Who has the right to vie for the American Dream?<\/p>\n
If a certain segment of society had its way, Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, aka \u201cBad Bunny,\u201d would not have been able to realize his dream of performing in Spanish during the coveted Super Bowl halftime show, despite his home of Puerto Rico being a United States territory.<\/p>\n
In a 1947 Arthur Miller play that is being revived and re-examined at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the American Dream\u2019s accessibility to Latinos is getting a new look.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll My Sons,\u201d running through March 29, follows Joe Keller, a businessman who knowingly shipped defective aircraft engine parts from his factory during World War II, yet the conviction shifted to his business partner. As the play weaves through time, the focuses on the actions done for the benefit of Joe\u2019s family, and his wife Kate\u2019s moral compass, creating brutal conflicts.<\/p>\n
Where Berkeley Rep\u2019s production takes on a new look is from director David Mend\u00edzabal, who envisioned the Kellers as a Puerto Rican family in Ohio, and sold the idea to television and movie stars Wanda De Jes\u00fas and Jimmy Smits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was David\u2019s North Star in terms of his vision of the American dream, and he wanted to make it particularly a Puerto Rican family because of our citizenship to America,\u201d said De Jes\u00fas who, like Smits, has Puerto Rican roots and grew up in New York. \u201cWho the American Dream is for really resonated with him and he wanted to use that, along with the story being in a very diverse neighborhood in Ohio. In not changing one word of Arthur Miller, we are bringing our experiences to the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a gilded casting makes for a special theater event in the East Bay. Smits is well-known for his varied career and high-profile roles on \u201cNYPD Blue,\u201d \u201cL.A. Law\u201d and \u201cThe West Wing,\u201d and even a musical theater turn in 2021\u2019s film \u201cIn the Heights.\u201d De Jes\u00fas\u2019 career as a character actor encompasses a wide array of TV and stage roles since the mid-\u201980s.<\/p>\n
Both Smits and De Jes\u00fas, who are real-life partners, have spent time in Berkeley, having appeared in the Rep\u2019s production of Anne Nelson\u2019s \u201cThe Guys\u201d in 2003. While both the big and small screen have been the bread and butter of their acting existence, having the chance to do an American classic on a major regional stage is beyond scrumptious.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing is you get to take the audience on a ride for two hours and you get to have that communal experience of feeling an audience\u2019s energy,\u201d Smits said. \u201cWe always go back to the basics of what the playwright or screenwriter is saying, and what the characters are saying about each other. All those things don\u2019t change because it\u2019s a stage, but it\u2019s just gear shifting in terms of awareness of your body and space.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as Wanda and I work in television, we relish going back to New York for readings of plays with playwrights and friends we know, because it\u2019s like an instrument that you have to keep in tune.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smits\u2019 turn as the conflicted Joe means finding a truthful interpretation of one who is harboring a brutal secret. Smits finds a great challenge in taking on those conflicts, and has learned that the years of life he has lived informs many organic choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith time, age and experiences, it deepens your portrayal in a certain way,\u201d Smits said. \u201cAs an actor, you have to take what\u2019s given in the play and then maybe use your own expression or history of what a certain emotion can be. Being a little older, you have more of a threshold to draw from.\u201d<\/p>\n
At present, the sharpening that is required to dive into the truth of Miller\u2019s work for both actors is all-encompassing. Miller\u2019s most iconic works, such as \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d and \u201cThe Crucible,\u201d which premiered after \u201cAll My Sons,\u201d take up plenty of oxygen in the American theater. But what presents a divine challenge to De Jes\u00fas is diving into a quintessential heroic Miller female character in the same vein of Linda Loman or Elizabeth Proctor.<\/p>\n
Kate is mourning the potential loss of her son as the remnants of post-World War II surround her and her family. With Mend\u00edzabal\u2019s casting, it provides an opportunity for De Jes\u00fas to see herself in a role not traditionally portrayed by a woman of color.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy imagination is larger than my culture, and artists believe that to their very core,\u201d De Jes\u00fas said. \u201cWhat we believe in is exploring our humanity without being limited to what we look like or where we come from. That\u2019s part of the exploration of art, but that\u2019s not who we are as artists. To be able to have a Latino director and a Latin cast do a classic without imposing anything on it other than the humanity of the piece itself is something I\u2019m very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
David John Ch\u00e1vez is a former chair of the American Theatre Critics\/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2022-23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.<\/p>\n
\u2018ALL MY SONS\u2019<\/p>\n
By Arthur Miller, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre<\/p>\n
Through: March 29<\/p>\n
Where: Berkeley Rep\u2019s Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley<\/p>\n
Tickets: $25-$135; berkeleyrep.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who has the right to vie for the American Dream? If a certain segment of society had its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[967,181,971,1399,143,145,144,1058,420,14258],"class_list":{"0":"post-192152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-oakland","13":"tag-oakland-headlines","14":"tag-oakland-news","15":"tag-theater","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-tv-streaming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}