J.T. Waite to Headline Death of a Salesman in Houston

J.T. Waite - who starred on Broadway opposite Frank Langella in DRACULA, and later played the role of Mozart in the Tony Award-winning play AMADEUS on Broadway - will take on the 'Everest' of great American roles for actors, Willy Loman in DEATH OF A SALESMAN, Arthur Miller's masterpiece, starting performances March 30 at the Wortham Theatre (at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts) in Houston.  Sidney Berger directs DEATH OF A SALESMAN. 
 
This production is significant insofar as it features an original musical score by Marcos Maroney, and recreates an element of the original 1949 production of DEATH OF A SALESMAN by having live musicians present on stage during the play.
 
Miller's 'tragedy of the common man' – a gripping drama about the failure of the American dream – won the Pulitzer Prize, the NY Drama Critics Circle Award, and the Tony Award in 1949, and remains a perennial favorite with theatergoers around the world. 
 
Broadway actor J.T. Waite heads the cast of SALESMAN as Willy Loman.  He is joined in the cast by Anne Quackenbush as Linda Loman, along with Matthew Archambault and Caleb George as Biff and Happy respectively, Rutherford Cravens as Charley, as well as Jared Doreck, Kim Tobin, Jonathan Gonzalez, Jeffrey Gardner, Emily Brock, Matthew Lusk, Rivka Noskeau, and Tracie Lane Thomason.
 
The production's creative team includes scenic design by Tony-nominated designer Kevin Rigdon (THE GRAPES OF WRATH), costume design by April Keith, and lighting by Kevin Holden.
 
The production's score was written by University of Houston School of Music professor Marcus Maroney and was made possible by a grant from University of Houston's Mitchell Center for the Arts.
 
About his decision to commission the musical score and make room for the live musicians on the stage, director Sidney Berger says, "Arthur Miller's original title for the play was THE INSIDE OF HIS HEAD, referring to the the clash of the real and the surreal in Willy Loman's deteriorating mind.  Miller specifies over two dozen music cues in the text for DEATH OF A SALESMAN.  In the play, music acts as a reinforcement and commentary on each scene, at times almost becoming a character, delineating locales, Loman's state of mind and emotional breakdown.  These observations led me to the idea of utilizing the theatrically frank presence of live instrumentalists on stage."
 
J.T. Waite made his Broadway debut as Renfield, the fly-and-spider eating madman, in Frank Langella's revival of DRACULA and two years later he took over the role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer's brilliant drama AMADEUS, playing opposite three Salieri's: David Dukes, David Burney and John Horton. Off-Broadway credits include THE FANTASTICKS, playing first The Mute, then Mortimer, and finally Henry, The Old Actor, and for a time, he was the show's Production Stage Manager.  In London he appeared with the Independent Shakespeare Company in an eight-man production of MACBETH.   Television credits: For Court-TV he played Dr. Watson to the Sherlock Holmes of Heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes and for PBS he hosted The Children's series Watch Your Language.  He has also had roles on All My Children, As The World Turns, Loving, Kojack, Ed, and Law & Order.  Regional credits: INHERIT THE WIND, AS YOU LIKE IT, HENRY IV, POLAROID at The Lark Theatre in New York.
 
Director Sidney Berger is the Director of the University of Houston's School of Theatre; and is founder and producing director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival, as well as co-founder and producer of The Children's Theatre Festival, all presented by the University of Houston.  In addition to having directed numerous productions for the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and over 60 shows for University of Houston, Dr. Berger has already directed Houston's Alley Theatre productions of FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE, T BONE N WEASEL, and ALL IN THE TIMING. Other directing credits include A DELICATE BALANCE, BETRAYAL, SIGHT UNSEEN and THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE at Stages Repertory Theatre.

The late Arthur Miller is the author of such celebrated American plays as ALL MY SONS, THE CRUCIBLE, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, AFTER THE FALL, THE PRICE and his best-known work, DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
 
Presented by University of Houston's School of Theatre, DEATH OF A SALESMAN performs March 30 to April 7.  Performance times are: Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm.  Performances are held at the Lyndall Finley Wortham Theatre in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston Main Campus, I-45 at Cullen, Entrance #16 off Cullen Blvd.  Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling 713-743-2929. 

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