All-Asian Female Cast Set For Bilingual SALESMAN之死 at Connelly Theater in October

Yangtze Repertory Theatre, in association with Gung Ho Projects, is proud to announce details for the world premiere of Salesman??, a new bilingual play inspired by the true story of Arthur Miller directing Death of a Salesman in China. Written by Jeremy Tiang and directed and developed by Obie Award-winner Michael Leibenluft, Salesman?? runs October 10–28, 2023, at the Connelly Theater (220 E 4th St, Manhattan) with an opening set for Monday, October 16. Tickets are currently on sale and can be purchased at www.yzrep.org.

 

The all Asian, all female ensemble for Salesman?? features Sandia Ang, Drama Desk nominee Sonnie Brown, Claire Hsu, Julia Gu, Lydia Jialu Li, and Jo Mei. Together, the six performers will blur many boundaries as Salesman?? asks them to play across age, ethnicity, nationality, and language to delivery performances never seen on stage before.

 

The creative team for Salesman?? includes Chika Shimizu (scenic designer), Karen Boyer (costume designer), Daisy Long (lighting designer), Kai-Luen Liang and Da Xu (co-sound designers), Cinthia Chen (projection designer), Kevin Jinghong Zhu (production stage manager), Tianding He (associate director), Annie Jin Wang (dramaturg), Ada Zhang (assistant stage manager), and Yining Cao (producing associate).

 

In the spring of 1983, in a groundbreaking act of cross-cultural collaboration, Arthur Miller accepted an invitation to direct his play Death of a Salesman with an all-Chinese cast at the Beijing People's Art Theatre despite not speaking a word of Mandarin. The production was a resounding success due, in no small part, to the multilingual talents of renowned Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng (Bertolucci's The Last Emperor) who translated the text and played Willy Loman.

This extraordinary encounter, which Miller detailed in his memoir Salesman in Beijing, is the inspiration for Salesman??, which centers on Shen Huihui, a young university professor, who is summoned to the theater for a special task: to interpret for Arthur Miller, who will soon arrive to direct his iconic play – in Mandarin. Meanwhile, the Chinese ensemble, newly out of the Cultural Revolution, has never met “a salesman.” Will they be able to find common ground? Mostly based on true events, Salesman?? is a multilingual tale of cultural confusion, impossible translation, and unexpected encounters amid the chaos of theater making.
 

“The American conversation around diversity is sometimes limited,” says playwright Jeremy Tiang, “It often stops short at the borders of this country. This multilingual production has the interplay of cultures and communities at its heart. By delving into a history-making instance of true collaboration between China and America, I hope to bring a historical perspective to this very contemporary issue, as well as reminding audiences that this country has always been strongest when it looks out, not inwards.”

“As an American bilingual director, I use theater to spur conversations between cultures, languages, and national identities,” says director Michael Leibenluft. “But there is always a tension in this process as we struggle to balance the individual and the universal. As artists, we are called upon to continue a process of translation that begins on the page: to translate the images, the ideas, the feelings, and experiences of a play. This process of translation contains a delicate balance that we are always navigating to speak to our own experiences and reach out beyond ourselves.”

 

Chongren Fan, Artistic Director of Yangtze Rep, and Sally Shen, Executive Director of Yangtze Rep said “We first came across this play in a workshop production in 2018 and knew Yangtze wanted to produce it. For us, Salesman?? is a play about courage. Courage to step out of the comfort zone, courage to walk into a new world, and courage to chase dreams. As immigrants from China ourselves, we experienced that transformation through our personal journeys and are deeply connected with the story. Forty years later, this story remains relevant and has immediacy more than ever. We are excited to finally be able to bring this production to life and share it with a broader audience.”

 

A note on the title: ?? (pronounced “zh?s?”) means “death of” – so Salesman?? simply means “Death of a Salesman.” The bilingual title reflects the hybrid nature of the play, which moves freely and fluidly across languages and cultures.

Salesman?? is performed in English and Mandarin with corresponding surtitles in both languages.

Eighteen performances of Salesman?? will take place October 10–28, 2023 at the Connelly Theater, located at 220 E 4th St in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of Thursday, October 12 for an opening on Monday, October 16. The performance schedule is Mondays and Wednesdays–Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm, and Sundays at 4pm with additional performances on October 10 at 8pm and October 25 at 2pm and with no performances on October 13 and 18. The closing performance on October 28 will take place at 1pm. The anticipated running time is 85 minutes. Tickets, which start at $35, can be purchased at www.yzrep.org. Standard ticketing fees apply.

Salesman?? was originally scheduled to premiere March 29–April 18, 2020, at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE, but was postponed due to the pandemic.

 

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