New life for Mockingbird and Black Hawk theater with “Death of a Salesman”
Since its abrupt closure in downtown Davenport, Mockingbird on Main has taken as its motto one of the famous lines from its source material, “It’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.”
The theater company (founded in 2021 by Tristan Tapscott and Savannah Bay Strandin) has found new life at Black Hawk College, Moline, with “Death of a Salesman,” a new production of the Arthur Miller classic, running at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20-22 and Aug. 27-29, at the theater (6600 34th Ave., Moline, Building 1, Room 308).
This new collaboration brings together Black Hawk College’s commitment to student opportunity and learning with The Mockingbird’s mission to create bold, meaningful storytelling rooted in both classic and contemporary works. The partnership will offer students, emerging artists and community members hands-on theatrical experiences both onstage and behind the scenes, while expanding access to live theatre in the Quad Cities region.
James Driscoll and Emmalee Hilburn play Willy and Linda Loman in the new Mockingbird production at Black Hawk College Aug. 20-29.
BHC and The Mockingbird previously collaborated on “The Glass Menagerie” in July 2023 after the building The Mockingbird On Main was housed in collapsed in downtown Davenport, May 28, 2023.
“Death of a Salesman” premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy—the subtitle of the play is “Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem”—set in late 1940s Brooklyn and told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a traveling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility, according to a synopsis.
The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Since its premiere, the play has been revived on Broadway five times, winning a to-this-day unprecedented four Tony Awards for Best Revival – including this year’s version that starred Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf.
From left, Jim Driscoll, Morgan Wehling,,Madalyn Shierloh, and Marley Haley.
The new Mockingbird production – directed and designed by Tapscott – stars James Driscoll as Willy Loman, Emmalee Hilburn as his wife Linda, and new Quad City Arts executive director Ben Gougeon as one of their two sons, Biff.
“It was one of those scripts I had to read in college,” Hilburn said Monday of being a theater major (2006) at Central College, Pella, Iowa. “It has always been a show on my bucket list that I always wanted to be a part of.”
Hilburn performed in three of Mockingbird’s shows in Davenport – “Your Better Self,” “Their Town” and “Anywhere But Here.”
Since Driscoll is a veteran of “Salesman,” she was a bit intimidated to be cast opposite him.
“He is very familiar with the show and with the character. So there was definitely that initial nervous energy at first, but he gives you a lot to play off of and a lot to react to,” Hilburn said. “It’s been a good working experience so far. It’s been a positive one.”
Third time in “Salesman”
This is Driscoll’s third time performing in “Salesman”; his second as Willy, after Richmond Hill Players in 2013, and he was Biff in Playcrafters in 2001 (when John VanDeWoestyne was Willy).
“I had to read the play in high school, which was way, way back,” said Driscoll, now 62. “I always loved it. I treated it more like literature because they made us read it in English class. I saw the movies, and then when it came up at Playcrafters, I was just my first year of theater. I remember that from high school. I have to audition for that.”
He said it’s considered such a classic because its themes are timeless.
Emmalee Hilburn as Linda Loman at Black Hawk College.
“I mean, there’s love and family and ambition. And caring. Those things just never change over the centuries,” Driscoll said. “That’s why Shakespeare is still great. His themes are timeless. I think ‘Death of a Salesman’ will last forever.”
Of the Playcrafters version 25 years ago, he recalled that VanDeWoestyne (who died in spring 2020) had already memorized the mammoth role of Willy by the first read-through. “He knew every word of his part off book at the read-through,” Driscoll said. “I said, well, this is how it’s done, I guess. So ever since then I’ve tried to memorize the parts before the read-through so I could be like John Vandy.”
Performing in the round at RHP is very different than a traditional stage, he said.
“I think it’s easier because no matter which way you’re facing, there’s always audience members. So you don’t have to worry so much about the blocking and your facing and whether they can hear you,” Driscoll said. “You’re always talking to someone. Of course, you got to make sure you project so that your voice bounces off and people behind you can hear.”
Jim Driscoll plays the beaten-down title role in the Arthur Miller classic for the second time, after a 2013 Richmond Hill production.
When he played Willy last time, he was 49, and now he’s exactly the right age for the part as written.
