Open Auditions for Death of a Salesman, Presented by The Stage Company

The Stage Company presents open auditions for Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, directed by Eric Billingsley.
 
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, August 29-31
All auditions begin at 6:30 P.M.
Show runs October 14-16, 20, 22,23
*ROLES AVAILABLE*
 
Female roles(5)
Linda Loman; Willy’s wife
The Woman; a woman with him Willy had an affair
Jenny; Charley’s secretary
Miss Forsythe; a girl whom Happy picks up at a restaurant
Letta; Miss Forsythe’s friend
 
Male roles(8)
Willy Loman; age 63; “The Salesman”
Biff Loman; mid 30s; Willy’s oldest son
Harold “Happy” Loman; Willy’s younger son
Charley; Willy’s neighbor
Bernard; Charley’s son
Uncle Ben; Willy’s older brother
Howard Wagner; Willy’s boss
Stanley; a waiter

About the Play
Auditions will be readings from the script which is on reserve at the Carbondale Public Library.      For more information visit www.stagecompany.org or contact stagecompanycarbondale@gmail.com
Death of a Salesman  is a 1949 play by playwright Arthur Miller. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, it is widely considered to be one of the great American plays. “Salesman” premiered on Broadway in 1949 and had an initial run of 742 performances. It has been revived on Broadway four times.
The protagonist is Willy Loman, a 63 year old struggling, mentally unstable, childlike, and occasionally suicidal salesman in pursuit of the “American Dream,” which he defines in terms of success and wealth.  Willie believes that to achieve the American Dream, to be successful, a salesman must be well-liked and have sterling traits of character. 
There is one hitch to Willy’s plans, however: people just don’t like Willy that much.  Moreover, he is simply not that good of a salesman, nor as popular and influential,as he tells himself and others that he is. However, Willy’s delusions will not allow him to admit that.
A number of the other characters in the play, such as Willy’s son Biff, are searching for the “American Dream” as well but define it in different ways than Willy does.The play alternates between the “real world” and Willy’s flashbacks to his past. He has a tendency to imagine past events as though they were real. Biff desperately tries to get his father to face reality but to no avail.

About the Playwright
 
Arthur Asher Miller, born on 17 October, 1915 in Harlem, New York, He He was one of the greatest American playwrights. Miller grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and graduated from the University of Michigan. While in college, Miller won the Avery Hopkins Award, a foreshadowing of his future phenomenal success, for his first play, No Villain. Some of Miller’s other acclaimed plays were All My Sons (1941), for which he won his first Tony Award, The Crucible (1949), and  A View From the Bridge(1955).  Miller also penned a number of screenplays, including 1961’s The Misfits, which starred his then-wife, screen legend Marilyn Monroe. Miller was also one of a number of artists who were investigated by Senator Eugene McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee during the 1950’s, which had as its purpose the identification of individuals thought to be Communists. As a result, in 1957 Miller was found in contempt of Congress and blacklisted but his conviction was overturned in 1958.