Writers Theatre to Present the World Premiere of WIFE OF A SALESMAN

Writers Theatre will continue its 2021/22 Season with the world premiere of Eleanor Burgess's Wife of a Saleman, directed by Jo Bonney, and in association with Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Wife of a Salesman runs March 3, 2022 - April 3, 2022 in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe.

An iconic drama. An imagined meeting. A recentering of where "attention must be paid." What if a 1950s housewife from a particularly well-known American play drove from Brooklyn to Boston to confront her husband's mistress? Would the encounter be explosive? Or would the two women discover they have more in common than one might assume? Taking inspiration from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, this world premiere play imagines how a potentially combustible confrontation brings themes of marriage, duty and division to the surface-and the ways in which the world has, and hasn't, changed across generations.

Playwright Eleanor Burgess (The Niceties) brings her gift for sharp dialogue and spirited debate to Wife of a Salesman, influenced by interviews with her grandmothers in addition to the work of Arthur Miller. Staged in the intimate Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre, this world premiere co-presentation with Milwaukee Rep is sure to be the must-see theatrical event of the spring!

Interim Artistic Director Bobby Kennedy [he/him] comments, "We are proud to continue Writers Theatre's 30th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of Wife of a Salesman. This play, commissioned and developed in partnership with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, connects both the past and future of live theatre. Having staged dozens of productions of theatrical classics over the years, it is exciting to now be a place where fresh voices are creating original work in dialogue with dramatic tradition. Eleanor Burgess has written a new play that brilliantly and passionately carves out space for women in a familiar narrative where little existed previously, making a call for attention to be paid not only in the mid-century era defined by male writers like Arthur Miller but in our own time as well. I'm thrilled to be giving this play its debut staging, and to be working with Jo Bonney, one of the foremost directors of new plays, for the first time. With a cast and design team full of both returning artists and newcomers, this production brings the past and future together to create something I think audiences will find extraordinarily refreshing and poignant."

The cast is Kate Fry (The Wife), Amanda Drinkall (The Mistress), Rom Barkholder (Jim/The Radio) with Dekyi Rongé (Angela/The Radio) and Karmann Bajuyo (The Radio). The understudies are Heather Chrisler (The Mistress/Violet), Stacy Stoltz (The Wife/Heather) and Keith Kupferer (Jim).

The creative team for Wife of a Salesman includes Jo Bonney (Director), Heather Gilbert (Lighting Designer), Courtney O'Neill (Scenic Designer), Raquel Adorno (Costume Designer), Sarah Espinoza (Sound Designer), Rae Watson (Properties), Kate DeVore (Vocal Coach) and Courtney Abbott (Violence Designer). The stage manager is Katie Klemme.

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