Avery Brooks, Petronia Paley to Star in Oberlin’s Death of a Salesman

Avery Brooks will play Willy Loman in a new interpretation of Arthur Miller’s modern classic, Death of a Salesman, to be presented at Oberlin College’s Hall Auditorium in Oberlin, Ohio, September 18- 21. Justin Emeka will direct the production, which features a mixed-race cast.

Set in 1950s Brooklyn, the production will feature a Loman family tgat are African-American; the woman with whom Willy has an affair is white; and the characters of Charlie and Bernard are depicted as Jewish immigrants who fled Eastern Europe during the rise of the Third Reich.

The cast will also include Petronia Paley as Linda Loman, Mark Jablon as Charlie, Emeka as Biff, and Raphael Sacks as Howard. Jazz musician Ralph Jones will perform incidental music on stage during the play.

Brooks starred on Broadway in Paul Robeson, and has starred in regional productions of King Lear, Othello, and Tamburlaine. The actor is also known for his television roles as Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spin-off A Man Called Hawk.

For more information, visit www.oberlin.edu/salesman.