“He can’t retire financially. I guess that Social Security did exist back then, but I don’t know that it was sufficient to support a husband and wife for someone who had no pension like Willy did,” Driscoll said. “When he stopped working, there were no more paychecks. There was no monthly pension check. He wasn’t in a union. He was just a salesman. So, I like to think he probably would have worked until he dropped.”
“The current scenes where Willy’s 62 years old, I feel those now. I feel the aches in my bones and I’m tired by the end of the rehearsal, just like Willy is at the end of the show,” he added. “But the flashback scenes when he’s much younger, in his 30s, late 30s, 40s. Those are harder for me now because you have to have more exuberance and energy. You got to throw the shoulders back and put the chest out. Thirteen years ago, that was easier for me, and being old and slumping down was harder. So it’s just a reversal.”
Lead in “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Driscoll played another iconic role for Mockingbird, in 2024, when Tapscott and his wife Savannah, co-directed him as Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” (immortalized on screen by Gregory Peck). That was done at Moline’s Black Box Theatre.
“It was a lot like this one, actually, with a kind of a compressed rehearsal schedule,” Driscoll said, noting “Salesman” has rehearsed about a month. “We didn’t get on stage there until a week before because they had another show. So Savannah ended up building that entire set in one night and painting it. And then, we rehearsed Saturday, they built it Sunday, And then Monday we came in and it was all done. Just like this a week ago. There was nothing here a week ago. And then we came in one day and all of a sudden, boom, we got a set.”
Willy Loman is the only part he’s ever played more than once.
Ben Gougeon is Biff in the new production at Black Hawk, Moline.
“Because it’s such an iconic play and such an iconic part for a male actor in American theater,” Driscoll said. “So when Tristan announced— I saw the announcement that they were doing ‘Death of a Salesman,’ I said, gotta try again.” After most shows, he always thinks of ways he could havde performed better.
“But there aren’t that many roles that I would want to try and do again, because either the play is just not available, or the level of ‘Death of a Salesman’,” he said. “And there are so many other great plays out there. And I have only so many years left before I probably won’t be able to memorize parts. And so I would rather try new experiences, usually. I only do 1 or 2 shows a year.”
Driscoll recently did a two-person Black Box show, “Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk,” with his RHP “Salesman” co-star Jackie Skiles in the title role. She was on stage the whole time, and he played multiple characters, shortly before starting “Salesman” rehearsals.
“That was our 6th show together. So I was so used to being on stage with Jackie, and having her as Linda in 2013,” he said. “So there was no problem with me and Jackie on Grandma Gatewood. We both came into the read-through off-book. So from there it was just blocking and characterization. She’s a pro.”
An invaluable opportunity
Hilburn said because this show is so well-known and dramatic, it’s an invaluable opportunity for an actor.
“I was over the moon excited when I was given the part. I think I was jumping up and down, like, excited because it was an iconic role,” she said. “I’ve told Tristan, it’s a gift that— to have this part, and I want to do it justice.”
“I really use the script as a tool and really be open-minded to any suggestions that anyone gives, especially James has been really instrumental with that too, with giving suggestions,” Hilburn added.
Emmalee Hilburn, Jim Driscoll and Ben Gougeon in “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Tristan Tapscott.
Tapscott said: “I think she’s one of the finest actresses in the Quad Cities. And paired with Jim. I’ve been saying that for years. I called you an icon.”
Hilburn also said it’s satisfying to do drama, after making her mark over the years in comedic roles.
“This part has been the biggest challenge for me as a performer because I’m so used to doing a lot of comedy,” she said. “I don’t do a lot of dramatic things. This is probably the most challenging role I’ve had because when I’m rehearsing for any other part, I can tell if I’m moving in the right direction or not because people are laughing. Whereas when rehearsal’s here, I’m like, well, everyone looks miserable. So that’s been probably the biggest challenge. I think the challenge is that I’ve never had the opportunity to do a lot of dramatic roles that are so emotionally charged.”
“That’s one of the reasons why I auditioned for this part and for this show is because I wanted something I could sink my teeth into,” Hilburn added. “I over-analyze things way too much, but it’s one of my favorite parts of developing a character is taking tearing apart the script to develop it. So I love this part in that regard because I dive into those lines and I dive into that dialogue and really let that guide me.”
