The Chisholm Foundation - Seattle Repertory Theatre

Seattle Repertory Theatre’s education programs for students and teachers
are generously supported by:
The Chisholm Foundation | Nordstrom | U.S. Bank Foundation
Loeb Family Charitable Foundation | Theatre Forward | Seattle Rotary Service Foundation
The Playwright’s Point of View
For a playwright who made his name pitting common characters against extraordinary
circumstances onstage, Arthur Miller’s classic A View from the Bridge has strong connections
to the playwright’s own life.
Miller was the grandson of first-generation Polish immigrants and the son of a women’s
clothing company owner living in New York. When his father lost his business during the Great
Depression, the family moved to Brooklyn where Miller worked odd jobs for two years to help
pay his way through college. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Miller returned
to New York to write and took a nightshift working in a Brooklyn shipyard.
While there, he befriended several Italian-American longshoremen and was introduced to
Vincent Longhi, an attorney and Sicilian immigrant. Longhi and Miller took to walking the
waterfront in the Red Hook neighborhood under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. Miller
confided his wish to write about “this sealed city…a dangerous and mysterious world at the
water’s edge that drama and literature had never touched,” and on one of their outings Longhi
told Miller the story that would eventually inspire A View from the Bridge.
Although Miller appreciated the theatricality in
Longhi’s anecdote, he felt it would not translate well
to the stage. Despite this initial impression, the story
stuck with him and in 1955 Miller wrote the first
version of A View from the Bridge, a one-act play in
verse. Unfortunately, critics panned the play’s
Broadway debut as austere and uninvolved.
PROSE: The ordinary
form of spoken or written
language, without metrical
structure.
VERSE: Writing arranged
with a metrical rhythm,
typically having a rhyme.
After this initial failure, Miller remounted A View from
the Bridge in 1956 as a two-act play written in prose,
giving the characters more dialogue and, ultimately, more
humanity. As Miller wrote in the introduction to his
revision, “Eddie Carbone is still not a man to weep over… But it is more possible now to relate
his actions to our own and thus to understand ourselves a little better.”
Questions for the ride home:
• Imagine A View from the Bridge as a shorter play written in verse. How would that specific
structure change the characters and the story?
• Have you ever heard a story that you thought would make a great play? What is the difference
between an entertaining story and a great play on stage?
The Family Name
Arthur Miller often uses the theme of family in his work as a lens through which to explore
deeper social and ethical issues. At the center of the Carbone family is Eddie, the failed father
figure, a tragic hero stubbornly clinging to his beliefs and willing to sacrifice everything to keep
his reputation and identity clean, even in the face of certain defeat.
In A View from the Bridge, Eddie Carbone is fiercely proud of his heritage and the life he has built
for his family in the Red Hook, Brooklyn neighborhood he calls home. However, Eddie’s brute
strength and stubborn determination are no match for the forces of fate, leaving him hopeless and
alone by the end of the play.
NANCY
Beatrice’s sister and
Catherine’s mother.
EDDIE CARBONE
BEATRICE
MARCO
RODOLPHO
Patient wife to Eddie,
sister to Nancy, and
moral compass for her niece,
Catherine.
Beatrice’s cousin and illegal
immigrant, working on
the docks and sending his
wages back to his wife and
children in Italy.
Beatrice’s younger cousin,
also an illegal immigrant,
handsome, charming and
enthusiastic about the
possibilities America
has to offer.
ALFIERI
An Italian immigrant and
the play’s unofficial narrator
who provides legal counsel
to Eddie.
CATHERINE
(KATIE)
A bright young woman and
Eddie’s loving niece.
Questions for the ride home:
• Does Arthur Miller’s portrayal of family in A View from the Bridge fit in to your view of family
structures today? Why or why not?
• Is Eddie Carbone still a heroic character given his actions at the end of the play? What do we mean
when we refer to Eddie as a “tragic hero”?
