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Dynamic Ensemble Delivers Devastating Performance of Death of a Salesman

—Broadway World 

Thanks for welcoming the New Year of arts in Tucson with such a winner!

—Lorene Jayson, Audience Member 

Death of a Salesman took my breath away. The humanity brought to the characters was so beautiful.

—Michael Levin, Audience Member

Fresh and relevant.

—Arizona Daily Star

Bowdren has pulled together a talented cast and drawn from each of them a tightly focused, award-worthy performance.

—Chuck Graham, reviewer for Let The Show Begin!

A devastatingly beautiful performance this evening...

—Gian Paul Morelli, Audience Member

Supporting Materials

Free “Open Talk” Video

Click here to see the video

Tragedy and the Common Man: The Aesthetics of Arthur Miller

presented on Saturday, January 1, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Patrick Baliani, Associate Professor at the W.A. Franke Honors College at the University of Arizona, talks about Arthur Miller’s many essays on theatre and playwriting. Topics include the nature and significance of the tragic form, Miller’s views on “social plays,” and his reflections on directing Death of a Salesman in Beijing, China.

This open talk is supported in part by a generous gift from Bill & Nancy Sohn

Essay

Read Jerry James’ thoughtful essay

The Power of Denial
Arthur Miller’s Life and Times

Poster

View the full-sized poster for the play

Video Extras

Reviews

Dynamic ensemble delivers devastating performance of Death of a Salesman
Review by Robert Encila-Celdran on January 11 at Broadway World

Muscular theatre thrives in The Rogue’s Death of a Salesman
Review of Death of a Salesman by Chuck Graham on January 12 at Let The Show Begin! and TucsonStage.com

An American classic fills The Rogue stage
Review by Kathleen Allen on January 12, special to the Arizona Daily Star

Matt Bowdren (Director) is an Artistic Associate for The Rogue Theatre. Previous directing credits at the Rogue include Angels in America Part 1 (2016 Mac Award for Best Director) and Macbeth. Matt has performed in many plays at the Rogue including Hamlet (2015 Mac Award for Best Actor), The Crucible, Waiting for Godot, Uncle Vanya, Grapes of Wrath, As I Lay Dying, and The Goat. Other Arizona credits include Romeo and Juliet with Southwest Shakespeare, and Frankenstein and Othello as a faculty fellow and teaching artist with The Arizona Repertory Theatre. Matt currently lives in Chicago and has performed with a number of theaters including TimeLine and The Shakespeare Project of Chicago. He also directed the inaugural production for The Story Theatre (Best New Chicago Theatre 2021) of which he is a founding member. Matt is also part of an interdisciplinary ensemble blending music, poetry, and improvisation called Small Giants, founded with collaborator and former Rogue alum Jake Sorgen. Matt holds an M.F.A. in Performance from the University of Georgia.

Matt Bowdren’s direction of Death of a Salesman is supported in part
by a generous gift from Art & Katherine Jacobson

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

Death of a Salesman has an important place in the American canon, both as a testament to Arthur Miller’s creative skill with American realism, but also as a critique of the concept of the American Dream. As I approached directing this play I had an intense lack of interest in that critique. I’ve grown up at a time and in an environment where anyone could open their eyes and see the obvious inequities in the American system. The idea that one day, if you worked hard enough, you could out-earn your parents seems like an antiquated idea that belongs to a different time and place. For people my age, that dream isn’t a reality. In truth, I’ve always felt the American Dream is there to mythologize work and ambition in a way that truly only serves the already wealthy, powerful, and mostly white.

As I sat with the play, trying to find what it was that I found so compelling about it, I stumbled upon a quote from former Goodman Artistic Director, Robert Falls: “The play is about fathers and sons.”

Something in this simple summation of the play clicked with me. I thought of all the stories my father told me, and I thought of all the stories I tell my son. Stories about my life, about our country. These stories we tell each other create the masks we wear. Untimely the tragedy of Death of a Salesman, is that Willy gets lost in the mask he is forced to make. Willy disappears into his own mythology and the mythology he made for his son Biff. He gets so lost in what people should be that he never gets to know who his family actually is. It’s a cautionary tale, not about the American Dream, but about our fear of being vulnerable with the people we love. In one moment of the play, Willy realizes the mistake he’s made, and corrects as best as he knows how. But he’s so lost in the promise of what could be, that he doesn’t reach for the important things. After all, life is short, and what matters is who shows up for you at the end.