“Death of a Salesman” features (L-R) Jim Driscoll, Ben Gougeon, Jack Carslake, and Emmalee Hilburn.
The only other actor from the 2013 RHP version is Dana Moss-Peterson, who then was Biff, here is Uncle Ben, Willy’s older brother, a ghost seen in flashbacks.
BHC theater professor Traci Davis, who is executive producer for the show, is optimistic about the relationship between the company and college.
“We have the same vision about how this works, and we tend to be good at setting each other off,” she said Monday. “We were talking about getting together when this is done and just kind of sitting and sort of like saying, how do we want to go forward? It’s very exciting.”
The timing of the partnership could not be more perfect for Davis, a BHC alum and psychology professor who’s bringing theater back to the community college.
She will teach a new course this fall, Introduction to Theatre Arts at Black Hawk. Davis has taught psychology and sociology at BHC since 2003, and the theater program was disbanded around 2013.
A clear vision
Tapscott (a BHC alum) is also set designer and light designer for the show, since he had a clear vision of how it should look. The stags backdrop is filled with old, broken-down windows he found in Andover, Ill., after seeing them on Facebook Marketplace.
“I went out to Andover, and an older couple there had a bunch in a barn, and I said I need 40+ windows, so they gave me 44,” he said. “They were fans of the show, but they’re really excited that we’re using it. They’ve just been sitting in a barn and they’re old barn and old farmhouse windows dating back to the 1920s.”
“There’s a line in the show that talks about how they’ve been caved in by windows and bricks and bricks and windows. And so I took that imagery,” Tapscott said, noting the stage just features a table and four chairs.
‘The audience itself is kind of voyeuristically looking in on this family, into these private conversations that they’re having,” he said. “And so I thought that was a cool imagery, but also like, how do you do ‘Death of a Salesman’ on a stage this size? Because you have to get creative. And I was like, I couldn’t get this idea out of my head. I don’t even know if it would totally work, but it— there’s some things in the show that happen with flashbacks. Characters appear in the windows here and there before we’re going back in time and stuff like that.”
Jim Driscoll as Willy in “Death of a Salesman,” to be performed at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20-22, and Aug. 27-29, at Black Hawk College, Moline.
“I wanted to do something a little bit interesting with it because people have seen ‘Death of a Salesman’ in different ways, and why not put our mark on it?” Tapscott noted.
He performed with Driscoll in the Aaron Sorkin play “A Few Good Men” (Tapscott in the Tom Cruise role and he in the Jack Nicholson colonel role) at the former District Theatre in 2015.
“I love working with him” Tapscott said. “If there’s a project and he can be in it, then, you know, obviously he’s a great choice all the time. And I’ve worked with him so often that I just know how he works, and I know that he’s going to deliver above and beyond a lot of other people. And he’s so great to work with. He’s so prepared.”
He’s also enjoyed working with Hilburn, since the old Mockingbird.
“You never know how auditions are going to turn out. And when she walked through, her read was so good. But I think her comic background really does play into it because she lets Linda be light when she needs to be, but she’s also just devastating, what she does,” Tapscott said. “I think that’s why she’s so devastating, is because she has a lightheartedness to her until she doesn’t. And it’s a really cool dichotomy that we’re playing with. And she’s incredible. The two of them together, and then you add in Ben Gougeon and Jack Carslake, you know what I mean? Half of it is casting.”
Tapscott, who will direct “Million Dollar Quartet” at Circa ’21 in January, plans a great future with BHC.
“I think this is going to be an artistic success. Now, whether it’s a financial success, you never know,” he said. “But artistically, it’s really going to be something special. And I do hope people come out and check it out. Man, just visually, it’s such an interesting piece, and the actors are phenomenal. So I’m excited. I’m excited to be back on this side of things and like creating again, because I missed that.”
“This is a great opportunity for everyone to succeed, which is awesome. It’s good for Black Hawk. It’s good for us,” he said. “It’s a great passion. I think it could really have legs and do something.”
Admission to “Death of a Salesman” is by the flexible price structure of “Pay What It’s Worth,” to ensure affordability, especially for BHC students.
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