The Ebbtide 42/2/The Crucible Will Dramatize Witch Trials, Intolerance

The Crucible Will Dramatize
Witch Trials, Intolerance

by Ivanhoe, Staff Writer

  Ear­lier this month, Shore­line Com­mun­ity Col­lege’s drama de­part­ment cast for the roles in Ar­thur Miller’s, The Cru­cible. The play is due for a six-day en­gage­ment in the campus the­ater in early Decem­ber. I had the op­por­tun­ity to at­tend a re­hear­sal and in­ter­view the actors about the play, and I was a little sur­prised at how quickly the con­ver­sa­tion turned to pol­it­ics.

  The play drama­tizes the true story of the in­fam­ous Salem witch trials of 1692. It is a com­plex story that begins with a seem­ingly in­no­cent scene of Puritan chil­dren dan­cing in the forest. Mis­con­strued as Devil-in­spired witch­craft, the town erupts into con­tro­versy, fur­ther com­pli­ca­ted by per­sonal af­fec­tions and greed. The drama un­folds as fear­ful ac­cusa­tions and con­fes­sions blur truths and set the stage for tra­gedy.

  Arthur Miller wrote The Cru­cible in the fifties as a meta­phor for the on­go­ing Red Scare, a time when many were wan­tonly ac­cused of as­so­ci­a­tion with or sym­pathy for com­mun­ism. Burt Weston, one of the actors in the Shore­line pro­duc­tion, noted, “It’s a warn­ing against in­toler­ance, a warn­ing against mob men­tal­it­ies.”

  The ori­ginal 1953 pro­duc­tion won Miller a Tony Award for “Best Play”—as well as a 1957 in­vit­a­tion to test­ify before <span data-html="true" class="plainlinks" title="Wikipedia: House Com­mit­tee on Un-Amer­ican Activ­it­ies">House Com­mit­tee on Un-Amer­ican Activ­it­ies.

  Chris Fisher, direc­tor of Shore­line’s pro­duc­tion, feels that the play is as rel­ev­ant to­day as it was then be­cause she sees par­al­lels in to­day’s socio-polit­ical clim­ate, ref­er­en­cing the de­ten­tion of those ac­cused of as­so­ci­at­ing with ter­ror­ists and the “ag­gres­sive in­ter­ro­ga­tion” meth­ods used on them.

  “It seems to me we are again ac­cus­ing and blam­ing people for things,” said Sophia Smith, who will play the role of Sarah Good. “Be­cause of the eth­ni­city of some­one, we tend to judge them.”

  Ms. Fisher is also quick to point out that the drama in The Cru­cible comes from its very human and per­sonal sto­ry, find­ing the “in­ter­sec­tion be­tween the per­sonal and pol­it­ical.” With ele­ments of love, loy­alty, and tra­gedy, she feels that there is plenty that will ap­peal even to the most apol­it­ical among us.

  In ad­di­tion to di­rect­ing The Cru­cible, Fisher is a pro­fes­sor of drama, film, and video on campus. She re­ceived her MFA from Rut­gers Uni­vers­ity and has worked on many pro­jects in the­ater, film, and tele­vi­sion. Melissa Leland is the stage man­ager, and the cast in­cludes Josh Truax as John Proc­tor, Brit­tany Fredette as Abi­gail Wil­liams, Cody Stitch as Judge Dan­forth, Lori Pugh as Eli­za­beth Proc­tor, Burt Weston as Mr. Tho­mas Put­nam, Susan Lovgren-Wade as Ann Put­nam, Eric For­sythe as Giles Corey, Nicko­las Falk as Rev. Parris, and Nick Hagen as Rev. Hale.

  Nick Hagen is no stran­ger to the sub­ject matter of The Cru­cible. Last year, he wrote a one-act satire on McCarthy­ism called Joe and Jesus that was per­formed on campus. In it, anti-com­mun­ist Sen. Joe McCar­thy in­ter­ro­gates Jesus Christ for sub­ver­sion and un-Amer­ican beha­vior.

  Asked whether The Cru­cible will ruffle any fea­thers, many of the ac­tors re­sponded, “I hope so,” with Nicko­las Falk adding, “That’s the point of the­ater.”