The Dewsbury Arts Group is a leading nonprofessional theater company in the North of England, operating from a former Friends meeting house with wonderful hardworking facilities that culminate in a gem of an auditorium. The group has a history with Miller, having already produced The Crucible and A View From the Bridge some time ago. The director, Sue Saville, said that they were ready to inject some “meat” into this year's program, and she knew that Arthur Miller was the playwright to which to turn.Sue Daniels and her team are to be congratulated for their realistic set design. They created a perfect replica, following Miller's directions, of a clapboard house and veranda, and with the “back lot” nicely enclosed, as the playwright would have wished. Andy Wright's “rose-tinted” lighting helps emphasize the apparent cozy image of the Keller family. The play opens with the sound of a tremendous thunderstorm, overlaid by Tony Fox's truly authentic sound of aircraft. Saville stated that the storm in her mind was the epitome of the storm that will soon break in the household and links to the damaged tree in more ways than one.Richard Brook as Joe Keller is outstanding throughout, beginning with an easy “Sunday morning” style that was to reveal his understanding of the rhythms in the play. His laconic ease at play with Leon Smithson's lively Bert seemed already undercut with a lurking insecurity. Together with the brilliant Maria Bailey as Kate Keller, the couple form a spine to this performance that never wilted in pace or lacked energy or intensity. They formed a backdrop against which the idiosyncrasies of the other characters could be contrasted.Mark Bailey is superbly wistful as Doc Bayliss; one fully can understand his broken dreams when he is constantly driven by the monetary demands of his wife Sue, safe in the hands of Lisa Dickinson. The measure of Dickinson's role, as always, is in the crucial exchange with Ann. She delivers her salutary message with just the right amount of bile and venom to make her return to friendly neighbor plausible. You simply want to give Frank Lubey (lovely Tony Fox) a good shake. Like Doc Bayliss, he is another dreamer, highlighting Miller's understanding of the frustration of returning soldiers from combat. They find evidently blinkered people like Frank and the Doc hard to read. The readjustment to a materialistic world from that special comradeship of battle is confusing, leading to frustration and anger. Iain Winstanley's Chris Keller is confused about his future in the family business, and guilty about surviving the war. He is superb in his early hesitant exchanges with Ann (Rachel Wood). Wood's Ann, however, has the steel to withstand the haranguing by Sue Bayliss, the outright wiles of Kate, the sibling tugging of brother George, and it is only right that she should deliver the final moment of truth.Mathew Bailey's George Deever is angry, having learned the truth about his father; he is also filled with remorse about how he neglected him. Madhia Ansari-Kahn's delightful cameo of the girlfriend left behind, now with three of Frank Lubey's children, is a harsh reminder to George of how life appears unreal after his war experiences. Again, Miller exerts his rhythm, as Kate somehow finds a balm for George's bitterness, and Mathew Bailey's change of heart is totally convincing, as his anger subsides with want for his boyhood years even while the knowledge of his father's innocence persists.In this production acts 2 and 3 were merged, allowing the final mixture of admissions and home truths to flood without pause. Chris and Joe are at each other's throats, Kate is descending into the fringes of insanity, and even gentle Doc Bayliss admits he “knew.” The telltale gunshot leads to the complete collapse of Chris into his mother's arms as she now begins the reparation of her surviving son. There is again a roar of piston-engined aircraft flying past, their cracked cylinder heads hinting at all the human fissures below.This performance was faithful to Miller in very sense, and there were no artificial devices laid over his script. The cast appeared to fully understand and convey the issues of denial, guilt, and greed that the playwright wanted to explore. They also each maintained their accents without falter, and this is no mean feat if one knows the distinctive tones of West Yorkshire. The cast was allowed one modest curtain call; in New York or London they indeed would have received a standing ovation.

