wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
Death of a Playwright
photo

Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and what many critics consider to be one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, has passed away. He was 89 years old.

Miller’s plays were forceful, unyielding charges into the most challenging political and moral terrain of American life. To his last days, he believed in the real world responsibility of theater, and in the demand he placed on the dramatic arts to be fearlessly relevant to their times.

Miller’s most famous play, 1949’s “Death of a Salesman,” struck a chord by probing the dark side of chasing the American Dream. It took the then-33-year-old playwright only six weeks to pen the Pulitzer Prize-winning script.

Hear about the powerful work, art, and extraordinary life of American playwright Arthur Miller.

Guests:

Sue Abbotson, author of “Understanding Death of a Salesman,” professor of drama, Rhode Island College, former president of the Arthur Miller Society;

Harold Bloom, Professor of Humanities and English at Yale University, editor of several books on Arthur Miller’s plays;

Marsha Norman, co-director of the playwrights program at the Julliard School;

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

 
 

Comments are closed.

On Point Today
Hour 2
Robots Among Us
Thursday, July 9, 2009 image

Robots among us. iRobot CEO Colin Angle on the business and science of robotics now.

Comments [36]
 
Hour 1
Stimulus, Part Two?
Thursday, July 9, 2009 image

Debate mounts over a “Stimulus II.” But with talk of a “fiscal train wreck,” can America afford to spend more on stimulus? Top Obama advisor Christina Romer weighs in.

Comments [42]

Recent Shows
U.S. Nuns and the Vatican
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 image

The Catholic Church in Rome moves to scrutinize — maybe rein in — American nuns. We’ll talk with sisters on the front lines.

Comments [43]
 
Trouble in Honduras
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 image

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya comes to Washington for help. We’ll ask what the coup against him means for Honduras, and for democracy in Latin America.

Comments [46]
On Point Blog
Christina Romer on the Stimulus

Christina Romer, chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, joined us in our first hour today to talk about the economy and the debate over whether a second round of stimulus is needed. Asked about Vice President Biden’s recent remarks, that the administration had “misread how bad the economy was,” she replied:  “It’s important to realize [...]

More »
 
Ten Minutes with Brzezinski

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski joined Tom from Washington, D.C. this morning and shared his impressions of President Obama’s first face-to-face meetings with Russia’s leaders.  Brzezinski called it a “sober and realistic summit, one which didn’t create undue expectations, but one which also marked some real progress…. There was, in a sense, an unstated agreement to disagree, and that’s [...]

More » | Comments [1]
 
India, China and the Climate

The passage of the House climate bill – discussed in our first hour today – has been greeted with enthusiasm in many quarters. But in some ways, the real question is whether a global framework can be established in Copenhagen in December, when countries will negotiate a new international treaty to curb greenhouse gases. After all, America emits only [...]

More » | Comments [1]