Production Staff
Director: Pat Acerra
Stage Manager: George Dempsey
Assistant Stage Manager: Tom Frohnapfel
Costume Designers:
Mary Dempsey, Kristin Lampadius
Costume Crew:
Karen Babcock, Mary Ellen Druyan,
Marcia Grohne, Margaret Nikoleit,
Stephanie Rychlowski, Jane Stacy
Dramaturg: George Dempsey
Lighting Designer: Cal Turner
Lighting Crew:
Art Kelly
Makeup Designers:
Betty Nelson, Ginny Richardson
Makeup Crew:
Janeen Jewell, Mia Curtiss,
Stephanie Rychlowski, Anna Wildermuth
Properties Designer: Joe Delaloye
Properties Crew:
Linda Auer, Peggy Beyer,
Pauline Gamble, Heinz Karplus,
Marion Reis, Merrilyn Tomchaney
Set Designer: Rob Pold
Set Construction Chair: Mark Hewitt
Set Construction Crew:
Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey,
Kirby Harris, Rich Ptacek,
Paul Roach, Bill Rotz,
Fred Sauers, Kevin Slattery
Set Painting Chairs:
Tom Frohnapfel, Linda Lee Metz
Set Painting Crew:
Tricia Boren, Holly Cejka,
Brandon Cejka, Carol Clarke,
Mary Clarke, Tim Feeney,
Barb Hammack, Karen Holbert,
Laura Leonardo-Ownby, John Mueller,
Tom Pfeil, Rob Pold,
Lori Proksa, Sandy Squillo
Sound Designer: Bill Hammack
Sound Crew:
John Allen, Dorothy Attermeyer,
Linda Roberts
Production Box Office Chair: Mary Ellen Schutt
Production Box Office Crew:
Ruth Cekal, Carol Dapogny,
Terry Kozlowski, Jill Neely,
Lori Proksa, Joan Roeder,
Patti Roeder, Mary Smith,
Sandy Squillo, Don Strueber
Production Hospitality Bakers:
Carol Clarke, Kirby Harris,
Karen Holbert, Kathy Kusper,
Caitlin Machak, Nikita Machak,
Claire Amy Shunk, Megan Wells
Production Hospitality Crew:
John Archer, Linda Bremer,
Carol Clarke, Mike DeKovic,
Bill Fitzgerald, Midge Gallas,
Bonnie Hilton, Caitlin Machak,
Joel Machak, Lisa Machak,
Nikita Machak, David Michael,
Fumiko Michael, Duane Mills,
Claire Amy Shunk, Gina Swinnen,
Jack Uretsky, Megan Wells
Production House Manager Crew:
Dave Bremer, Jack Calvert,
Karen Holbert, Roland Imes,
Terry Locke, Andy Neely,
Joel Nikoleit, Arlene Page,
Tom Schutt, Bill Wilson
Production Lobby Photo Display:
Marjorie Mason Heffernan, Jane Stacy
Production Posters: Kathleen Kusper
Production Program Chair: Joel Nikoleit
Production Program Design: John Vilhauer
Production Publicity Chair: Arlene Page
About
the Author:
Arthur Miller was born in 1915 in New
York City, the son of a schoolteacher and a garment manufacturer. He attended the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he twice won the school’s Hopwood
playwriting prize. After his 1938 graduation, he returned to New York. His third Broadway
play, Death of a Salesman (1949), won the Pulitzer Prize and the NY Drama Critics Circle
Award. The Crucible (1953) won the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Play. Two
one-acts followed, A Memory of Two Mondays and A View from the Bridge (1955). He expanded
the latter into a full-length play in 1956. Among Miller’s other plays are The Price,
After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, The Archbishop’s Ceiling,
Broken Glass, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, and The Last Yankee. He has also written
screenplays for The Misfits, Everybody Wins, and The Crucible. He wrote the texts for
three photographic books by his wife, Inge Morath. His book, Salesman in Beijing, is based
on his experiences in China where he directed Death of a Salesman. His memoir, Timebends,
was published in 1987. During the fall of 1999, the Lyric Opera of Chicago premiered an
opera based on A View from the Bridge. Miller collaborated as co-librettist with Arnold
Weinstein. He also provided input to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre revival of Death of a
Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy. It had an extended run on Broadway, winning the 1999
Tony Award for Best Revival. Miller was also awarded a special Tony for Lifetime
Achievement in Theatre. Theatre of Western Springs patrons have seen our productions of
The Crucible (1956), A View from the Bridge (1965), Death of a Salesman (1971), and The
Price (1976). The Price is the only play that tws has performed in a competitive festival.
With it we won the Dundalk, Ireland, International Play Festival award for Best Play.
About the Play All My Sons opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre on January 29, 1947.