A Century of Miller
This year we celebrate 100 years since Arthur Miller’s birth, and a lifetime of work and
achievement. Miller is the author of over 20 plays, including All My Sons, Death of a Salesman,
and The Crucible. Miller also wrote an autobiography, Timebends, three screenplays, and countless
essays and works of fiction. The playwright’s many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, seven Tony
Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, an Olivier, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize
and the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Miller’s work continues to be read and revived in schools and on stages across the nation. Here is
a brief timeline of A View from the Bridge throughout the playwright’s 100-year legacy:
1915: Arthur Miller is born on October 17 in New York City.
1934: Miller enrolls at the University of Michigan to study journalism.
1941: Miller takes a job at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.
1947: All My Sons opens at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. Miller begins
exploring the Red Hook neighborhood with Vincent Longhi.
1950: Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway.
1953: The Crucible opens at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway.
1955: The one-act version of A View from the Bridge opens on Broadway along with
another of Miller’s one-act plays, A Memory of Two Mondays.
1956: The revised, two-act version of A View from the Bridge is remounted for a production
in London.
1983: A View from the Bridge revival opens at the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway.
1998: Roundabout Theatre Company produces A View from the Bridge and wins two
Tony Awards during an extended run at the Neil Simon Theatre.
2010: A View from the Bridge revival opens at the Cort Theatre on Broadway, starring
Liev Schreiber as Eddie and Scarlett Johansson as Catherine.
2015: (September) Seattle Rep revives A View from the Bridge to kick off its 53rd season.
2015: (October) A View from the Bridge will open at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.
Questions for the ride home:
• Why do you think Arthur Miller’s work is still being produced today, 100 years after his birth
and ten years after his death?
• Which Miller plays do you know best? Is there anything about A View from the Bridge that
reminds you of the rest of Miller’s work?
Setting the Scene
1950s NEW YORK
2015 SEATTLE, WA
MINIMUM WAGE
$0.75/hour
$9.47/hour
GAS
$0.27/hour
$3.16/gallon
RENT
$42/month
$2,200/month
MOVIE TICKET
$0.48
$12.00
Red Hook
Red Hook, Brooklyn circa 1875. Public domain.
“This is the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of the Brooklyn Bridge. This is the gullet
of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world.”
This is how Alfieri describes the neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn in the opening lines
of A View from the Bridge. Although not the prettiest or most affluent neighborhood, Red
Hook has nevertheless played an important role in New York’s history, serving as both an
instrumental waterfront port for United States trade and an isolated harbor for countless
undocumented immigrants.
Red Hook is a piece of Long Island jutting out into the Upper New York Bay directly below
Manhattan. Bordered by water on three sides, Red Hook was cut off from the rest of the city,
and thus the neighborhood was often described as living in New York’s shadow. The name
Red Hook is derived from the Dutch “Roode Hoek,” meaning red point, named for the color
of the soil that is common in that region. Starting in the early 1800s, Red Hook served as a
makeshift precursor to Ellis Island, welcoming thousands of immigrants into Brooklyn. By
1847, New York’s population had grown from 100,000 to 1.5 million people, all looking for
jobs and a place to live.
Following the Federal Housing Act in 1938, construction began on the Red Hook Houses.
In the beginning, the city had high hopes for the project, comprising 2,545 new apartments
in a complex of 27 six-story brick buildings. However, though the new tenements eased the
desperate need for housing in the area, they soon succumbed to the decaying effects of high
crime and gang violence in the neighborhood.
In 1955, three more apartment buildings were added to the Red Hook Houses, creating an
additional 346 units. Presumably this is where Eddie Carbone and his family might have
lived, just a stone’s throw away from the docks where Eddie, Marco and Rodolpho made their
living as longshoremen.
Today Red Hook is a rapidly gentrifying mecca for artists and tourists alike. Breathtaking
waterfront views and vintage architecture keep the neighborhood swimming in real estate
and commerce. The steady traffic of tugboats and freight in and out of the piers might be the
only part of Arthur Miller’s Red Hook that has not changed.