[Editor's Note: On 21 October 2017, the Arthur Miller Society observed the anniversary of his birth in New York City with an event at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, the neighborhood where Miller lived in the forties and fifties. The Arthur Miller Birthday Commemoration included remarks by AMS President David Palmer and a keynote address by distinguished Miller scholar Susan C. W. Abbotson. The program featured an interview with the acclaimed Broadway, film, and TV actress Jessica Hecht, who appeared in the 2017 revival of The Price, featuring Mark Ruffalo, Tony Shalhoub, and Danny DeVito. Ms. Hecht has appeared in television shows such as Lois & Clark, ER, Seinfeld, Friends, Once and Again, Law & Order, Breaking Bad, Bored to Death, The Good Wife, and The Single Guy. Her film work includes Sideways, Anarchy TV, Kicking and Screaming, Dan in Real Life, and Whatever Works. She made her Broadway debut in The Last Night of Ballyhoo and has appeared in The Assembled Parties, Julius Caesar, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound, Harvey, and Fiddler on the Roof. She has the distinction of having had major roles in Broadway revivals of three of Arthur Miller's most well-known plays: After the Fall in 2004 as Louise, A View From the Bridge in 2010 as Beatrice (earning a Tony Award nomination), and recently The Price as Esther.A video of this interview can be viewed on the St. Francis College website and YouTube.]

The CrucibleWalter Kerr Theatre13 March-17 July 2016Directed by Ivo van Hove[Editor's Note: While The Crucible might be considered one of Miller's closer brushes with realism, despite its realistic veneer, it was also deceptively inventive for its time. His earlier, equally realistic All My Sons has withstood several forays against its apparent realism with varying success, largely dependent on the cohesive vision of the director. Belgian experimentalist Ivo van Hove's highly anticipated Broadway revival of The Crucible featured innovative staging and costuming, as well as a superb ensemble cast, that pleased plenty, but left others feeling somewhat cheated. Some, in this case Thomas Greenfield and Molly Marino, felt that van Hove's interpretation was too limited and failed to render an articulate visual or aural statement; while David Palmer was more willing to view van Hove's attempted vision in a more positive light, as an insightful but dark commentary on the disturbing vagaries of our current society. The following reviews offer a variety of responses to this landmark production. It should be noted that whether one loved or hated it, the excitement that has surrounded The Crucible on the heels of van Hove's A View from the Bridge (a production on which the majority of critics were more agreed regarding its excellence) has done much to make Miller one of the most feted playwrights on Broadway at the start of the twenty-first century, and past his centennial celebrations. This should offer encouragement for other renowned directors and theater companies to try their hand. Thus, we can look forward to even more exciting productions of Miller's work in the years to come.-Susan C. W. AbbotsonPerformance Review Editor]The CrucibleWalter Kerr TheatreNew York, NY31 March-17 July 2016Directed by Ivo van HoveREVIEWED BY THOMAS GREENFIELD, SUNY GENESEOSince his death in 2005 Arthur Miller has had five Broadway opening nights: All My Sons (2008), A View from the Bridge (2010), Death of a Salesman (2012), A View from the Bridge again (2015), and The Crucible, which opened in March 2016. The two most recent productions were directed by Ivo van Hove, the heralded Belgian avant-garde experimentalist and "Broadway's Man of the Moment" (Marks). If one views past as prologue, van Hove and his "moment" are something of a mismatch considering how infrequently Miller's plays are staged as avant-garde pieces. Van Hove certainly understands this disconnect between Miller and himself, admitting as recently as 2014, "I'm not such a fan of Arthur Miller . . . often his plays are ethical, you know? Good against evil . . . I am not so interested in good and evil" (Dickson). For better and worse, that disconnect is evident in van Hove's Broadway revival of The Crucible.Van Hove made his reputation in Europe and the United States by radically reimagining traditional dramatic pieces. (The word "reimagining" frequently appears in discussions of van Hove's productions.) True to his word and his buzz, van Hove served notice as he embarked on his Broadway stagings of A View from the Bridge and The Crucible: "When I do a play I want to do it in the most extreme way possible" (Dickson). Van Hove's forceful staging of A View from the Bridge left its intended impression on New York audiences and critics. In fruitful collaboration with scenic designer Jan Versweyveld, van Hove relocated the Carbones' Brooklyn-by-the-docks living room to an undefined minimalist space that might have well served an updated production of Sartre's No Exit. Yet given that Miller himself wanted the play and the set "stripped of everything but its essential elements" (Huftel 146), van Hove's Bridge was not a bridge too far.Van Hove's staging of The Crucible is another matter. Any reimagining of The Crucible contends with the inescapable fact that, unlike A View from the Bridge, The Crucible is itself a reimagining of something else-twice. …

