Who has the right to vie for the American Dream?
If a certain segment of society had its way, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka “Bad Bunny,” would not have been able to realize his dream of performing in Spanish during the coveted Super Bowl halftime show, despite his home of Puerto Rico being a United States territory.
In a 1947 Arthur Miller play that is being revived and re-examined at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the American Dream’s accessibility to Latinos is getting a new look.
“All My Sons,” running through March 29, follows Joe Keller, a businessman who knowingly shipped defective aircraft engine parts from his factory during World War II, yet the conviction shifted to his business partner. As the play weaves through time, the focuses on the actions done for the benefit of Joe’s family, and his wife Kate’s moral compass, creating brutal conflicts.
Where Berkeley Rep’s production takes on a new look is from director David Mendízabal, who envisioned the Kellers as a Puerto Rican family in Ohio, and sold the idea to television and movie stars Wanda De Jesús and Jimmy Smits.
“This was David’s North Star in terms of his vision of the American dream, and he wanted to make it particularly a Puerto Rican family because of our citizenship to America,” said De Jesús who, like Smits, has Puerto Rican roots and grew up in New York. “Who the American Dream is for really resonated with him and he wanted to use that, along with the story being in a very diverse neighborhood in Ohio. In not changing one word of Arthur Miller, we are bringing our experiences to the story.”
Such a gilded casting makes for a special theater event in the East Bay. Smits is well-known for his varied career and high-profile roles on “NYPD Blue,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing,” and even a musical theater turn in 2021’s film “In the Heights.” De Jesús’ career as a character actor encompasses a wide array of TV and stage roles since the mid-’80s.
Both Smits and De Jesús, who are real-life partners, have spent time in Berkeley, having appeared in the Rep’s production of Anne Nelson’s “The Guys” in 2003. While both the big and small screen have been the bread and butter of their acting existence, having the chance to do an American classic on a major regional stage is beyond scrumptious.
“The great thing is you get to take the audience on a ride for two hours and you get to have that communal experience of feeling an audience’s energy,” Smits said. “We always go back to the basics of what the playwright or screenwriter is saying, and what the characters are saying about each other. All those things don’t change because it’s a stage, but it’s just gear shifting in terms of awareness of your body and space.
“As much as Wanda and I work in television, we relish going back to New York for readings of plays with playwrights and friends we know, because it’s like an instrument that you have to keep in tune.”
Smits’ turn as the conflicted Joe means finding a truthful interpretation of one who is harboring a brutal secret. Smits finds a great challenge in taking on those conflicts, and has learned that the years of life he has lived informs many organic choices.
“With time, age and experiences, it deepens your portrayal in a certain way,” Smits said. “As an actor, you have to take what’s given in the play and then maybe use your own expression or history of what a certain emotion can be. Being a little older, you have more of a threshold to draw from.”
At present, the sharpening that is required to dive into the truth of Miller’s work for both actors is all-encompassing. Miller’s most iconic works, such as “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible,” which premiered after “All My Sons,” take up plenty of oxygen in the American theater. But what presents a divine challenge to De Jesús is diving into a quintessential heroic Miller female character in the same vein of Linda Loman or Elizabeth Proctor.
Kate is mourning the potential loss of her son as the remnants of post-World War II surround her and her family. With Mendízabal’s casting, it provides an opportunity for De Jesús to see herself in a role not traditionally portrayed by a woman of color.
“My imagination is larger than my culture, and artists believe that to their very core,” De Jesús said. “What we believe in is exploring our humanity without being limited to what we look like or where we come from. That’s part of the exploration of art, but that’s not who we are as artists. To be able to have a Latino director and a Latin cast do a classic without imposing anything on it other than the humanity of the piece itself is something I’m very proud of.”
David John Chávez is a former chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2022-23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘ALL MY SONS’
By Arthur Miller, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Through: March 29
Where: Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley
Tickets: $25-$135; berkeleyrep.org
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