Staged Reading - The Crucible

By Arthur Miller

A Staged Reading

Directed by  Colin Johnson

Tuesday - November 15, 2011 at  8 p.m.

 

ONE NIGHT ONLY - Pay What You Can - suggested donation $5 - $8

Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play, a tour-de-force by one of America's most acclaimed playwrights, this modern classic is an allegory of McCarthyism, and a meditation on faith, courage, love, and the strength of one's convictions. Full of great roles and sparkling dialogue, the themes explored by this work are timeless, never more so than the present day. Directed by Colin Johnson, slated to direct our main stage production of NOISES OFF in the summer of 2012.

CAST

PARRIS - Jeff Trescott

REBECCA NURSE / CHORUS – Victoria Siegel

TITUBA / CHORUS - Holly Nunez

SUSANNAH WALCOTT / CHORUS – Mary Guiver

ABIGAIL - Theresa Christine

ANN PUTNAM / MARTHA COREY / CHORUS - Paige Lubawy

BETTY PARRIS / SARAH GOOD / CHORUS - Emmy Pierce

MERCY LEWIS / CHORUS – Lynsday Weber

MARY WARREN - Sheila O'Toole

JOHN PROCTOR - Ben Grubb

GILES COREY - Joe Christiano

REV. HALE - Brian Quakenbush

ELIZABETH PROCTOR - Maura Halloran

CHEEVER - Josh Han

HERRICK - Lucas Buckman

HATHORNE - Mark Katz

DANFORTH - Stanley Spenger

THOMAS PUTNAM / HOPKINS – Jess Thomas

FRANCIS NURSE - Jerome Solberg

 

"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing: "Political opposition...is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it meets with diabolical malevolence."

Colin Johnson (Director) Colin was born, raised and educated in Washington State, which he ditched for The Bay Area right after graduation. Since his migration in 2008, he's involved himself in guerilla, independent theatre (Round Belly Theatre Company and BattleStache Studios), freelance filmmaking and producing/writing comic books for Image Comics.  He also works at Pegasus Books in Berkeley.  For lack of a better term, he likes art.  He will be directing Actors Ensembles’ 2012 main stage production of Noises Off in the summer of 2012.

Pay What You Can - Suggested donation $5 - $8  ONE NIGHT ONLY. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Seats are first-come / first-served.

Tuesday - November 15, 2011, 8 p.m.