Auckland Theatre Company Education Unit Teacher’s Pack
THE CRUCIBLE by ARTHUR MILLER
MAIDMENT Theatre July 5th – 28th 2007
Director Colin McColl
Assistant Director Margaret-Mary Hollins
Set and Costume Design Tracy Grant Lord
Lighting Design David Eversfield
Sound Design and Musical Director John Gibson
Production Manager Mark Gosling
Technical Manager Bonnie Burrill
Stage Manager Vicki Slow
Assistant Stage Manager Petra Verweij
Set Construction 2CONSTRUCT
Costume Construction The Costume Studio
Properties Master Bec Ehlers
Operator Rhed Clift
Wardrobe Supervisor Erin O’Neill
Teacher’s Pack compiled and edited by Lynne Cardy, ATC Education Unit Coordinator
Additional material written and researched by Jordana Palalagi, ATC Intern
Special thanks to Hilari Anderson for Curriculum Links and to
SPECIAL PROJECTS FUNDER
All production photographs: John McDermott
The Crucible is 2 hours 45 minutes long including an interval of 15 minutes
CONTENTS
THE PLAY........................................................................................................................3
THE PLAYWRIGHT............................................................................................................4
SYNOPSIS.......................................................................................................................5
THEMES..........................................................................................................................6
LANGUAGE .....................................................................................................................7
DESIGN...........................................................................................................................8
SET ............................................................................................................................8
COSTUME..................................................................................................................10
SOUND and MUSIC......................................................................................................12
THE CAST .....................................................................................................................13
TITUBA - an interview with Rima Te Wiata .............................................................................13
THE GIRLS – rehearsing the ensemble .............................................................................15
PRODUCTION HISTORY ..................................................................................................16
CAST LIST.....................................................................................................................17
CURRICULUM LINKS.......................................................................................................18
RESOURCES .................................................................................................................18
HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE
This resource is intended as a comprehensive guide to the Auckland Theatre Company 2007 production
of The Crucible by Arthur Miller and has been designed to give teachers and their students an insight into
aspects of the production including;
• The play
• The playwright
• Director’s concept
• Design processes
• Actor’s approaches to their characters
• Rehearsal techniques
• Production images
• Further reading
• SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
For all press reviews and more information about the Auckland Theatre
Company season of The Crucible go to: www.atc.co.nz
2
THE PLAY
WHAT IS IT THE CRUCIBLE ABOUT?
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts and is inspired by real events that took place
there in 1692 when the small Puritan community was devastated by a mass hysteria brought on by young
women ‘crying out’ the names of hundreds of respected citizens as witches. Nineteen people (men,
women and children) were eventually hanged for crimes they did not commit following a series of
relentless witchcraft trials.
WHY DID ARTHUR MILLER WRITE IT?
Miller wrote the play in 1953 as an allegory for the times – the Salem trials represent the hearings carried
out by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s oddly named House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
where people were pressured to denounce their colleagues as communist sympathisers.
The execution in 1953 of American communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg added fuel to the fire of
McCarthy’s witch hunt and many artists, writers, actors, filmmakers and academics (including Arthur
Miller) were pressured to name names or confess to crimes they did not commit simply for expressing
different political views. The paranoia of the American government towards communist Russia and the
‘red’ infiltration of American society mirror the hysteria in seventeenth century Salem towards witches but
the play’s themes continue to resonate today.
THE DIRECTOR’S VISION
In this production references to Salem have been restricted – the community becomes less specific referring to Puritans as well as other closed religious communities existing in the United States and other
parts of the world in current society. This is to communicate the universality of The Crucible’s themes,
and the timeless notions of how fear-driven intolerance and misunderstanding can divide a community.
Director Colin McColl creates an ambiguous society, set in a non-specific time – not limited to, but
echoing of Miller’s Salem in 1692.
“Great plays endure the ins and outs of theatrical fashion because they speak universal
truths. The Crucible embraces huge themes; the power of consciousness, the nature of
forgiveness and the struggle between personal responsibility and public good – all
wrapped up in a compelling and exciting story.” (Colin McColl)
WHAT IS A ‘CRUCIBLE’?
Originally a medical term for a night lamp ‘crucible’ has two meanings:
1. A container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high
temperatures.