The cast included Ed Begley as Joe Keller, Arthur Kennedy and subsequently John Forsythe
as Chris Keller, and Karl Maden as George Deever. It was directed by Elia Kazan and
received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best New Play. The play closed on
November 8, 1947 after 328 performances. In 1948 a movie version was released with Edward
G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster as Joe and Chris, respectively. All My Sons was Arthur
Miller’s first Broadway success. (His only previous Broadway play, The Man Who Had
All the Luck, opened on November 23, 1944 and closed two days later) All My Sons
established Miller as an important American playwright, and his next three
plays—Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge—cemented his
position as heir to Eugene O’Neill as one of America’s greatest playwrights. The
play contains all the elements of classical tragedy. Miller was one of the first modern
playwrights to transfer tragedy from royal courts into the homes and backyards of common
working people, to show that extraordinary emotions and actions are experienced by
recognizable ordinary people, i.e. suburbanites, our neighbors, our families. |
Director's Note:
Growing up as an American stage director,
I was spoon fed on the epic dramas of Arthur Miller from a young age. How fortunate we are
to live at the same time as such a gifted playwright, whose works span nearly half a
century, and who continues to write into the new century. One of the most striking
things about All My Sons, beyond the achingly poignant irony, is the way in which Joe
Keller’s community plays a role in his tragedy. Joe buries his loss in his work, and
the community, in its lack of response, becomes a silent partner. The same neighbors that
are convinced of his guilt are the people who will later work in his factory. The
returning generals and college graduates that Joe tells us are now working for him are
aware of the accusations made against Joe, but they turn a blind eye in order to secure
their private gain. Living with so many fears, so many secrets, tears apart the
integrity of the Keller family. But the family’s loss is only a fragment of the
tragedy that occurs when a community quietly overlooks its common conscience.
Our country, still the most powerful nation in the world, is experiencing unprecedented
wealth and economic prosperity—collectively and for many of us as individuals. In
times such as these, I believe it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind the effects
of our actions, on a personal level, but also an economic one. The American consumer
holds a tremendous amount of power in its hands. This raises some fundamental questions
(or at least it should). What responsiblity do we as consumers have if we purchase a
product that we know is made by the hands of forced or underpaid labor? Can we as
individual consumers make a difference globally by how we choose our purchases locally?
Can we do that as communities? Joe Keller’s community decides to overlook his
past actions and to benefit from the prosperity of his growing company. While they
have passed moral judgement on him, they do not let it impact their personal economies.
Yet through their individual relationships with him, they appear to condone a more global
harm. Even Joe comes to realize that his economic choices do lead to results that
effect the world, and he realizes his connection to all of the lost sons, those born to
him and those who trusted their lives to him.
Guilt, Rationalization,
Pretension
by George Dempsey
When All My Sons opened in 1947, it appealed to strong American feelings after World War
II. America had, once more, saved the world for democracy, and our returning servicemen
were idolized as the heroes they were. There were also feelings of resentment aimed at the
civilian industrialists who profited by supplying the war effort. And those industrialists
had deep feelings of guilt, especially the ones whose sons were fighting and dying. Joe
Keller’s guilt is initially rationalized: “I’m in business, a man is in
business....What could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away?”
and even projected as a sacrifice: “Chris, I did it for you.” Miller tells
us that Elia Kazan, the director of the original Broadway production, cast Ed Begley as
Joe Keller not only because Begley was an excellent actor (which he was), but because he
was a reformed alcoholic and still carried the alcoholic’s guilt. Joe is, of course,
a guilty man, though not an alcoholic. But alcoholics are well known for their ability to
rationalize around their guilt. Kazan was able to match these traits—guilt and
rationalization—to an actor, even though the traits’ causes differed in real
life from the play. The play focuses on Joe Keller, his guilt and his rationalization. But
the role of his wife Kate, in the play and the family it concerns, is revealing as well.
She supports her husband emotionally and refuses to admit the truth. “All right, Joe.
Just...be smart,” she says. She is the strongest of the Kellers, though she displays
that strength by refusing to admit the truth about Joe, and repeatedly denying the
inevitable truth about Larry. Kate’s guilt hides behind her pretension. Larry will
come back. Ann will leave. She can charm George, who almost succumbs, until her single
lapse—the only time she falters. As Kate, Kazan cast a long-unemployed former
leading lady, Beth Merrill, because he thought she could act and because he thought she
had a certain pathetic pretension as one of the last of the fading stars from the 1930s.
She had been a David Belasco star, pampered with perks like chauffered cars and not
permitted to be seen publicly offstage lest she lose her mystery. When she talked of
quitting, Kazan dressed in a suit and brought her flowers. She stayed.When All My Sons
was produced in Jerusalem in 1977, the show focused on Kate, an emphasis bypassed in the
original production in favor of the father-son conflict. A few years later, in London,
Michael Blakemore made the same shift when he directed Rosemary Harris in the role. After
seeing these interpretations, Arthur Miller wondered if Kate’s ambiguity in the
original production had confused audiences and critics. Even though she makes
excuses, Kate knows that her husband is guilty, but she suppressed this knowledge. At the
same time, she is suppressing her own guilt. Miller asked if this suppression could be
interpeted as her way to deny Larry’s death but also—and perhaps
primarily—as a wish to take vengeance on her culpable husband by driving him to his
knees and ultimately to the play’s final tragedy.
What do you think? |