—Matt Bowdren, Director
director@TheRogueTheatre.org

PLAYWRIGHT

Arthur Miller was born in Harlem on October 17, 1915, the son of Polish immigrants. At school, he studied journalism, became the night editor of the Michigan Daily, and began experimenting with theater. Miller’s prolific writing career spans a period of over sixty years. During this time, Miller wrote twenty-six plays (including All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, After the Fall, and The Ride Down Mount Morgan), a novel (Focus), several travel journals, a collection of short stories (I Don’t Need You Anymore), and an autobiography (Timebends). Miller’s plays generally address social issues and center around an individual in a social dilemma, or an individual at the mercy of society. He received numerous honors throughout his career, including Michigan’s Avery Hopwood Award, 1936 and 1937; the Theatre Guild’s Bureau of New Plays Award, 1937; the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award, 1947; the Pulitzer Prize, 1949; the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award, 1949; the Antoinette Perry and Donaldson Awards, 1953; and the Gold Medal for Drama by the National Institutes of Arts and Letters, 1959. Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005 at the age of 89.

Cast

in order of appearance

Bryn Booth (Letta) is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Arizona. She was most recently seen as Viola in Twelfth Night, Edna in The Awakening, Celia in As You Like It, Electra in The Oresteia, Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and as Catherine in A View from the Bridge. This is Bryn’s fifth season as a member of the Resident Acting Ensemble with The Rogue where she has performed in Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Middletown, The Crucible (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress), The Secret in the Wings, Much Ado About Nothing, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Galileo, King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath, A House of Pomegranates, and Macbeth. In 2018, Bryn played Mag in the Scoundrel & Scamp’s production of Lovers (Mac Award Nominee for Best Actress). Other credits include The Love Talker (Scoundrel & Scamp), Romeo & Juliet (Tucson Shakespeare in the Park), and Othello (Arizona Repertory Theatre). She also had the pleasure of understudying with Arizona Theatre Company in Romeo & Juliet and Of Mice and Men. Bryn wants to thank Joe and Cindy for giving her the best job she’s ever had with the most amazing people she’s ever met.

Bryn Booth’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Larry Boutis.

Chelsea Bowdren (Jenny/Miss Forsythe) is thrilled to be working with The Rogue Theatre again this season, after last appearing as Maria in Twelfth Night and, many years ago, as Rosalind in Immortal Longings. Chelsea received her BFA in Acting from the University of Arizona and performed in Taming of the Shrew, Diary of Anne Frank, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Medea, & Titus Andronicus as a member of Arizona Repertory Theatre. After exploring for a couple years, she’s ecstatic to be back in Tucson and back in theatre. For Archer & Eloise.

Chelsea Bowdren’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Peggy Houghton & Paul Garner

Hunter Hnat (Happy) is grateful to be in his fourth season as a member of The Rogue Resident Acting Ensemble. You may have seen him in previous Rogue productions as Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Robert in The Awakening, Le Beau/Sylvius in As You Like It, Brenden in The Weir, Orestes in The Oresteia, Lord Byron/Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Rodolpho in A View from the Bridge, Ray Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Flask in Moby Dick, Edmund Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Mechanic in Middletown, Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Ensemble in The Secret in the Wings, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Andrea in Galileo, Oswald in King Lear, Steindorff in Bach at Leipzig, and Ensemble for A House of Pomegranates. Other credits include Salomé (Scoundrel & Scamp), U/S in Romeo and Juliet (Arizona Theatre Company), and How the House Burned Down (Live Theatre Workshop). He is a U of A alumnus with his BFA in Musical Theatre, class of 2015. Enjoy the show!

Hunter Hnat’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Stu Salasche & Els Duvigneau and Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel

Christopher Johnson (Biff) first came to The Rogue in 2011 to play Jewel in As I Lay Dying and now serves as Artistic Associate, General Manager, Play-Reading Producer, and Board Member. Select acting credits include Joshua in Corpus Christi, Peter in Bug, The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret (2013 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Musical), Doug in Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, Alan in Lemon Sky, Betty/Gerry in Cloud 9, Pale in Burn This, Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2009 & 2014), Chicklet in Psycho Beach Party, Thom Pain in Thom Pain (based on nothing), Danny in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and Prior Walter in The Rogue’s production of Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches (2016 Mac Award Winner – Best Actor, Drama). In addition to acting for The Rogue over the years, he has also directed, adapted, and served as stage manager for both full productions and play-readings. He is a member of the Resident Acting Ensemble, and Death of a Salesman marks his 20th role on the Rogue stage.

Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Bill Krauss & Kate McMillan and Shawn Burke

Joseph McGrath (Willy Loman) is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and Co-Founder and Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre. He has recently appeared in Twelfth Night, The Awakening, As You Like It, The Weir, A View from the Bridge, Moby Dick, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Crucible, The Secret in the Wings, Galileo (2018 Mac Award for Best Actor), and King Lear. He also received the Mac Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Tobias in A Delicate Balance. Joe has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company and has performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival. He has been a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for seventeen years as Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, and Arizona Onstage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.

Joseph McGrath’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts
from Kathleen McGrath & Jerry James and Bill & Barb Dantzler

Tyler Page (Bernard) is thrilled to be returning to The Rogue Theatre stage this season after first appearing as Feste in Twelfth Night. Tyler has a BFA in Acting from the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University. Some of Tyler’s other credits include Demetrius (Titus Andronicus) where he was nominated for an Irene Ryan Acting Award, Martin Heller (Angels in America: Millennium Approaches), Richard Greatham (Hayfever), Josh (If/Then), Judas (Godspell), Walter Gifford (The Farnsworth Invention), Rev. Crisparckle (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Ed (You Can’t Take It With You), Rev. Fred Phelps (The Laramie Project), Grantiare (Les Misérables), King Arthur (Spamalot), East & Dave (Almost, Maine), and understudied in the OCA’s production of (Hedda Gabler). Tyler would like to thank Joe and Cindy for this opportunity and his family for supporting him as he pursues his passions.

 Tyler Page’s performance is supported in part by
a generous gift from Richard & Deborah Apling

Aaron Shand (Howard Wagner) was last seen on The Rogue stage as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night. Now in his fourth season as a member of The Rogue Theatre’s Resident Acting Ensemble, Aaron has also appeared as Leonce Pontellier in The Awakening, Orlando in As You Like It, Jim in The Weir, Agamemnon in The Oresteia, Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, Ishmael in Moby Dick, The Cop in Middletown, Hathorne in The Crucible, The Sea Captain in The Secret in the Wings, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, Sagredo in Galileo, Noah Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and Duke of Albany in King Lear. Born and raised in Tucson, he received his B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Arizona, performing for the Arizona Repertory Theatre in Bus Stop, The Miracle Worker and Romeo & Juliet. He also spent a season with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, performing in The Cherry Orchard, State of the Union and A Christmas Carol.

Aaron Shand’s performance is supported in part by
generous gifts from Sally Krusing and Carol Mangold

Christopher Younggren (Uncle Ben) is delighted to return to The Rogue for his fourth production. An MFA graduate of California State University, Fullerton, Christopher has been involved in theatre, radio, commercials, and film for over 40 years, from Los Angeles to New York City. Most recently he was seen as Tio Diego in Tucson Regional Ballet’s A Southwest Nutcracker. Other local credits include The Rogue Theatre’s Twelfth Night, The Weir, and The Crucible, The Scoundel & Scamp’s Salome, Live Theatre Workshop’s Voice of the Prairie (2017 Best Actor Mac Award), Move Over Mrs. Markham (2015 Best Actor Mac Award Nominee), and Time Stands Still,  Tucson Labyrinth Project’s Dogs of Rwanda (2018 Best Actor Mac Award Nominee, Best Drama Mac Award), Invisible Theatre’s Indoor/Outdoor, Arizona Rose’s The Odd Couple, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Arts Express’ A Christmas Carol and Carousel, as well as several villainous roles at The Gaslight Theatre. Christopher is also a middle school English teacher at The Academy of Tucson, a YouTube creator where he shares theatre games and teaching techniques on his channel, Classroom Confidential, and a professional magician. As always, he thanks his wife and boys for their unwavering support. 

