Al Waxman on stage - actor

One of the highest profile offerings at this year's Stratford Festival is Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman with Al Waxman in the lead role.

Although Al Waxman began on the stage (at the tender age of twelve), studied theatre acting and has directed more than a few plays in the course of his career, his primary focus for the past 30 years has been television and film.

Waxman has starred in many successful television series, beginning in 1975 with 111 episodes of King of Kensington for CBC-TV. He hosted Circus International, a series of two-hour specials which ran on CBC. Moving to PBS, he hosted 52 episodes of a show called Moments In Time. Waxman's most high-profile role came with Cagney and Lacey, 126 episodes over seven years, some of which he also directed. Two more U.S. series followed, namely Missing Treasures and Simply Wine and Cheese. What interested him about the wine show, more than wine, were the people who made wine. "They, like wine itself, were of a specific place but somehow transcended borders, and I think art is that," he says.

Winner of the 1997 Gemini Award for his work in Net Worth, Waxman recently completed a cameo role in the upcoming television mini-series Twitch City, which is directed by Bruce McDonald, written by Don McKellar and stars Daniel McIvor. On the directorial side, he has done several movies and plays in recent years, including a Toronto production of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers.

Waxman likes television work, calling it "a medium of now" - a concept which he says interested him more than theatre work.

So why is he getting back on the stage after a 30-year absence? Searching for new challenges, perhaps. He first discussed Death of a Salesman with the late John Hirsch, and says the timing is finally right for the role, the play and the place. "I'm very happy about how fortuitous it is that all these elements have come together," Waxman says, "and hopefully I can get up to the mark that they're at, that is, the level of the play and the theatre."

How does he feel about such a high-profile and venerable venue for his return to the stage? "I'm not without some trepidation," he replies, (but his tone is serene), "but it is also a little bit like a bicycle." The experience of working in a long-running TV series is similar to the ensemble cast in a stage play, and Waxman loves both the role and the play, calling the part of Willy Loman "the greatest role of the century" He reflects a little longer: "It's awesome," he allows. "I'm not without some butterflies in my belly, but I think that's also good. If I didn't have some kind of butterflies (for want of a better word), maybe I'd be numb."

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