with a new cast has brought new elements to the play. “With different actors living those experiences differently in their bodies, different things rise up and you hear text differently. I think that this cast has done a phenomenal job of adding levity to a really hard, painful play,” she says. “There are moments where I'm like, Oh, that line can be funny. Or there's a little joy, a little light in this moment that I might have missed the first time.”
The Black Rep’s production will stay true to Miller’s text, but parts of the play land differently when the story is centered on a Black family in 1949. “Someone asked, ‘Well, are you going to be able to shift lines? Are you going to reimagine lines? Will you be able to drop lines?’ No, we have to stay true and honor the integrity of the text,” says Thompson. “But there are certain moments that, with this Black family being at the center, certain lines just land differently. And I think that's been really interesting—not forcing the racial or systematic things that come along with this, but just seeing how they naturally play out with these actors on stage.”
While many people may have encountered Death of a Salesman before, its message has continued relevance. “I think the quest for the American Dream is timeless,” says Thompson. “I think that the perceived notion of certain things that you're supposed to have by a certain age, by society standards, weighs on everybody, and it weighs on people differently... Nobody wants their dreams deferred, but what happens when that causes your demise? What happens when you put expectations on your children to live out a dream that you could not live? What does that do to your family? What does that do to your peace? What does that do to your joy?”
In spending so much time with Death of a Salesman, Thompson has learned a few things of her own. “For me, it’s been about me reflecting on a lot of my personal dreams and wants and leaning into gratitude, no matter what has not shaken out or what I have not achieved by now, at this hour in my life,” she says. “Gratitude for what is and is not, and not burdening myself with unnecessary expectations that will steal my joy. It’s also made me look at my own family dynamics—things that are beautiful and things that are hard. I think having difficult family dynamics is universal, and how we love in spite of and how we try to heal in spite of. Some things we may never resolve, but how do we continue life in spite of those things?”
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