Christopher Younggren’s performance is supported in part
by a generous gift from Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman

Piano: Russell Ronnebaum
Fran Moskovitz—Flute (January 6–9)
Diana Schaible—Flute (January 13–23) 

Preshow Music 
and the performers who popularized it

Day Dream — Duke Ellington (1941)
Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) — Billie Holiday (1942)
I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good — Duke Ellington (1941)
From The Time You Say Goodbye — Vera Lynn (1952)
We’ll Meet Again — Vera Lynn (1939)

Production Music 
Original score by Russell Ronnebaum

Act 1
Willy’s Theme
Memories
The Woman
Ben’s Theme
Father’s Flute

Act 2
A Good Day
Willy Losing It
The Truth
Willy Departs
We’re Free (Requiem)

Russell Ronnebaum (Music Director, Composer, Arranger, Pianist) serves as The Rogue Theatre’s Director of Music and Resident Composer. He holds a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the University of Arizona where he studied under Dr. Paula Fan. He currently serves as the assistant director of music at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Oro Valley, as well as the staff accompanist for the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. As a classically trained pianist, Russell has performed with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Artifact Dance Company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, and as a concerto soloist with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale. Russell made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 performing the music of composer Dan Forrest. Past credits include The Rogue’s recent productions of Twelfth Night, The Awakening, As You Like It, The Weir, The Oresteia, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, A View from the Bridge, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Moby Dick, Blithe Spirit, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Much Ado About Nothing and The Secret in the Wings (Vocal Director). Russell also composes the music for Rogue Radio, a radio play series produced in partnership with Arizona Public Media, NPR 89.1 FM. Recent composition commissions and premieres include music for bassoon quartet, live theatre, strings, brass, voice, choir, and piano. Recordings, videos, sheet music, and upcoming concert dates can be found at www.RRonnebaum.com.

Russell Ronnebaum’s music direction is supported in part
by generous gifts from Laura Kosakowsky and Marianne Leedy

Diana Schaible (Flute) is an award winning flutist, guitarist, and music educator originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, now based in Tucson. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from the University of Idaho in 2011, and received her Master’s degree in Music Performance at the University of Arizona in 2013. While at UA, Diana was a part of the prestigious Fred Fox Graduate Wind Quintet, and played principal flute in the Arizona Symphony and UA Wind Ensemble. More recently, Ms. Schaible was a prize winner in the 2020 Flute Society of Kentucky Young Artist Competition, and has also won prizes in classical guitar at several music festivals, including MusicFest Northwest in Spokane, WA, San Francisco Bay Area Guitar Competition, and 1st prize at the Sierra Nevada Guitar Competition. She has performed internationally on both flute and guitar in Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and the United States. In addition to performing, Diana currently shares her passion for music as an instrumental Teaching Artist for Tucson Unified School District, and maintains a private teaching studio.

Fran Moskovitz (Flute) Principal flute of the Civic Orchestra of Tucson and co-principal of the Arizona Symphonic Winds, Fran has appeared as soloist with both groups numerous times. She is a member of the Dolce Musica Wind Quintet and Skyline Flutes professional quartet, and free lances with ensembles throughout Tucson. She previously was principal of the Catalina Chamber Orchestra. Before moving to Arizona, Fran played flute and piccolo in the State College Opera Company and Long Island’s Opera on the Sound. She has performed concerts throughout China and Mexico. For nearly 30 years, Fran has worked to protect the environment through her position as Gift Planning Officer with The Nature Conservancy.

Music Director’s Notes

Working music into the flow of a non-musical play can lead in many directions. Sometimes music helps to cover transitions, establish setting, or contribute to the tone of a play. In this complex show where the lines are blurred between scenes of present reality and altered memories, music can transform and expand on the characters as they inhabit the real or imagined encounters of Willy Loman.

As Willy conjures memories of the people who pass through his life at various stages, I had a lot of opportunity to develop subtle character themes that drift into the aging salesman’s mind bringing memories to his consciousness, and to our stage.

The character of Uncle Ben serves at times as Willy’s idol, an example of a man with everything, and at other times as an embodiment of Willy’s inner conscious. As Willy drifts into memories of imagined conversations with Ben, the character motif that permeates the air is spectral, otherworldly, yet grounded. This contrasts nicely with Willy’s theme which is more wandering, unsure, and unsettled. The direction of these musical motifs is supported by the way each is described in the lines of the play. Biff speaking of his father remarks, “The man never knew who he was.” Willy reminisces on his brother Ben: “There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers.”

