Death of a Playwright
Arthur Miller died last night at the age of 89. I feel something of a personal connection to him because I studied his work and acted in one of his plays. Being on the inside of a play changes my relationship to the play and, sometimes, to its author. Even tho' I find his plays somewhat heavy-handed (and downright uncomfortable at times), I think they're good, solid work. They've pulled at something universal in human experience -- something that transcends nationalities and events. He had talent, he worked damn hard, and he created lasting works of art, with great craftsmanship and integrity. There ain't many folk like that in this world, and now there's one less.
I played Rebecca Nurse in the MIT Community Players' production of The Crucible in Fall of '01. The group deliberately chose that play in the wake of 9-11. I felt it was an honor to play that character, to help tell Miller's story and the historical story under it, especially during a time of great uncertainty and fear. It was a pretty decent production, at that. I appointed myself dramaturg, concerned that no-one would pay sufficient attention to the history behind the play and to Miller's history with the play. I now have a shelf full of books on the Salem Witchcraft trials and on or by Arthur Miller. Our director took us off to Salem to check out Rebecca Nurse's home (which was restored for the PBS film Three Sovreigns for Sarah, which was about one of Nurse's sisters -- the only one to survive the witchcraft trials), a museum, and the memorials to those who died or were executed during the trials. I looked up the trial transcripts on the web, researched the choices Miller made in creating the play, and read up on 17th c. life in MA. I wrote up a short essay on the history of the Salem trials and on the history of the play for the program. I aged seven actors for each performance (including myself) with makeup, marked up John Proctor's wrists with blood, and was helped offstage to be hanged at the end of each show. It was a joy, and an honor, and something of a sacred task -- almost ritual -- especially given the increasingly repressive and stratified political climate that began in '01 and has continued intensifying.
Thank you, Arthur Miller. The good that you did will not be interred with your bones.
I played Rebecca Nurse in the MIT Community Players' production of The Crucible in Fall of '01. The group deliberately chose that play in the wake of 9-11. I felt it was an honor to play that character, to help tell Miller's story and the historical story under it, especially during a time of great uncertainty and fear. It was a pretty decent production, at that. I appointed myself dramaturg, concerned that no-one would pay sufficient attention to the history behind the play and to Miller's history with the play. I now have a shelf full of books on the Salem Witchcraft trials and on or by Arthur Miller. Our director took us off to Salem to check out Rebecca Nurse's home (which was restored for the PBS film Three Sovreigns for Sarah, which was about one of Nurse's sisters -- the only one to survive the witchcraft trials), a museum, and the memorials to those who died or were executed during the trials. I looked up the trial transcripts on the web, researched the choices Miller made in creating the play, and read up on 17th c. life in MA. I wrote up a short essay on the history of the Salem trials and on the history of the play for the program. I aged seven actors for each performance (including myself) with makeup, marked up John Proctor's wrists with blood, and was helped offstage to be hanged at the end of each show. It was a joy, and an honor, and something of a sacred task -- almost ritual -- especially given the increasingly repressive and stratified political climate that began in '01 and has continued intensifying.
Thank you, Arthur Miller. The good that you did will not be interred with your bones.