2. A situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact to produce something new.
“We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment” (Danforth Act 3)
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Miller originally called the play Those Familiar Spirits before changing it to The Crucible. Discuss how
each title refers to the events in the play. Which do you prefer and why?
3
THE PLAYWRIGHT
ARTHUR MILLER
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) is regarded as one of the great American playwrights of the twentieth century.
A writer of contemporary tragedies with a strong social conscience he once said he thought that theatre
could ‘change the world’. He wrote over thirty plays and won (amongst other awards) the Pulitzer Prize,
two New York Critic’s Circle Awards, numerous Tony Awards and honorary degrees from Oxford and
Harvard Universities. Influenced by Greek tragedy, Miller wrote about real people struggling with their
responsibilities and with the consequences of their past actions. With a sense of realism and a strong ear
for the American vernacular, Miller created characters with distinctive voices and although he wrote about
ordinary people he had a poet’s ear for language and often invented unique rhythms of speech for his
characters that lifted them from the mundane. He wrote about universal themes; betrayal, duty, freedom,
conflicts with authority and the American Dream.
"In all my plays and books I try to take settings and dramatic situations from life which
involve real questions of right and wrong." (Arthur Miller)
HIS LIFE
Arthur Miller was born in New York in 1915 to a well to do manufacturing family of Austrian Jewish origin
who were ruined by the stock market crash of 1929, so from his teens Miller grew up in
comparative poverty and this sudden loss of prosperity and first hand experience of
the Great Depression of the 1930’s shaped his social conscience and his writing
throughout his life.
He worked as an errand boy in the mornings before school and when he left high
school he could not afford to go to college. He worked for two years in a car parts
warehouse before he earned enough money to enrol himself at the University of
Michigan, where he supported himself by doing a variety of odd jobs; he was a waiter,
a factory hand, and a delivery driver. Although he initially studied economics and history he took a course
in playwriting and very quickly won major prizes at college.
After graduating in 1938 he wrote radio dramas and joined the Federal Theatre Project 1 His first
Broadway play The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944) ran for only one week. His next play All My Sons
was very successful and he followed that with Death of a Salesman (1949) which won the Pulitzer Prize
and established Miller’s reputation as a major dramatist. The Crucible (1953) was Miller’s response to the
anti-communist witch hunt of the 1950’s. Miller was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee
in 1956 but refused to name names and was convicted of contempt of Congress for not cooperating.
Miller was married three times, most notably to 50’s screen siren Marilyn Monroe (they were referred to
as ‘the egghead and the bombshell’ by the popular press) and although their marriage lasted less than
three years Miller based two of his plays on Monroe; After the Fall (1964) and his last play Finishing the
Picture (2004).
The playwright remained politically active throughout his life and in 1983 produced Death of a Salesman
at the People’s Art Theatre in Beijing. He died in New York on February 10th 2005
1
A government initiative set up to give employment to unemployed ‘theatrical workers’ as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The
Federal Theatre Project (FTP) created plays from topical newspaper articles of the day, called ‘Living Newspapers’ and these were often
political in nature. Other well known FTP alumni included Elia Kazan, Orson Welles and John Houseman.
4
SYNOPSIS
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE PLAY?
ACT ONE begins in an attic room in the home of Reverend Parris, where he is fretting over his daughter, Betty,
who lies unconscious on her bed. He reveals to his niece, Abigail Williams that he has seen her, Betty and some
other girls dancing in the woods with his slave, Tituba. The wealthy and suspicious Thomas and Ann Putnam arrive
agitated that their daughter Ruth is also struck down with an ‘unnatural’ illness and they fuel rumours of witchcraft.
When Abigail and the other girls (Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren) are left alone with Betty, Abigail asserts her
control over them – to avoid getting into further trouble no one is to breathe a word about their dancing and ‘the
other things’ that happened in the woods. John Proctor enters and when the other girls leave Abigail attempts to
rekindle their affair, admitting to John that the witch craft rumours are unfounded and that Betty is probably just
worked up over being caught for dancing. Proctor tries to fend off Abigail’s attentions and they are interrupted
when Betty suddenly regains consciousness and the rest of the community return to the room. As the longstanding
feuds and land struggles of the townsfolk surface John Proctor reveals him self as a respected man within the tight
knit community and Rebecca Nurse becomes the voice of reason. Reverend John Hale, an expert in ‘demonic
arts’, arrives to attend to Betty and he interrogates a terrified Tituba who saves herself from hanging by claiming
that two local women are in league with the devil. Abigail, Betty and the other girls join in her frenzied accusations.