Playing with these two antithetical characters, Willy’s theme is atonal—not gravitating towards a key signature. Music with this quality is generally unsettling to the ear, which wants resolution. Ben’s underscoring is comprised of pleasant intervals of fourths, and fifths, which are harmonically compatible and pleasing to the ear. In this way, even the music behind Ben’s dialogue leaves much for Willy to envy, yearn for, and aspire to.

Hearing the contrast between two themes throughout the play points to the tragedy of Willy’s missed opportunity for a greater life.

WILLY: Ben! I’ve been waiting for you for so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it?

BEN: Oh, there’s a story in that.

Russell Ronnebaum—Music Director, Pianist, Composer

Designers and Production Staff

Don Fox (Lighting Design) holds an MFA in Lighting Design from The University of Arizona and a BA in Theatre Administration from St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX. He is currently serving as Production Manager and Technical Director for the Central Kitsap Performing Arts Center on the Kitsap Peninsula near Seattle. As a professional, freelance lighting and scenic designer and theatre producer and consultant, his clients include The Moscow Ballet, The Atlantis Resort Bahamas, Borgata Casino Atlantic City, Silversea Cruises, Music Theatre Wichita, Florida State University, Central Washington University, City Opera Ballet Company Bellevue, the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s Shakespeare in the Park, and many others. Locally, he has designed acclaimed Rogue productions since 2013 including Arcadia, Lady in the Looking Glass, Angels In America, By The Bog of Cats, The White Snake, A House of Pomegranates, The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick and A View from the Bridge, among many others. Please visit Don on the web at www.DonFoxDesigns.com.

Don Fox’s lighting design is supported in part
by a generous gift from Kay & Philip Korn

Vincent Calianno (Sound Designer) Inspired by the renegade eloquence of the American vernacular, the music of composer Vincent Calianno (b. 1979) “blurs the boundaries between fine art and popular culture” (VICE), through kaleidoscopic colorings, muscular rhythms, extreme stasis and motion, while curiously investigating new musical possibilities through new practices and obsolescent technologies. Calianno’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Thalea String Quartet, JACK Quartet, Nouveau Classical Project, Ensemble Mise-en, Jennifer Koh, John Pickford Richards, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Tucson Symphony, Artifact Dance Project, and others. In addition to his concert works, Calianno has an active career in scoring for film and new media. His credits include music for Adecco, Morgan Stanley, and AlixPartners campaigns, as well as films and dramatic podcasts. His awards include the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Award, and the Sarah Award for Best New Podcast. Recent projects include a new work, Ashliner, for violinist Jennifer Koh’s Grammy nominated album Alone Together, as well as L’Astronome, a large-scale opera as part of Two Trains’ 2021/22 season.  Recent highlights include the Thalea String Quartet premiere of A History of the String Quartet in its Natural Habitat, and A Painted Devil, for dance the Artifact Dance Project. In 2019, Calianno co-founded Two Trains, a hybrid music-theatre-dance project focused on abstract and inventive storytelling through the combined expressions of imagery and sound. Their first project, L’Astronome, is a nine-part opera that combines movement, text, and sound through the medium of cinema, and is set to premiere in Fall of 2022. For more information visit droplid.com.

Christopher Pankratz (Stage Manager) is honored to be both an actor and a member of the production staff at The Rogue. Death of a Salesman is Christopher’s first show as a stage manager, but he has performed at The Rogue in The Grapes of Wrath, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, Moby Dick, A View from the Bridge, As You Like It, and The Awakening. In 2019, he also directed An Enemy of the People for the John and Joyce Ambruster Play-Reading Series. Christopher teaches acting and theatre tech at Flowing Wells High School where he has written and produced several plays including Black Friday, Frankenstein, Cuando Soñamos, Spinning Tales The Musical, Leave It to the Snakes, Cuando Mentimos, Cuckoo, Cuando Perdonamos, The Snow Queen, You Can’t Make Wine from Raisins, and two newly-published plays: The Longest Day of April and The Story Seller’s Tale. Christopher would like to thank his colleagues, family, friends, and students for their support and inspiration.

