Death of a Salesman' in Beijing

by Arthur Miller, Claire Conceison (Introduction)

Overview

In 1983 Arthur Miller was invited to direct Death of a Salesman at the Beijing People's Theatre, with Chinese actors. This was an entirely new experience for Miller and for the Chinese company, most of whom had never even heard of 'life insurance' or 'installment payments'. Miller had forty-eight days of rehearsals in which to direct his play and, while there, he kept a diary.
This book tells the fascinating story of Miller's time in China and the paradoxes of directing a tragedy about American capitalism in a Communist country, and features photographs throughout by Inge Morath.

In this edition, Miller's diary is given a contemporary context as the production and process is investigated against the backdrop of twenty-first century China and its theatre, through a new introduction by Claire Conceison, Professor of Theatre Studies at Duke University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472592064
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	10/08/2015
Series:	Theatre Makers
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Arthur Miller was born on 17 October 1915 in Harlem, New York City. He was arguably the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century, his work including plays such as All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). In addition to the plays, his many other books included fiction, essays and the autobiography Time Bends. He died in 2005 at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Claire Conceison is a director, a translator, and a scholar at Duke University.
Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he began work with the Federal Theatre Project. His first Broadway hit was All My Sons, closely followed by Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. His other writing includes Focus, a novel; The Misfits, first published as a short story, then as a cinema novel; In Russia, In the Country, Chinese Encounters (all in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath) and 'Salesman' in Beijing, non-fiction; and his autobiography, Timebends, published in 1987. Among his other plays are: Incident At Vichy, The Creation of the World and Other Business, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Resurrection Blues. His novella, Plain Girl, was published in 1995 and his second collection of short stories, Presence, in 2007. He died in February 2005 aged eighty-nine.
Claire Conceison is Quanta Professor of Chinese Culture and Professor of Theater Arts at MIT. She is a scholar, translator, and director. Her publications include the books Significant Other: Staging the American in China (2004); Ying Ruocheng's autobiography Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution and Reform (2009); the anthology I Love XXX and Other Plays by Meng Jinghui (2017); and the introduction to 'Death of a Salesman' in Beijing (2015), a new edition of Arthur Miller's 1984 book 'Salesman' in Beijing. She is a contributor to the volume Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century (2020).

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Diary

Editorial Reviews

One of the most revealing volumes ever written on the making of theatre” —Time Out

“This is a remarkable document. First and foremost, it is, of course, the reactions of a superior stage craftsman, but more, of a highly sensitive and thoughtful citizen of the world, to the spectacle of China today.” —New York Times

“Very few people write well about the art of directing a play. Miller, however, has a specific and intricate problem to explain: how you direct, listening to your own play coming across in a language you cannot hope to understand . . . The result, then, is not merely the lucid diary of a unique production in China; it is also a very clear account of the kind of process any production might go through, and of the thoughts running through the mind of any considerate director.” —The Times

“It is not just a record of a slightly eccentric theatrical venture. It ranges back to the author's experience as a liberal in postwar America; and forward to thoughts about China . . . This is a memorable book, full of observation and fun to read.” —Economist

From the Publisher