ACT TWO unfolds one week later in the kitchen of the Proctor household and it is clear that there are lingering
tensions between Elizabeth Proctor and her husband following John’s brief affair with Abigail eight months before.
Elizabeth has learnt that a court has been established and fifteen people have been arrested for witchcraft. Aware
of Abigail’s vindictive nature, and worried that she will falsely accuse her, Elizabeth encourages John to testify
against Abigail in court. Mary Warren, now an official of the court, arrives home and gives Elizabeth a rag doll (a
‘poppet’) she sewed there that day, also revealing that more people have been arrested and that Elizabeth’s name
has been mentioned in court. Reverend Hale arrives, questioning the Proctor’s religious beliefs. Giles Corey enters
following the arrest of his wife, shortly followed by court official Ezekiel Cheever who has come to arrest Elizabeth.
Ezekiel discovers the poppet has a needle stuck inside it, similar to the needle Abigail pulled from her stomach
earlier that evening, thus convincing Ezekiel that Elizabeth is a witch. Elizabeth is arrested, leaving John to
convince Mary to come with him to court the next day, to save his wife.
ACT THREE takes place in court. Giles Corey and John Proctor present their
case against Abigail Williams and the girls, with the support of a petition
signed by ninety-one people in support of the good character of the accused.
With the progression of their case, Giles Corey is arrested in contempt of
court. Proctor presents a deposition signed by Mary Warren stating she never
saw the devil and in response Abigail and the other girls to pretend to be
bewitched by Mary. Proctor becomes frustrated with the instability of the court,
and claims that Abigail is a whore, thus confessing to his affair with her and
condemning him self as a lecher. When Judge Danforth calls for Elizabeth Proctor to back her husband’s claim,
she defends John’s character in court, denying his affair with Abigail and consequently destroying the credibility of
her husband’s testimony. Mary crumbles under the pressure of the other girls and sides with them as they feign
bewitchment by Proctor. Reverend Hale denounces the proceedings and Proctor is arrested.
ACT FOUR opens in the following autumn in the jail cell where Sarah Good and Tituba are awaiting their fate.
Judge Danforth, Judge Hathorne and Ezekiel Cheever arrive in the jail, discussing a change in Reverend Parris’
behaviour. Parris’ troubles are then revealed to be a result of Abigail and Mercy Lewis disappearing (with his
valuables) and his realization that the hangings are the final step in the collapse of the struggling community.
Reverend Hale appears having comforted the prisoners and desperate to secure their release. Elizabeth Proctor,
now pregnant, speaks to her husband and attempts to absolve his guilt over his unfaithfulness, which causes him
only more pain as he decides to give his confession in order to live. As Rebecca Nurse looks on Proctor states he
has seen the Devil, but refuses to name any of the other accused. When Judge Danforth announces that Proctor’s
confession will be nailed to the church door John rips the document to shreds, sealing his fate. Proctor will die an
honest man, condemned by a corrupt system.
5
THEMES
“I’m not sure what The Crucible is telling people now but I know that its paranoid centre is
still pumping out the same darkly attractive warning that it did in the fifties”(Arthur Miller)
The Crucible addresses universal themes including ‘darkly attractive warnings’ against; mass hysteria,
intolerance, the use and abuse of power and the loss of civil liberties which bring an air of topicality in our
terrorist age.
Director Colin McColl is interested in the role of contemporary closed religious communities around the
world and in New Zealand and in many of these societies, religious law and state law are the same and
cannot be separated from one another;
“There is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning!” (Parris Act 1)
The director is also interested in the moral codes of these communities; what is considered to be right
and wrong and what makes people lie in order to fit in or
to save themselves:
•
•
•
•
•
belief in the devil
relationship to the outside world
fear of the unknown
attitudes towards women
forms of punishment
Intolerance and hypocrisy are key themes in The Crucible. Hypocrisy operates on many levels within the
play where life is based on religious belief, but often this belief is filtered down with corruption from the
top, in the form of Reverend Parris or the Putnams, who accuse freely and encourage the girl’s
accusations. Intolerance and misunderstanding go hand in hand as the community is fearful of what
exists outside of their world which they do not understand.