Christopher Pankratz’s stage management is supported
in part by a generous gift from Ellen Bodow

Shannon Wallace (Production Stage Manager) first came to The Rogue in 2015 to stage manage The Picture of Dorian Gray, and now serves as Production Stage Manager and Assistant Managing Director. Her stage management credits at The Rogue include: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Angels in America, Uncle Vanya, Penelope, Macbeth, A House of Pomegranates, Celia, A Slave, Bach at Leipzig, The Grapes of Wrath, Three Tall Women, King Lear, Galileo, Curious Incident, Much Ado About Nothing, Secret in the Wings, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Oresteia, The Weir, As You Like It and The Awakening. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, focusing on both stage management and lighting design. During her time in school she worked on over 25 productions with Arizona Repertory Theatre. She has also worked for Arizona Theatre Company, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. She spent a year living in Chicago and worked as the Operations Assistant for Mudlark Theater Company. She is grateful to be working full-time as a theater artist in her hometown and would like to thank her parents & her bunnies for their unconditional love.

Owen Saunders (Assistant to the Director) is ecstatic to return to the Rogue after two years, for the very exciting role of assistant to the director for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Owen has appeared in two prior productions here at the Rogue, as Young Andrea in Galileo, and as Pip in Moby Dick. Owen attends 11th grade at Primavera Online Highschool and works a part-time job at Kukai Japanese street food. Owen feels very grateful to be a part of such a special play. He thanks Joe and Cindy for this fantastic opportunity.

Amy Novelli (Scenic Artist) is originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania. She received her Cum Laude BFA from the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art & Design in 1987 and her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1994. Novelli’s scenic art career began in New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Studio. Charge Scenic Artist for the Arizona Theatre Company 2010–2014, Amy also painted several sets for Arizona Opera and UA Opera, and presently paints for The Rogue Theatre and until COVID at the Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria (Phoenix). Amy created monstrous Halloween decor for Hotel Congress for 20 years, and was lead painter for Marshal-Fields 1998 award winning Easter Window display “Alice in Wonderland”. She supervised four public art projects in the Tucson area with high school youth and won commissions to design and paint five large scale outdoor murals across the country as well as at the Biosphere II and La Posada Hotel on Oracle Blvd. She has taught at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College. Novelli’s fine art work has been exhibited at several Tucson Galleries and in May-August 2020 she had a one woman show at the Tucson International Airport. Amy Novelli has been living in Tucson since 1996. When not painting, Novelli trains rescue horses and dogs and enjoys riding wilderness trails all over the western states.

Amy Novelli’s scenic painting is supported in part by
a generous gift from Paul Winick & Ronda Lustman

Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13. Professionally, he was with BBC Television for several years, and was an assistant to the UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow during the inaugural production of the National Theatre (Hamlet, directed by Olivier.) Although his career was in architectural lighting, he maintained some theatre lighting involvement on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2009, he volunteered for the Rogue’s initial season at the Historic Y. He has been master electrician at the Rogue for every show from 2013 to the present, supporting our lighting designers Deanna Fitzgerald, Don Fox, and Josh Hemmo. He devised the system that enables lights to be quickly re-arranged, allowing more time for the creative process. Elsewhere in Tucson, he directed the technical and logistical aspects of fundraisers for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology ofStudent’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors and acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

Thomas Wentzel (Box Office Manager, Program, Website) is a Scientific Programmer for the National Solar Observatory and holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona. Previously he has worked as a Data Manager for several prevention programs in the Arizona Cancer Center and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health. He has served on the Board of the Tucson Men’s Cooperative, editing its newsletter for five years, and on the Executive Committee of Sons of Orpheus—The Male Choir of Tucson. He has sung with Furry Day Singers, Sons of Orpheus, AwenRising and Arizona Repertory Singers, and has performed with Tucson Art Theatre in Viktor Slavkin’s Cerceau and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Thomas has designed and built The Rogue Theatre Web site (with great assistance from Bill Sandel and Bryan Falcón in creating the 2020 Website update), creates all The Rogue’s posters and programs and has served as Webmaster, Business Manager and Treasurer.

Our Thanks

Performance Schedule

Performance run time of Death of a Salesman is two hours and thirty minutes, including one ten-minute intermission.