In June, actor, director, playwright, and Artistic Director (and my husband) Jovanni Sy and I travelled to Beijing to research our first major collaboration, Salesman in China, accompanied by our dramaturg, Kathleen Flaherty of PTC. It was a phenomenally productive trip: we saw a dress rehearsal for perhaps the most famous Chinese play of the 20th century as well as a sold-out production of possibly the most popular Chinese play of the 21st century.. We talked to emerging and established stars of a vibrant and impassioned theatre community. We haunted the museum of a large classical theatre and picked up many pounds of books. And despite a packed schedule, we eked out a little time to marvel at the Forbidden City... and eat street food fit for kings.

We were also able to interview two of the surviving cast members from Arthur Miller's seminal 1983 Beijing People's Art Theatre production of Death of a Salesman, both of whom were humble, dedicated, generous men who described that show as one of the greatest experiences of their lives.

This trip was crucial to our research for Salesman in China, and excited us immensely about the path we are on with this project. And while we have already benefitted from the support of the City of Richmond, PTC Associates, and the Canada Council for the Arts, we could not have accomplished 1/10th of what we did in a mere 6 days without the extraordinary help of Claire Conceison, who managed (thanks to her status in China as a pre-eminent scholar of modern Chinese theatre... and thanks to her mastery of WeChat) to introduce us to some of the most interesting artists in China without leaving her home in Boston!