by Scott Shriner
RPC Associate Editor
Though it marks a return to his alma mater, what really drew Avery Brooks to Oberlin College's upcoming production of "Death of a Salesman" was an opportunity to tackle a classic stage role in a unique way.
Though best known to television audiences as Hawk on "Spenser: For Hire" and "A Man Called Hawk" and Captain Benjamin Sisko on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," the celebrated actor says "there is no substitute for live theater." And there are probably few more challenging roles in live theater than the tragic character Willy Loman, who Brooks will portray in the Arthur Miller classic, Sept. 18 to 21.
Directed by Justin Emeka, an assistant professor of theater and African-American studies at Oberlin, the college's "Death of a Salesman" will be performed with a mixed-race cast and will be set in a multicultural, multiethnic Brooklyn in the '40s and '50s. For example, the Loman family is African-American, and their neighbor Charlie and his son Bernard are portrayed as Jewish immigrants who fled Eastern Europe during the rise of the Third Reich.
Although the cast has only been rehearsing the show since mid-August, Emeka said he has been "shaping the idea for about two years." Although Miller's text remains the same, he hopes that his approach to the material will be a way of "adding new dimensions and new layers -- layers that illuminate the text in a new way. Certain lines resonate in a new way, but it's ultimately the same story.
"It's surprising when you get inside of [the play], how little you need to change [to incorporate Emeka's ideas]."
"You can match great works with any culture in the world," Brooks said via e-mail. "You put that together with a classic people and you have a classic production in the 21st century at Oberlin College."
And it doesn't hurt that Emeka, a 1994 Oberlin graduate who portrays the crucial role of Willy's son Biff in the production, has surrounded himself with what he calls "an incredible cast."
"Avery's been like a mentor to me for about 12 years," Emeka said of Brooks, with whom both he and Petronia Paley -- the veteran New York actress portraying Willy's wife Linda -- performed in a production of "King Lear" with the Yale Repertory several years ago.
Brooks, a 1970 graduate who now lives in Princeton, N.J., is "the anchor of the production," Emeka told Record Publishing Co.
"Were it not for Justin, I probably wouldn't be here," Brooks said of his director. "I'm glad to be able to be here and tackle such a difficult piece."
The cast also includes Los Angeles-based Mark Jablon, who has been seen on TV's "ER," and Raphael Sacks, an Oberlin student who recently performed in the English National Opera in London.
"I can relate to the struggle of Willy Loman; his quest for identity, trying to figure out who he was in a world where you are defined by your ability to make money," said Emeka, who added in a news release from Oberlin, "If the American theater seeks to be more inclusive and representative of our country's diverse population, we must learn to explore the classics of American theater through diverse cultural perspectives."
Some audience members -- whether they be Trekkies or Hawk fans -- might be wondering if they'll see the show's star on TV anytime soon.
"Whether film and/or television come again, I just don't know," said Brooks. "I didn't seek it out. ... In the first series I did, it was like a post-graduate study on how television works. It didn't take long to figure out."
"Theater still remains for me the place of ideas," Brooks, who will direct a Harlem Renaissance-set staging of "La Boheme" at the Connecticut Opera next spring. "Theater is the convergence of all of the various disciplines: history, literature, visual art, spoken word. It's all there, and the broader and deeper one's foundation is in the theater, it informs the younger forms of film and television. Film is the facsimile of what we experience when we are actually in the theater. So, I could never leave the theater."
The show will be Sept. 18, 19, and 20 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 21 at 2 p.m at Hall Auditorium, at 67 N. Main Street in Oberlin. The Sept. 19 and 20 shows are sold out, but tickets can be reserved for Sept. 18 and 21 by calling 440-775-8169 or 800-371-0178, or by visiting the box office in the lobby of Hall Auditorium. Box office hours are noon to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Ticket order forms can also be downloaded at www.oberlin.edu/salesman.
E-mail: sshriner@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3910