Social conformity is also a key notion within the play. Not conforming in this community is considered a
matter of public concern and treated with ill regard and intolerance. Characters are bullied into doing and
saying things that make them fit in with the community and fear of punishment forces them to behave in
ways that are irrational and, inevitably, hysterical.
“…a person is either with this court, or he must be counted against it.” (Danforth Act 3)
The universality of the play’s themes makes The Crucible Miller’s most produced play.
In the 1970’s Arthur Miller met Yeun Cheng author of Life and Death in Shanghai, the story of her six
year solitary confinement during the Cultural Revolution. Cheng told Miller that when she saw (a Chinese
production of) The Crucible she couldn’t believe that it had been written by a non-Chinese, and neither
could she believe that it was written 10 years before the Cultural Revolution, the interrogations sounded
so like those she had been subjected to during her imprisonment.
“To people in so many parts of the world its story seems so like their own.”(Arthur Miller)
6
LANGUAGE
Arthur Miller has invented a language for the characters in The
Crucible which sounds old fashioned and particular to a rural
community.
As he had no record of how people in seventeenth century Salem
really spoke he was inspired by actual court records from the
witch trials which were written by ministers in a shorthand that
Miller described as “a gnarled densely packed language which
suggested the country accents of a hard people.”
The language in The Crucible has particular rhythms, words and turns of phrase that suggest a sense of
place and time but there is no specific accent suggested in the text (except for Tituba)2.
In preparation for this production director Colin McColl listened to recordings of West Country (British)
accents and accents from modern day Massachusetts to hear how the real Puritan settlers might have
sounded. However, in rehearsal he insisted that the cast explore the unique language of the text through
their own voices.
It is useful to look at the ways Miller has created this language:
•
•
•
He uses out dated expressions such as ‘sport’ for fun and ‘blink’ for ignore.
The expression “Goody” before the surnames of the married women characters literally means
‘goodwife’ and is an authentic expression of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Many characters (particularly the farmers) drop the gs from the end of their words.
The heightened imagery of the language draws heavily on biblical references, as befits this closed
religious community:
“…the little crazy children are jangling the keys to the kingdom, and common vengeance
writes the law…” (Proctor Act 2)
Miller has a poet’s ear for language. In Act 1 Abigail bullies the other girls into silence with the following
threat:
“…I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning
that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parent’s
heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I
can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!”
And when Proctor confesses his ‘lechery’ in Act 3 he says:
“I have made a bell of my honour; I have rung the doom of my good name.”
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Look for other examples of biblical imagery and heightened language in the play and find other ways that
Miller has made this language sound old-fashioned. Reading the play aloud will help to discover these.
2
See the interview with Rima Te Wiata on playing Tituba, pages 13-14.
7
DESIGN
In creating an ambiguous and universally recognizable community, director Colin McColl allows the
audience to relate their own knowledge and life experience with the unfolding of events within the closed
religious community of The Crucible. The production team researched extensively the American religious
communities of the Amish, the Shakers, the Mennonites, the Hutterites and the Exclusive Brethren in
New Zealand, though without intention to emulate any specific religious community.
SET
The design for The Crucible grew out of discussions between the designer and director and the themes
central to the text. “The community we see is separated from its wider world because of its beliefs,
and it is this context I have sought to recreate.” (Designer: Tracy Grant Lord)
The set design is based on North American East Coast architecture and these are some of the images
Tracy used as inspiration:
The set has to represent four distinct locations, which
change with each Act of the play: “The room is at
once and alternately an attic, a long-room, a
meeting room and a court; it can be an enclosed
and very private space or it can be a very public
place, unshielded from probing scrutiny.” (Tracy
Grant Lord)
8
The director also wanted to create a sense of danger, sterility, coldness and tension:
“The space has been carved out of, or rather into an organic world; but wild nature still
encroaches and looms large. It is also an imprisoned world, yet open, somewhat akin to a pen in
which herded animals are kept.” (Tracy Grant Lord)
THE FLAGPOLE
Colin McColl and Tracy Grant Lord intended to
highlight that the church and the law is one in the
same within the world of the play. The flagpole is
symbolic of a world in which there is little difference
between church and state, a world which the pole is
struggling to prop up. “It is prevented from
collapsing in on itself by a pole, symbolic of a
flagpole, the standard bearer of a revered icon of
state or church, reminding us that, then as today,
these two collide and collude.” (Tracy Grant
Lord)
The pole is the focal point of the set, and the collapsing wall conveys the demise and disintegration of
this once unified community as the play progresses.
