Eclipse Theatre Company Leads Year-Long Exploration of Arthur Miller in 2009 / 2010 Chicago Theatre Season

Classic American theatre fans are in for a treat this upcoming season with several new productions exploring the works one of the 20th century's greatest American Playwrights - some might argue the greatest - Arthur Miller.

Currently, there are four local theatre companies with Arthur Miller productions slated, including Chicago's Eclipse Theatre Company, which is unique in the Midwest in its mission to focus on a single playwright each season. After a critically acclaimed and commercially successful two-year Celebration Series, in which Eclipse featured the work of the first 10 playwrights produced since the company adopted its mission of "one season, one playwright," the 2010 Arthur Miller Season is a welcome return to the company's seasonal format.

"We are excited to return to our mission of fully exploring the works of a single playwright over the course of a season," said Eclipse's Artistic Director Nathaniel Swift, "and especially to be able to, along with some of the best theatre companies in Chicago, lead audiences on a wide-ranging journey through the canon of one of this country's greatest playwrights."

In the 2010 Arthur Miller Season, Eclipse will mount productions of some of Miller's most well-known and most rarely explored works, including:

· After the Fall, opening March 2010
This deeply personal 1964 play, which Miller says "takes place in the mind, thought, and memory of Quentin," explores personal relationships and political loyalties through one man's examination of his life.

· Resurrection Blues, opening July 2010
Miller's penultimate play, published in 2002, humorously and powerfully satirizes the strength of faith - religious, political and personal - as a repressive dictatorship prepares to crucify a possibly divine prisoner in front of American television audiences.

· A View From the Bridge, opening November 2010 (pending rights)
This 1955 classic, set in a close-knit Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, explores a father's response as his safety and family are threatened by his decision to protect his cousins from immigration officials.

Miller junkies won't have to settle for only Eclipse's offerings. Three other companies are also planning to produce Miller shows, including:

Timeline Theatre: All My Sons, running August 31 - October 4, 2009 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln. Details at www.timelinetheatre.com. 773-281-8463.
Raven Theatre, Death of a Salesman, running October 6 - December 5, 2009 at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark. Details at www.raventheatre.com. 773-338-6547.
Infamous Commonwealth Theatre: The Crucible, running March 27 - May 2, 2010 at Raven Theatre. 6157 N. Clark. Details at www.infamouscommonwealth.org. 312-458-9780.
Details, including directors, cast and crew for Eclipse productions, as well as opening dates are still being solidified.

Miller, who died in 2005, continues to resonate with audiences both here in the U.S. and abroad. He is widely considered to be among the nation's most prolific and accomplished playwrights, having won both a Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for his masterwork Death of a Salesman.

His personal life was almost as dramatic as his plays. His 1964 play After the Fall resulted in controversy because of its thinly veiled portrayal of his former and recently deceased wife Marilyn Monroe. His appearance before HUAC, where he was blacklisted and sentenced to 30 days in prison for refusing to name communist sympathizers, became a theme in his writing throughout his career.

Chicago audiences with an appreciation for Arthur Miller will certainly have full theatre calendars next season.

 

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