All My Sons

The University of North Dakota’s spring play was All My Sons by Arthur Miller and I went and saw it a couple of different times. Not only just for fun so that I could see the completed production but also for my job as the Assistant Prop Manager I get to go see it plenty of times to make sure that all the props are working and being used and put where they are needed. So after seeing it at least five times here is my review.

I with start with the staging of the play. I thought that all around it was staged really well. I honestly think it would have been better in a proscenium theatre, not in a thrust setting, most because a lot of the staging got awkward to watch and if you weren’t watching it from dead center you got a lot of the actors back, so I guess most of that was just maybe the directions should have been more evenly distributed, I guess would be a way to put it.

I thought the set really fit the time period; everything looked how you would imagine it for that time period. It was very simple and that worked really well for the play, I did find that one of the lines was something along with lines of ‘all the roses are gone,’ there were still roses on the bush the character was referring to, so they should have thought that one through a little bit. All around the set was well done.

The lighting was simple as well, there was a nice lightning storm at the beginning but that was about it as far as complications goes. Everything else was very simple and worked really nice. The sound was nice as well. It had simplicity but it was also very realistic, it had birds chirping and crickets which I thought were a nice touch.

The acting is where it gets a little difficult for me to call it a good production. Now I can look at this play and say honestly, that for the most part it was extremely well acted. They had guest artist Darin Kerr come in and play the character of Joe Keller. I thought he did a really fantastic job. Along with Emily Hogenson and Nick McConnell doing great jobs as Anne and Chris. However as far as the main characters go, I don’t understand the casting behind Kate. Now doubt Chelsea Pollert may be a good actress, I just didn’t find her right for the part. I felt she played Kate very one sided and she always looked like she didn’t know what she was doing on stage, like she was lost. Which I guess could be a strong character choice if she would have played it right, but she just didn’t play it right to make that choice. I just over all wasn’t impressed with her.

I did however think that all the other actors did a great job with each of their parts and congratulate them the entire cast and crew on a job well done. Especially those props, they were fantasticJ