“…there are orphans wandering from house to house, abandoned cattle bellow on the
highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere…” Hale Act 4
Only minor changes to stage furniture, props and lighting serve to indicate the time of day and changes
of season. Note also that as the play progresses the costumes and props become more modern.
THE FOREST
The Designer intended to create an organic “wild world” in which nothing can be controlled and where the
young women have gone to explore the rituals of Tituba.
This world is represented by the ‘forest’ of sawn trees which hang down over the action taking place
below. These trees are cut off at the trunks to:
• Convey a sense of space
• Allow for movement around the set
• Give the idea that the trees have been milled, and the structures of the community have been
built from these milled trees.
In the closing scenes of the play, the space between the trees is filled with the bodies of those that have
been hung.
9
COSTUME
The costumes are mainly monochromatic for the women. Designer Tracy Grant Lord maintains that
‘modesty was important’ to the order of the community, thus:
•
•
•
•
•
The young women’s costumes are modest and cover much of their bodies.
Abigail’s dress is slightly shorter than those of her peers, differentiating her from the other girls
Older women are distinguished from the younger women within Abigail’s group by their capes
and hats.
Tituba’s costume features more colour than the plain and simple costumes of the other women,
again distinguishing her from the rest of the community.
The marshal’s and the judge’s costumes are increasingly more 1950’s in appearance, conveying
the director’s interest in creating an indefinite and universal community.
“The costumes are a deliberate mix (of eras) to create theatrical dynamism – and to stop
audiences from being lulled into thinking they are simply watching a historical incident
that has no relevance to their lives.” (Colin McColl)
Tracy Grant Lord researched images of people from American rural communities in the Great
Depression, including the photographs of Dorothea Lange, and these influenced her designs for the
farmer’s costumes:
Images of 1930s Great Depression farmers.
Giles Corey: very worn and lived in.
She also researched images from contemporary closed religious communities around the world, including
the Hutterites:
Hutterite community – inspiration/point of reference
Costume Sketch for the girls – generic design
10
Historical references include this image of Senator Joseph McCarthy – the inspiration behind Judge
Danforth’s costume:
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Danforth
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Design either the set or costumes for your own production of The Crucible and start by collecting and
creating a collage of inspirational images that will inform your design.
11
MUSIC and SOUND DESIGN
“The sound design for The Crucible has been informed by the simplicity, starkness and
repression that are part of any extreme religious environment now, or in the times of the
Puritans.” (Sound Designer and Musical Director John Gibson)
There are three elements to the design:
1. songs
2. transitions
3. sound effects
Sound Designer and Musical Director John Gibson comments that all of these elements have been made
as simple as possible:
SONGS:
“The hymns that are sung could have been sung in the time of the play. They are a sound image of all
that has been lost in the community since its start: humility, a sense of common purpose, the shaping by
individuals to make one song. This is counter pointed by the girl’s extreme vocalisations borne of an
intoxicating freedom, the freedom of the imagination which in this airless place explodes like a fire.”
SOUND EFFECTS:
“All of the sound effects are created by the girls except
for the sound of recording. Their whispers, screams and
their lies are the very air in which the community is
engulfed and drowned.”
TRANSITIONS:
“The transitions are meant to amplify and universalise the
hysteria that climaxes each act and then cool down the
white hot heat of Arthur Miller's narrative.”
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Discuss how the music and sound effects in the play achieves the following: building tension, creating
atmosphere, and moving the story along.