Questions for the ride home:
• Think about the neighborhood you live in. What is its history and how has living there defined
the person you are today?
• Do you know how your family came to live in this country? Where did they first live when they
arrived? How did you come to reside in the Seattle area?
It Pays to Work on the Piers
Longshoremen usually worked 8 hours a day for 44 hours a week loading and unloading a ship’s cargo, earning anywhere between $2.44 and $4.61 per hour depending
on the type of goods. Cargoes often included everything from coal and bags of cement
to explosives and gasoline.
Dockyard owners encouraged undocumented immigrants to work for them as longshoremen
until they had paid off their passage to America. Then they were left to fend for themselves.
Spotlight on Immigration in America
Finding the solution to undocumented immigration is just as important today as it was when
Arthur Miller wrote A View from the Bridge. Immigration into America was largely unregulated until
1952, when all the disparate laws governing immigration and naturalization were brought under one
comprehensive piece of legislation, enforcing tighter security and processing measures as well as
placing strict limits on the numbers and origins of immigrants allowed to enter the United States.
As the legislation governing immigration was becoming stricter, the American attitude toward
undocumented newcomers was even less welcoming. Red Hook, Brooklyn was an increasingly
mixed neighborhood, including a large number of first and second-generation Southern Italian
and Puerto Rican communities.
Today, even with increased national discussion and legislation surrounding undocumented immigration,
the process is still challenging and often traumatizing for people hoping to move to America. Both New
York City and Seattle are considered “sanctuary cities,” meaning local officials follow certain procedures
to protect undocumented immigrants from federal immigration mandates. However, this localized safeguard does not reflect the onslaught of immigration regulations recently proposed in Washington, D.C.
Washington State As A Sanctuary
•
•
•
•
Most people immigrating to Washington are of Latino or Asian heritage.
1 in 7 Washington residents is an immigrant.
46.3% of Washington immigrants are naturalized U.S. Citizens, with the power to vote.
Unauthorized immigrants comprise roughly 4.9% of the state’s workforce.
Continuing the Immigration Conversation
Follow the links below for more information on recent changes to U. S. immigration laws and
how they affect the immigration crises at home and abroad:
• “Immigration Legislation and Changes to Watch for in 2015”
www.natlawreview.com/article/immigration-legislation-and-changes-to-watch-2015
• “Fatal shooting sparks national immigration debate”
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/fatal-shooting-sparks-national-immigration-debate-2
• “World on the Move: Understanding Europe’s Migration Crisis”
blogs.cfr.org/patrick/2015/09/03/world-on-the-move-understanding-europes-migration-crisis/
Questions for the ride home:
• Check out each 2016 presidential nominee’s platform on immigration reform. Do you agree or
disagree with their views?
• Do you think Seattle should continue to be a safe zone for undocumented immigrants? Why or why not?
Curtain Call
Up Next At the Rep
Come from Away
Book, music and lyrics by Irene Sandkoff and David Hein
Directed by Christopher Ashley
Presented in association with La Jolla Playhouse
Join us for a new musical based on an inspiring true story. September 11, 2001 was an ordinary
day in isolated Gander, Newfoundland—until it wasn’t. Thirty-eight planes headed to the United
States were diverted to its doorstep on that fateful day, making this small town the unexpected
host to an international community. The camaraderie that followed reminds us all of the power
that comes from opening up your heart and your home.
Pre-Show Ponderings:
• Can you think of a time when you welcomed a new member into your family — a baby
brother or sister, a significant other or even a stranger? How did that new presence change your
family dynamics?
• What role does music play in your life and community? How does it help you relate to people living
in other communities and cultures?
Season Sneak-Peek
Did you enjoy A View from the Bridge? Watch another protagonist chase the American Dream
and face difficult questions about his family, faith and identity in Disgraced, playing on the Bagley
Wright stage in January.