Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series

Death of a Salesman

A Conversation with Wendell Pierce, André De Shields and Miranda Cromwell

Oct 03, 2022

From the right, Willy Loman, the Salesman, enters, carrying two large sample cases … Even as he crosses the stage to the doorway of the house, his exhaustion is apparent.

In a co-presentation with NYPL’s Schomburg Center, the stars of the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman—Wendell Pierce (Willy Loman) and André De Shields (Ben Loman)—discuss the play’s legacy and their new production alongside its director Miranda Cromwell, moderated by Salamishah Tillet.

“So many of the elements of the play are fundamentally questioning of the American dream, and when you put that through the perspective of the Black experience, that enriches it,” said Cromwell. “The obstacles are harder, the stakes become higher.”

Categories:
Tags:

© 2026 The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association

All Rights Reserved.

All material accessed via the 92NY website (“content”) is protected by copyright under U.S. Copyright laws and is the property of The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association or the party credited as the provider of the content. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any such content, nor may you distribute any part of this content over any network, including a local area network, sell or offer it for sale, or use such content to construct any kind of database. You may not alter or remove any copyright or other notice from copies of the content accessed via 92NY’s website. Copying or storing any content except as provided above is expressly prohibited without prior written permission of 92NY or the copyright holder identified in the individual content’s copyright notice.

If you are a rights holder and have found your material on our website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), please contact us so that we may obtain and document accurate rights-related information. Upon email request to archive@92ny.org, we will temporarily remove material from public view while we address any rights issue and will honor takedown requests from authors who do not wish to have their work published.