12
THE CAST
TITUBA - an interview with Rima Te Wiata
Rima has worked extensively within professional New Zealand theatre for the last
twenty-five years. Previous work for Auckland Theatre Company includes Death of
A Salesman, Cabaret, Into The Woods and Serial Killers. She has played leading
roles in a variety of television programmes, both in NZ and Australia, including Full
Frontal and The Issues. Feature film work includes Via Satellite. After The Crucible,
Rima will appear in The Hollow Men (a new New Zealand play) and the nutty
musical Urinetown, both in Wellington.
Who is Tituba?
Tituba is the slave of Reverend Parris,and he brought her back with him from
Barbados. But there really was a Tituba in Salem in 1692 and the Tituba of history differs from
the Tituba of Arthur Miller’s creation. Arthur Miller tells us that Tituba is from Barbados.
However, it is impossible to confirm the true heritage of the real Tituba. There is some
evidence she may have been from the Arawak American Indian tribe, and taken to Barbados
as a slave, then brought back again. Her name in historical records is simply ‘Tituba Indian’.
What was your impression of Tituba in relation to the other female characters when you first read
the play?
On a first reading I thought Tituba was completely powerless, and a completely innocent victim
of circumstances. I then set about hunting for any evidence that would indicate otherwise.
Arthur Miller describes Tituba as a slave and (director) Colin McColl sees her as the most foreign person
in the community. Do you think she is isolated within the community?
It’s an interesting question. Accusations of witchcraft alienate the entire community from each
other. Seeds of fear grow into flowers of mistrust. Of course Tituba is the only one from a
different culture, but every effort has been made to integrate her into the fundamental
Christian community. Naturally, this means that Tituba is expected to drop any beliefs that
contradict the way the community functions.
What aspects of Tituba as a character interest you most? Are there aspects which you have
chosen to highlight or reassert?
Tituba is probably suffering from a kind of cultural schizophrenia. Values and ideologies that
were acceptable in her homeland are at odds with the values and ideologies of her new
environment.
13
How did you identify and then learn Tituba’s accent?
I think it’s likely that Tituba was of mixed blood. I was fortunate enough to know a woman with
West Indian/Guyanese/Italian links who spent her childhood in Barbados. I have (in the play) a
modern day West Indian/Guyanese accent. Nobody can conclusively say what anybody’s
accent would have been in 1692, even if they were certain of their heritage. Accents evolve
rapidly throughout history.
What other preparation did you do before rehearsal began?
I talked a lot about Barbados with my friend. I taped her singing songs from her youth
and I got her to read me stories that her grandmother wrote.
I read Kenaz Filan’s book on Haitian vodou. It isn’t spooky, it gives a good background
into the roots of Afro-diasporian religion. It was important for me to understand the
hierarchies in Haitian vodou ‘Spirit Families’ called Lwa.
I already knew the Christian tradition because I was raised as an Anglican.
What is the most challenging aspect of playing Tituba?
Tituba was a real person. All the characters in the play were real. It’s important to honour that
as best you can.
What is the most rewarding aspect of playing Tituba?
To be in a professional cast of twenty-three actors is rare. Also, to be in a play where there is
such an enormous range of age-groups is equally rare. Plus I love working with Colin McColl.
You appeared in the ATC production of Death of a Salesman in 1999. What interests you about
Arthur Miller’s work?
Arthur Miller writes plays that reverberate with universal meaning. His plays don’t date. He
presents the kind of issues that face mankind in any century.
14
THE GIRLS – rehearsing the ensemble
Cast members Ellen Simpson (Abigail), Brooke Williams (Mary Warren), Bree
Peters (Mercy Lewis), Michelle Blundell (Betty Parris) and Emily Robins (Susanna
Walcott) worked with assistant director Margaret-Mary Hollins using Chorus work to
create a strong sense of ensemble amongst the girls.
Margaret-Mary discusses the approaches she used in rehearsal:
CHORUS:
•
•
Through the rehearsal period we focused on ensemble work to connect and
build on uniformity while maintaining individuality. We used Chorus work –
flocking in groups of 4 or 5 (3 is a good number to start if you have not done
flocking or chorus work before)3.
We played with Movement and Stillness – concentrating on clarity in the chaos, as in the play
there are moments where the girls are hysterical but we still need to hear what they are saying.