This theater group has been active in the State College area since 1992, incorporated as The Next Stage since 1996. They try to mount three main-stage productions a year, with an emphasis on contemporary plays. The Price is the first full-length Arthur Miller play they have produced, although they successfully produced his one-act play, Elegy for a Lady, around 2002.This production of The Price was the first time I had seen the play performed. As many have noted, this is one of Arthur Miller's less produced plays, even though it has only four roles. One might assume that this is partially because the set calls for a large amount of old furniture, and thus makes it a bit difficult to stage. The first thing that struck me was the set. This group kept it to the bare minimum, with just a couple of covered sofa chairs, a trunk, and a few other antique artifacts. This made for a very intimate, simple space where the audience could feel very much part of the scene, as though we were in the attic of that New York apartment building, eavesdropping on the conversations being had. In my view, the more simple and bare the set, the fewer distractions from the story being told, and from the message of the play.The cast was a strong ensemble of characters—each distinct and all clearly struggling to make peace with the past, the choices they have made, and the price they have paid for those choices. It consisted of the director, Elaine Meder-Wilgus, as Esther Franz, Victor's wife; Tom McClary as the furniture dealer, Gregory Solomon; John Austin as Walter Franz, the long-lost brother of Victor; and Jeff Brown as the loyal Victor Franz. Each actor gave an even and strong performance: Meder-Wilgus as the weak-appearing, yet forceful, Esther; Austin as the estranged brother come back to try and heal his relationship with Victor; Brown as the true and loyal brother who chose to stay and care for his father who finds out what that choice cost him; and McClary as the elderly, funny, and frank-speaking Gregory Solomon. Of special note were the performances of McClary and Brown.McClary brought to the role of Solomon true authenticity and humor, from the way he walked into the apartment, hunched over, to his voice quivering just so. The character of Solomon also offered some levity to the situation by his laughter and storytelling. As much as Victor tried to get him to start with the appraising, Solomon continued to chat away, telling stories and little jokes. This created a good balance to the seriousness of the moment—having an appraiser go through and put a price on the last belongings of a dead father.Victor is a loyal son who does the responsible thing and is confronted with what these choices have cost him, and the resentments onto which he has been holding. He stayed to take care of his aging father, instead of leaving to pursue his studies, his desires. He makes this choice, while his brother goes off and becomes the successful doctor. Though he realizes that he made the choice of his own will, he does show us that there is some resentment toward the brother who was able to pursue his dreams when Walter enters the picture after all of these years.Brown brought to the role an honesty and frailty that brings out the humanness of being a sibling, and a son. He portrayed Victor as the “average” son, if you wish, the son who did what was expected, the gentle, quiet one, with bowed head and few words. I think many of us in the audience could relate to the realness of his emotions—both his resentment, and his complex relationship with his brother.The highlight of the play was the riveting drama of act 2, after Walter arrives on the scene. Walter and Victor reveal truths and resentments that they have been holding onto for years. Walter, it seems, has always admired Victor and reveals that he has come to heal his relationship with his brother. Victor, on the other hand, though not really aiming to, ends up finally letting his brother know that he has resented the fact that he left, that Walter had a chance to go and pursue his dreams, while he was left to take care of the father. Though he does not want to admit it, he is looking for an acknowledgment from Walter of what he, Victor, gave up—an apology, even. When he does not get what he secretly seeks, his true anger finally surfaces. Of course, in the end, he learns that it was his father who lied to him, that the money was there … and now he has to live with this.Everyone is confronted with the choices they have made in the past and the price they have paid for those choices. Even Esther. Since she chose Vic, she has been living with the “price” she has had to pay for that—the non-glamorous, average life of the wife of a police officer, without any of the interesting adventures others with greater means can experience. The exchange between the brothers is central, and it is well directed by Meder-Wilgus. She has the two siblings encircle each other, walk away, then go toward each other again. With each step they bring out the truth behind each brother's words, motivations, and emotions.There is something for everyone to be able to relate to in this story—the loss of a parent; one's relationship with a parent; sibling relationships, rivalries, and resentments; one's ability or inability to live with the choices one has made in life. I, for one, found myself understanding both brothers, but leaning toward the side of the loyal Vic despite his having been duped, who takes responsibility for his life and his decisions and remains true to himself. What is Miller saying about the choices, the resentments, the “price” we all must pay? This production seems to be ultimately saying that we should simply live with what is, the choices we have made, and must surrender past resentments and take honest responsibility for our own future lives.Bravo to this small theater production for doing true justice to this seldom-produced gem of a play by one of America's most celebrated playwrights.

