Last Wednesday, April 9th, our class went to see “Death of A Salesman” at Arena’s temporary location in Chrystal City. It was great getting to see the new stage they are working on, although the flat nature of the set design did not lend itself to well to the production in my opinion. The only aspect of the production that truly held my interest the entire time was the characters of Linda and Willy, mainly because of the extremely talented actors portraying the roles. The role of Willy is a very complex and challenging role and the actor did truly impressive work. The other principle characters, primarily Biff and Happy, did not do it for me. They seemed a littled flat at times, but perhaps I was just comparing them to the level Willy and Linda were at.

A few of us in this class got the chance to meet the woman who played Linda Loman, Nancy Robinette. Gregg invited our class to a dinner and conversation at his home in Alexandria. Let me start off by saying, wow- what a beautiful home Greggie! This was a wonderful evening and it was really great to get the chance to hear this very successful actor’s story. She talked a lot about how she did not jump right into her acting career after she graduated college in Kansas. Instead she got married and started having children. After she was more settled in, she then began acting after her day job, but realized she should focus on raising her child. It was really interesting to hear her struggles with finding the time to pursue her passion in acting, and hearing her explain her realization that she had perhaps done a few life events in the wrong order…but she just went with it and still managed to become highly successful. She talked about how she spent a short period of time living in NYC and I felt the same way about many of the city’s characteristics she gathered from living there. Just from being there 10 days last month I had my senses about the way of life there. She touched on the difference in the sense of community there than in other places and it was good to hear from someone who was a part of the theatre community in both D.C. and New York. I liked how she spoke of how different job opportunities are her women now and to think that her mother may not have had the same chances she did. She grew up during such a time of waves of change and violence.

Nancy inspired me to take more advantage of my youth and to know what I want in terms of the plans for my life. I am not going to let time and lack of thinking get the best of me. She touched on how she would do things a little differently if she could, so I know that I need to make things happen for myself, and I believe that I can. It was so wonderful to meet Nancy and to have a really great dinner at Gregg’s house. I thank them both for this remarkable opportunity