Legendary playwright Arthur Miller will be appearing at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, Vt. on Sunday, Feb. 29 at 3 p.m.
He will be appearing with the Northern Stage theater company for a reading of his latest play, the unpublished "Resurrection Blues."
Miller will be on hand to see and hear the Northern Stage actors read the play and will speak to the audience afterward in a question and answer session.
"Resurrection Blues" has only been produced twice thus far, and it will be produced again at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, Calif., later this year. This reading and perhaps the audience's feedback, will help Miller to revise this work-in-progress.
Northern Stage's artistic director Brooke Ciardelli said in an interview with The Dartmouth that she wanted to put something together to celebrate Miller's work, culminating in a production of his play "All My Sons," scheduled for April.
"At first it was 'yes, you can do this play,'" recalled Ciardelli of her discussions with Miller, "and then it turned out that he could come up here for a Q&A, and that's a huge opportunity for any theater company."
This marks the second time in four months that Northern Stage has been able to attract a world-class theatrical figure.
In November, actor Patrick Stewart came to White River Junction for a reading of Edward Albee's classic play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?."
Ciardelli believes that Stewart's appearance factored into Miller's decision to agree to participate in the event. "I know he had lunch with Patrick Stewart before he said 'yes' to us," Ciardelli said, "and it's a very small theatrical community, and people talk and they know we have a commitment to excellence far beyond our means."
"Resurrection Blues" is a rare foray into comedy for Miller. It is the story of a dictator in an unnamed South American country who has twin crises on his hands.
One is that his country has a huge national deficit. The other is that a young man of the hill country has achieved a Christ-like following.
The dictator decides to solve both of his problems by crucifying this man and selling the broadcast rights of the event to an American television company.
"You're supposed to laugh," said Miller. "I have to explain that to people because, when it's one of my plays, people forbid themselves to laugh."
"For anyone who has read Miller before, this is a complete departure," said Ciardelli, who is directing this reading, "it's an absurdist black comedy and it's really funny."
But Ciardelli is quick to point out that there are elements of Miller's prior work that are evident in "Resurrection Blues."
"It's not religious," she said, "but the struggles about religion are very real, and in that sense it is classic Miller."
Given the crucifixion premise, it is timely, to say the least, that "Resurrection Blues" will be read by Northern Stage just days after the opening of Mel Gibson's controversial film about Jesus' final hours, "The Passion of the Christ."
"You couldn't ask for better timing," said Ciardelli, also noting that she is anxious to hear what Miller has to say about Gibson's work in relation to his own.
The Pulitzer Prize winner might be the most important American playwright of the last 50 years, if not ever. Among his most well-known works are "Death of a Salesman," "A View from the Bridge," "The Crucible," "Incident at Vichy" and "The Misfits."
He found himself on the pages of the tabloids in 1956 when he married Marilyn Monroe. The short-lived marriage was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed "After the Fall."
The Northern Stage is in just its seventh year of existence as a company. Ciardelli, then Brooke Wetzel, began staging shows in Burlington, Vt. in 1992.
She then founded the group in 1997, when they relocated to their present home at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction.
"We're young but we're very fortunate," said Ciardelli, "We've been involved in artistic experiences that theaters twice as old and twice as rich as us are not getting."