All My Sons Opens at The Western Stage
The Western Stage continues its Pearl Jubilee season August 6th
with Arthur Miller’s classic American tragedy All My Sons, playing
through August 29th in the Studio Theater, Hartnell College
Performing Arts Center. Season subscriptions are still the best bargain with
tickets as low as $12. Go to WesternStage.com for complete information or call
(831)-755-6816. (54 word calendar listing/PSA.)
The Western Stage continues its 30th
Anniversary Season on August 6th, with the play that made Arthur
Miller one of the most important post World War II playwrights in America, if
not the world. All My Sons tells the tragic story of Joe Keller, a
successful businessman whose company manufactured faulty cylinder heads for the
Air Force during the war costing the lives of 21 pilots. It is a dark secret
that tears the family apart when his idealistic son confronts Keller about the
crime.
In his lectures on Reason in History, Hegel
points out that, “One often advises rulers, statesmen, and peoples to learn
from the experiences of history. But what experience and history teach is that
peoples and governments have never yet learned from history.” All My Sons, which opened on Broadway
in 1947, gives some substantial weight to this observation. 57 years after its
premiere, this tragedy about the corrupting relationship between business and
war is enjoying a number of revivals in regional theatres across the country. This
is no surprise to Miller. In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle about the TheatreWorks production in Palo
Alto, he suggests the recent interest in All
My Sons is undoubtedly linked to the accusations of corruption surrounding
the war in Iraq. The Bush administration has come under fire for offering
no-bid contracts to corporations like Halliburton, an oil services company once
headed by Vice-President Cheney. “Of Course,” Miller says in the interview,
“the crime in All My Sons is piddling
compared to what’s going on now, but the principle is the same. I mean the
overwhelming power of greed is everlasting. And we’ve got it in spades now.”
At 88, Arthur Miller is now enjoying a career that
spans 7 decades. His first play, The Man
Who Had All the Luck premiered on
Broadway in 1944. Although it bombed with a dismal run of 4 performances, it
earned Miller a Theatre Guild award, which boded well for the young playwright.
All My Sons, was his second attempt, and, according to Miller, a determining
factor in his career. “I vowed to abandon playwrighting if All My Sons failed.”
He worked on the play for 2 years, before legendary director Elia Kazan took it
to Broadway, and the result was a phenomenal success. All My Sons, ran
328 performances at the Coronet Theatre in New York, and was awarded the New
York Drama Critics’ Circle for best play of the season. Miller followed this
success with two of the best-loved plays in all American literature, Death
of a Salesman and The Crucible. Both plays continue to be read in
high school and college English classes throughout the nation. Although his
later works are considered inferior to his early works, Miller in still
considered America’s preeminent playwright. Currently, he is working on 2 new
plays. Resurrection Blues, a political satire that premiered at the
Guthrie Theatre in 2002, is now being staged at the Old Globe Theatre in San
Diego. Finishing the Picture, in which he draws on his marriage to
Marilyn Monroe to tell the story of a fragile actress who wreaks havoc on a
film set, opens October 5th at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
One of the definitive features of Miller’s play
crafting is the reinvention of tragedy in modern drama. More can be read about
the traditional characteristics of tragedy and Miller’s challenge to them in
the supplemental article.
Tickets for All My Sons
are $17
for adults, $14 for seniors/students/military, and are available by calling The Western Stage Ticket Office
at 831-755-6816 or on our website at www.westernstage.com. Group rates are available. All My Sons, plays Friday and Saturday nights at
TWS’ Pearl Jubilee Season continues in October with Sweeney Todd, featuring Reg Huston as
the demon barber of Fleet Street. Tartuffe
and Into the Woods round out the
season later this fall.
Dan Tarker, Literary Associate
Directed by Lynne Collins
Scenic Design by Lynne Willis
Light Design: Theodore Michael Dolas
Costume, Makeup & Hair Design by Kathrine
Ogletree
Sound Design by Jacqueline Steager
Stage Management by Jeffrey Buckley
CAST
In alphabetical order:
Dr. Jim Baylis…………………………. Lorenzo
Bertie……………………………………Gabriela Crowley
Joe Keller…………………………… …Terry Durney
Sue Bayliss……………………………Helen Simkin Jara
Kate Keller…...………………………… Suzanne Sturn
George Deever…………………………. Sean Tarrant
Chris Keller………………………………RyanTasker
Frank Lubey…………………………….Denny Vierra
Ann Deever……….……………………. Heather Williams