From left: Dennis Elkins (Joe Keller), Avery Scott Martinez (George Deever), Mike Gertsen-Rogers (Chris Keller) and Dolores Mazurkewicz (Kate Keller) in a scene from Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons.” The production is a collaboration between the FLC Theatre Department and the Durango Arts Center./Photo by Jennaye Derge

An American classic

Miller’s ‘All My Sons’ graces the Arts Center stage

by Stew Mosberg

Arthur Miller is an authentic theater legend. Many readers will recall he was married to Marilyn Monroe, which would make him a celebrity even if he hadn’t written some of America’s most compelling plays. However, the sexy screen goddess or even the theater world may never have known him if “All My Sons” hadn’t been such a success.

After his first play failed on Broadway, Miller wrote “All My Sons” in a last-ditch effort to pen a commercially successful play. He vowed to find another line of work if the play flopped. Fortunately for him, and generations of audiences, it didn’t.

This weekend, an “All My Sons” reprise opens in Durango; staged and directed by the team of Mona Wood-Patterson and Charles Ford, it is a collaborative production between Fort Lewis College and the DAC.

Based on a true-to-life incident, Miller wrote “All My Sons” as a criticism of the American dream. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one reason Miller was called to testify before Sen. Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee during our nation’s anti-communist hysteria.

“All My Sons” focuses on the Keller family, which is caught up in a WWII greed and profiteering scandal that results in tragic loss of life.

The play originally opened on Broadway in 1947 and ran for 328 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan and won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as well as two Tony Awards, one for “Best Author” and the other for “Best Direction.”

The following year it debuted as a film starring Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster and in 1987 was revived on stage. In 2008 it returned to Broadway yet again, this time featuring John Lithgow, 4 Dianne Wiest, and Patrick Wilson plus Katie Holmes, aka the former Mrs. Tom Cruise, who was making her first Broadway appearance.

According to Patterson, the play was selected to afford the students an opportunity to tackle natural acting in a classic American piece. She is convinced the play remains a theater standard because, “It is beautiful writing and has a strong message.”

One of the goals of the FLC Theater Department is to expose students to all genres of theater and give them a chance to be on stage as well as behind the scenes as crew members.

Isabelle Struss, a sophomore theater major, was given the opportunity to be costume designer for “All My Sons,” even though her concentration is in stage lighting. Last semester Struss made the costumes for Kate Monster in “Avenue Q.” However, this experience has been particularly fast paced, she said. “I was asked to design this show just before school started, so I have had barely two months to work on it!”

Most of the cast are FLC theater majors with two exceptions: Dennis Elkins, the department head, plays the lead character, Joe Keller; and Dolores Mazurkewicz plays his wife, Kate. Explaining her involvement with this production, Mazurkewicz said she was thrilled and honored to work with Mona again. She appeared last year in the Wood-Patterson production of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In May of this year Mazurkewicz portrayed Wanda in the 10-Minute play “Black Bride of Texas.” A psychologist and psychotherapist by trade, she hopes her years of studying the human mind and heart will help her bring Kate to life for the audience.

Elkins’ comments give insight to the character of Joe and also provide some back-story. “This is such an iconic figure of the American stage,” he said, “Everybody who’s anybody in the American theatre who’s my age and older wants a chance at this part – from Edward G. Robinson to John Lithgow.”

The Joe Keller character is a “generic Joe,” explains Elkins. “(His) speech patterns are colloquial and full of mixed tenses. Arthur Miller was a genius at creating just the (right) words for Joe,” he said. Elkins described Joe as a “wonderfully likable guy – even if he’s got a sordid little secret.” 

Those familiar with the plot will remember that it turns darker as it progresses and builds to a surprise ending.

Charles Ford’s set design closely follows the original and is a beautiful replica of a backyard and clapboard house straight out of the 1940s. Big band music at the opening curtain sets the tone for the era, as does some of the anachronistic dialogue, particularly between Chris Keller and Ann Deever, played credibly by Mike Gertsen-Rogers and Molly Quinn, respectively. A flash of lightning, ferocious wind and thunder startle the audience and help set the tone before the lights go up.

Mazurkewicz and Martinez, seated, in an exchange during a rehearsal for “All My Sons.” The 1940s era set was designed by Charles Ford and costumes were the work of FLC sophomore Isabelle Struss./ Photo by Jennaye Derge

The story heats up in Act II. The plot begins to unfold in nefarious ways when Ann’s brother George, played by Avery Scott Martinez, arrives from a prison visit with their father, Steve, business partner of Joe Keller.

On the lighthearted side is the young Anthony Berger, who plays Bert, a neighbor  boy who reveals the “regular guy” persona of Joe. The young Berger shows great promise and exhibits stage presence and poise.

Rounding out the cast are Katie Regan and Austin Minard as the Keller’s neighbors Lydia and Frank Lubey. Also playing neighbors are James Rollins, as Dr. Jim Bayless, and Erika Beardsley, who performs admirably as his demanding wife, Sue.

The play’s themes of deception, greed, self-righteousness and naiveté, ultimately lead to destruction of this seemingly all-American family and ironically almost took Arthur Miller down with it.

Audiences not familiar with the play will come away understanding its iconic status as a classic of American theater. Those who do know “All My Sons” will find this production as theatrically stimulating as any they have seen.