Arts Center presents Miller's 'All My Sons'

Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" will play at the John Waldron Arts Center as part of its 10th Anniversary Performance Series. The play opens today and runs three weekends with shows at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and two Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Directed by Bloomington Playwrights Project Artistic Director Richard Perez, the show, which is set in the relative peace of post World War II small town America, will be held in the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium.\nAmerica's war on fascism changed everyone. And adjustment to life without war can't happen -- at least not for the characters -- until they come to terms with the events following Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and President Truman's decision to deploy the atomic bomb. \nA self-made man, Joe Keller (Mark G. McIntyre) is no stranger to hard work. A statement from Detour Productions, the show's producer, calls Keller the "entrepreneurial head of the Keller family." Two of Keller's sons went off to war. One didn't make it home. Joe's other son, Chris (Brent Burcroff), wants more than being a laborer at his dad's factory. The plot seems to follow the traditional "boy meets girl" bit -- Chris thinks happiness is found with Anne (Stephanie Harrison), the girl he's known his whole life. But Anne isn't his girl. She is his brother's, who is MIA, not KIA.\nEd Kaufman made comparisons to one of Miller's other shows in the Hollywood Reporter. \n"Written in 1947, two years before the monumental 'Death of a Salesman,' 'All My Sons' covers a lot of the same ground as 'Salesman': the central role of the family, especially the father-son relationship; a 'secret' that is festering; the passive (yet all-knowing) wife; a lawyer -- all set within a threatening environment," Kaufman said.\nCentered in the realm of a new life is Joe Keller, who has to deal with a conflict between his responsibilities to his family, but also to a broader responsibility to society as a whole. \nPlaywright Miller allows similarities to exist between Joe Keller and the legendary Willie Loman of "Death of a Salesman." Like Loman, Keller is a representation of the ordinary man who experiences a troubled existence. \n"The way I see life is that there are no public issues: they are all private issues. We have gotten divided. We are political men or private men. I can't see the separation," Miller said in a statement.\nShow dates are this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23, 24, 25, 31, and Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. Sunday matinees are this Sunday and Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. For ticket information, call the JWAC at 334-3100 ext. 102 (122 S. Walnut Street) or the Sunrise Box Office at 339-7641 (112 E. Kirkwood Ave). Tickets are $12, and $10 for students and seniors.