WHAT MILLER IS GETTING
AT IS THAT THERE IS
HUMANITY IN ALL OF US,
AND IF WE CAN FIND THAT
HUMANITY, THEN THE
WORLD HAS A CHANCE.
only the characters in the play but also for us as an
audience. Watching this, I think we are able to project
ourselves back to that time and think about what we
would have done in that situation, but also, what would
we do if we’re sitting on the subway car and someone starts attacking someone? What is our personal
responsibility at that moment to help someone that is
in need? Is it our responsibility to step in and do what
is right, or what we think would be right? In the play,
Miller poses big ethical questions that are being posed
to the United States right now. At what point does personal responsibility add up to collective responsibility
and then a national response to what we would view
as an international crisis? Incident at Vichy prompts
contemplation on all of these issues.
In some ways, I think Miller was enacting what was
inflicted upon his own artistic community when the
[House Un-American Activities Committee] did their
own round-up and Miller’s dear friend and collaborator
Elia Kazan named names, which created such a schism.
A few years later Miller would apply for a passport
renewal and be called before the same committee
and then [held in contempt of Congress] for refusing
to name names. It was an atrocious time in American
history. Miller wrote Incident at Vichy just a few years
after those events and it’s something that I think he
would battle all his life. I think Miller often put himself
forward as someone who was trying to protect the
human voice of truth. In Incident at Vichy, what Miller is
getting at is that there is humanity in all of us, and if we
can find that humanity, then the world has a chance.
S: This will be your third time directing at Signature –
what are you looking forward to in your return to
the Center?
Arthur Miller.
15
MW: I’d say fifth time – I count The Orphans’ Home Cycle
as three productions, since it was nine hours long!
I love working at Signature. I’ve admired this company
for all twenty-five years that it’s been in existence. It’s
an amazing thing that Jim Houghton has done, creating this company and doing it around the idea that
a theatre can take an audience on a journey through
the singular voice of a great writer. But I also just love
the gathering, the community, how the building was
designed and how it functions – along with Incident
at Vichy, Bill Rauch will be here directing Naomi
Wallace’s play. It’s a thriving, lively place in which an
artist can come to work every day. And yes, you’re focused on your own piece, but then conversations you
might have with other directors and other actors begin
to open up a thought or an idea that may illuminate a
new path in the play where you may have perhaps hit
a wall. I feel really supported and of great value here.
Jim has gone out of his way to make a home for me –
it’s the first piece I’m doing here that’s not by Horton
Foote, so I’ll probably miss Horton from time to time,
but Horton loved Miller and so I’m really fortunate to
be doing this project. It’s great to be here. n
REMEMBERING
Incident at Vichy will mark the first Arthur Miller
play to be produced at Signature since his 1997-98
Season. In the weeks leading up to the Centennial
of Miller’s birth, Founding Artistic Director
James Houghton shared some of his memories
from that season, and the legacy Miller left behind.
MILLER
Signature: How did the Arthur Miller season begin at Signature?
James Houghton: We were building a theatre at the time,
what would end up being our home for the next 15 years – the
Peter Norton Space. We basically had to make a theatre in six
to eight weeks in order to be ready in time for the first show of the
Arthur Miller season, The American Clock. As we went into
the groundbreaking, Arthur, the architect Mitchell Kurtz, and I did a
press conference in the raw space, which was literally two months
before we started performances...and Arthur was just completely
game. We were in tech rehearsal and there was this incredible set
that E. David Cosier had designed for us, but if you had flipped the
camera around to the actors’ perspective…there was no auditorium. We were that tight up against it. But it ended up being this
wonderful way to open the Arthur Miller season. We got to the
finish line and it was really exciting.
S: Why did Incident at Vichy feel like the right play to do as the
first of Arthur’s to be produced at the Center?
JH: I had a remarkable time with Arthur when we put our
season together – and one of the plays we initially talked about
was Incident a