Death of A Salesman

Last week I mentioned that I was working with Guelph Little Theatre on a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. It has been a great experience. I haven't worked in formal theatre in a number of years (25 actually) so it's been a bit of a flashback getting involved again. I was a little surprised to find out how quickly I fell back into "the mode". I love working behind the scenes to make a thing come together. However, I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about my feelings on this however. I know a lot of blogs are about what's going on inside a person's head, but that's not me.

I'm writing today to make a shameless and enthusiastic plug for the play itself. I'm a firm believer in supporting local artists of all kinds, painters, sculptures, musicians and, of course, actors. There's an incredible amount of talent out there that will never be seen on the silver screen, or on Broadway, or hung in the National Museum of Art. That doesn't mean it isn't worthy of your attention. No matter the genre, it has been produced by talented and dedicated individuals who love what they do and do it for no other reason than it brings them joy.

It's kind of like small town hockey - sure, there's the dream of playing in the NHL, but most know they'll never be there. They play anyway - just for the love of the game. At it's heart, community theatre is the same way. Local volunteers, people like you and me with a regular 9-5, 40 hour-a-week day job, who spend their free time making something they care about happen. The group working on Death of a Salesman includes factory workers, construction workers and contractors, IT managers, warehouse workers, and I don't know what else.

And frankly, I think we're putting together a great production. 'Death of a Salesman', for those of you who may not be familiar with it , is an North American Theatre classic. An emotional look at the last days of Willy Loman, a hard working family man, who's pursuit of the American Dream hasn't panned out the way he had always hoped. Is it his fault? Or is the dream itself flawed? Questions we will all face one way or another in life, and over the years many people have found some insight for their own journey in the lines of this Pulitzer Prize winning play.

So I'm am appealing to you, gentle reader, to support this production. Opening night is Thursday, February 8th, 2007. There are 10 showings running Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for the following three weeks, with a matinée in Sunday the 18th. Tickets are $17.00 and can be ordered online or by phone at 519-821-0270. Full details are available at the theatre's website.

So if you live near Guelph, or know someone who does, or will be visiting the area during the run of the play, please do yourself (and me) a favour and come out to enjoy a great evening of local theatre.

Thank you.