Measured by how often it has been performed, The Creation of the World and Other Business has not been a successful play, despite Miller's (perhaps facetious) line that “[t]his is the best goddamned play I've ever written” (Lamos 377). Yet the work occupies a significant position in Arthur Miller's theatrical oeuvre. Thus, the Miller centennial invites a timely reexamination of its chronology, of its critical reception, of its style, and of its crucial connection to myth and archetype.

Abstract These Notes describe impressions made on the actor playing Ben by a community production of Death of a Salesman at the northern frontier of Willy's New England territory in January 2015. The action played out in an intimate, three-level acting space in an 85 seat, octagonal theater converted from a stock judging pavilion on the University of Maine campus. For Ben, who heard the production repeatedly but did not view it, this Salesman became a vivid radio play, a rich array of voices and rhythms, at once colloquial and mannered, lyrical and dissonant, affectionate and cruel. This production captured particularly well the play's fluid time. Scene changes, sound, and lighting revealed how past and present collided and merged; but Willy and Linda's familiarities with one another's quirks, desires, and rants evoked years of family life in between. Playing Ben proved to be a lark in act 1, full of swagger; but playing Ben in act 2 proved difficult, having to be sold on Willy's suicide but realizing by the end fraternal love for his kid brother. To Ben's ear, this production's poignant, energetic domesticity gave it a persuasive reality rising out of dream.

Research Article| April 11 2016 The Arthur Miller Centennial Conference The Arthur Miller Journal (2016) 11 (1): 109–120. https://doi.org/10.5325/arthmillj.11.1.0109 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation The Arthur Miller Centennial Conference. The Arthur Miller Journal 11 April 2016; 11 (1): 109–120. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/arthmillj.11.1.0109 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressThe Arthur Miller Journal Search Advanced Search We would like to thank the following for their extraordinary help in making this conference possible: Timothy Houlihan, Provost, St. Francis College; Richard Relkin, Director of Media Relations, St. Francis College; Rob Oliva, Director of Special Events, St. Francis College; Jim Shanahan, Gotham Color; Susan Abbotson, The Arthur Miller Society; David Palmer, The Arthur Miller SocietyThis conference would not have been possible without the generous support of the Offices of the President and Provost of St. Francis College, and the English Departments of St. Francis College and St. Francis Prep. Special thanks to Penguin Press and Penn State University Press for their contribution to the President's and Closing Receptions.Steven R. Centola (1952–2008), Founding President, 1994Paula Langteau, President 2014–2016David Palmer, Vice-President 2014–2016Stephen Marino, Secretary/TreasurerSusan C. W. Abbotson, Jane K. Dominik, Kate Egerton, Paula Langteau, Lew Livesay, Stephen Marino, Brenda Murphy, Joshua Polster, Matthew C. Roudané... Issue Section: program You do not currently have access to this content.