By Steve Simmons
It’s Miller Time at Casa 0101. The Boyle Heights-based theatre company, known for showcasing Latino playwrights and artists, is presenting Arthur Miller’s American classic Death of a Salesman in its newly christened Gloria Molina Auditorium for a five-week run, Friday, June 16-Sunday, July 16 (for details see below.)
Set in late 1940s Brooklyn, New York, Miller’s two-act tragedy, tells the story of everyman Willy Loman, a struggling salesman in search of that next big order that never comes. His sons (Biff and Happy) are rudderless and his long-suffering devoted wife Linda struggles to keep family and household together. As he sees his dreams for himself and his sons disintegrating, he retreats to memories and thoughts of what could have been.
In 1949 Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Award for Best Play for the drama that covers a myriad of themes including dreams and disappointment, memory and hope, the pursuit of success, the difficulty of accepting reality and the love of family.
The production is directed by Corky Dominguez, who’s had a relationship with Josefina López (Casa 0101 founder) since 1996, when he directed her solo show, and went on to direct her Real Women Have Curves 20th anniversary production in 2011. Dominguez will direct the world premiere of López’s latest play, Queen of the Rumba, later this year at Casa 0101.
Following are excerpts from my interviews with Dominguez and Vance Valencia, who plays Willy Loman in this first production of Miller’s masterpiece in Boyle Heights.
What are your considerations in directing a classic?
Dominguez: Of course, I want to be respectful to Arthur Miller. I’ve directed many shows before but nothing by him. For me, it’s not intimidating, it’s asking who are the people in this world, and what is the story we want to tell.
All the characters in the play are plagued by the situation and as the director you have to determine what each character is fighting for and bring that to the audience. The most important things are the relationships and the family dynamic.
How do you personally relate to the drama?
Dominguez: I look at Willy Loman and think about what is going on in his head in terms of his dreams fading away and how will he go on. I think back to my own father and the parallels of what he went through at the end of his life with work changing and trying to make sense of it and trying to figure out his purpose in life.
How do you bring your own touch to directing a classic?
Dominguez: Trying to get my head around the play I thought about those plays written in the 1940s inspired by German Expressionism that emphasized inner feelings or ideas over recreating reality.
How does that notion manifest in your production?
Dominguez: Rather than have a realistic house set, like the initial and subsequent productions, I came up with the notion, that since much of the story takes place in Willy’s head, that we would keep things very simple. Asking what do we need to tell the story and focusing on the characters helped me a lot. You don’t need a grandiose set, just what is essential to tell the story.
Having directed more than 20 shows at Casa, I’m used to that space and always mindful that actors have to have enough room to get from one side of the stage to the other.
My concept is to use the center entrance for everything that happens now and off to the side are what I call “the dream portals” where “memories and dream actors” enter and exit. Hopefully the audience will catch on.
We will also have suitcases or valises hanging from the ceiling, as a symbol that that this play is about a salesman.
Miller is also very specific about the lighting and music considerations.
Dominguez: The lighting is important as it establishes the various settings, rooms in the Loman house, the yard, a restaurant, a hotel and more. The lighting also has to a cue and differentiate the action in the present, Willy’s memories and what’s happening in his mind. I’m intrigued by the idea of shadows as Miller has characters “recede into the shadows.” Light and darkness is a metaphor.
Miller calls for flute music at key moments in the play as Willy’s father not only played the flute, but made and sold them. It’s important for us to hear a flute of some kind and for various characters to have a theme, like Willy’s ghostly brother Ben, who lived the life Willy yearned for.
How does it feel to take on such an iconic character?
Valencia: It is undoubtedly the most challenging role I’ve ever played. It calls for a lot of preparation, hard work, focus and concentration. Miller is a wonderful writer with an amazing understanding of human nature and it’s a wonderful role. But it’s difficult; you spend a lot of time in the book and memorizing.
You become part of an impressive, exclusive club when you take on the part (Lee J. Cobb, the original Willy, Brian Dennehy, Gene Lockhart, Thomas Mitchell, Paul Muni, George C. Scott and Philip Seymour Hoffman have all played Willy Loman). But I was never so intimidated that I didn’t think I could take it on.
How do you make the part your own?
Valencia: I think I’m a little looser with it and more conversational. And I think I’m a bit more updated. The play’s about 75 years old and there have been some changes in acting styles since then. When you look at Fredric March and Dustin Hoffman you see a vast difference and that’s because they are who they are. I’m bringing Vance to the role and enjoying the realness that I bring to it.
The sons and I are more physical and playful at points and that makes for a deeper relationship.
Do you relate to Willy Loman?
Valencia: I have a son and had a wonderful father who was nothing like Willy Loman, but there are still aspects of the story we can mirror. The characters talk about carpentry and football and I did carpentry. I was never a salesman, but I sold boys wear on the floor at Sears.
That’s the thing about actors, we have imaginations.
How important is it to be doing this play in Boyle Heights?
Dominguez: Being from Boyle Heights, I love that we’re bringing it to the community. I’m excited that our largely Latino audience can see this classic, with a mostly Latino cast, in their own backyard. And we can tap into audiences that love the play.
Valencia: I think it’s extremely important and part of big dreams for the theatre. Casa nurtures new writers and I’m totally there. I love that I was Julius Caesar (in Casa’s 2014 production of the Shakespeare classic) and in Karen Zacarías’ Mariela in the Desert (2016).
I went through the schools here – Corky and I went to the same junior high but not at the same time – and its fun to work here and know that it’s us, the community, putting on this masterpiece.
What keeps the play relevant for today?
Dominguez: There is nothing in the play necessarily or culturally related to a Chicano family in East L.A., but the play resonates for me and my family and my Mexican American dad.
The notion of trying to have the idea of an American dream has shifted through the years. But I think everyone can relate to the myth of the dream and the disappointment of not making it. Arthur Miller knew that some people would never achieve it, no matter how hard they worked.
Valencia: You can put the play on anywhere on the planet and people respond because the family relationships are universal. This is a family that has been living a lie for a long time, and I think people can see aspects of their own lives.
Looking at the play now, what issues stand out to you?
Dominguez: We know so much more about mental illness and about what can happen with mental instability.
I teach at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and I’ve seen how the pandemic played on young people missing out on school and on social and educational opportunities. Some are really bothered by it and trying to talk about it. “Wellness” and “mindfulness” are big buzzwords today.
The play doesn’t say what the diagnosis is, but we get what is happening to Willy Loman. We are seeing it in ourselves, family, community and country and the world. And that makes it relevant.
Valencia: Dementia wasn’t talked about so much when the play was written, but Willy is coming unhinged, losing touch with reality and spiraling down. He has this constant need to escape into his memories.
Arthur Miller called the play “a tragedy of the common man.” What are Willy’s “fatal flaws?”
Valencia: Willy is a little boat looking for a harbor. He doesn’t allow people to see his sensitive side, but when he does, it’s always a touching moment. He can express his feelings with others, but he’s not honest with himself. He thinks it’s all about “being well liked” and “who you know.” He doesn’t see who he truly is and that is the root of the problem.
He shuns working with his hands and mocks his son for wanting to be a carpenter because it’s not his idea of the American dream. He might have been happier. He doesn’t know what he loves or how to live an authentic life.
CASA 0101 Theater is at 2102 East First St. (at St. Louis Street) in Boyle Heights. Performances will be at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturdays and 3 p.m., Sundays. Tickets start at $30 for general admission. For tickets and more information, visit www.casa0101.org.