SOUND: (VOCAL AND PHYSICAL)
•
•
•
We explored sound from the body. Using weird vocal sounds and also working to conjure up the
atmosphere of the woods and of the harsh domestic world the characters lived in.
The group divided and then created and devised an orchestra of sounds, we listened to these
with our eyes closed.
With sound and physicality we worked again with flocking and chorus then lastly incorporated
text.
WARM-UP GAMES:
We played the classic children’s game Musical Chairs.
• This was a good warm up as the girls in the cast had not worked together before as an
ensemble.
• We started with the basic
Musical Chairs game then
took it into the world of the
play so that when ever the
music stopped it indicated that
Reverend Parris was catching
them out while they revelled in
their secret dancing. Dancing
was a terrible sin and to be
caught out was very
dangerous.
• We kept raising the stakes in
the game taking us further into
the world of Salem 16924, as
this repressed society was so restricted compared to how we live today.
3
See the ATC Education Unit Teacher’s Pack on Equus (2005) for some useful Chorus activities, including Flocking.
www.atc.co.nz/education
4
Cast members were set the task of making their own ‘poppets’ during rehearsal and this exercise was intended to heighten
their understanding of the world of the play
15
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Initially entitled Those Familiar Spirits, Arthur Miller’s highly anticipated follow up to the Pulitzer Prizewinning Death of a Salesman opened as The Crucible at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on
January 22 1953.
The production was directed by Jed Harris, a flamboyant character renowned for virtually inventing
Broadway in the 1920s and 30’s but who’s confidence was waning. Perhaps overwhelmed by the
historical setting and the play’s weighty themes, Harris decided to stage The Crucible like a ‘Dutch
Master’ painting, like that on a cigar box, where everyone stands in groups looking out front. He had the
actor’s positions chalk marked onto the stage floor and directed them never to move from those marks,
nor to face each other. Unfortunately, as Arthur Miller wrote years later, “on a stage such rigidity can only
lead an audience to the exits,” and dealing as the play did with the highly charged political events of the
day, it received unfavourable reviews and Miller was cold shouldered by many colleagues.
The following year a company of young actors
presented a new lively production in the ballroom
of the McAlpin Hotel in New York and the play took
off.
A Belgian company mounted the first European
production and then a French company staged the
play in Paris where it ran for a year as Les
Sorcieres de Salem starring Simone Signoret and
Image from the 1953 Broadway production
Yves Montand as Elizabeth and John Proctor and the
couple later produced a film based on the play written by Jean-Paul Satre.
Today the play is recognised as a twentieth century classic and ranks amongst Miller’s great works. It is
said that not a month goes by without a production of The Crucible playing somewhere in the world.
“I used to think, half-seriously, and it was not far from the truth – that you could tell when
a dictator was about to take power in a Latin American country or when one had been
overthrown, by whether the Crucible was suddenly being produced in that country.”
(Arthur Miller)
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY:
Richard Corliss writing an obituary of Arthur Miller in Time magazine observed that;
“Theatre is at heart just people in a big room trying to talk – the characters with one another, the
playwright with the audience.”
Discuss this statement. Do you agree or disagree? In what ways can you apply this statement to The
Crucible? What do you think Arthur Miller is trying to say to the audience?
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CAST LIST
David Aston – Thomas Putnam
Ellen Simpson - Abigail Williams
Michelle Blundell – Betty Parris
Rima Te Wiata - Tituba
Peter Daube – John Proctor
Curtis Vowell – Ezekiel Cheever
Hera Dunleavy – Elizabeth Proctor
Raymond Hawthorne - Danforth
George Henare – Giles Corey
Ray Henwood - Hathorne
Margaret-Mary Hollins – Ann Putnam
Elizabeth McRae – Rebecca Nurse
Bree Peters – Mercy Lewis
Gareth Reeves – Reverend Parris
Emily Robins – Susanna Walcott
Roy Ward - Reverend Hale
Brooke Williams – Mary Warren
Edwin Wright – Marshall Herrick
Interns from UNITEC School of Performing and Screen Arts
James Baker
Jacqui Nauman
Sarah Graham
Joel Herbert
Nicole Jorgensen
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CURRICULUM LINKS
The Crucible is a set-text in 2007 for both NCEA Level 3 and Scholarship Drama in The New Zealand
Curriculum.
There are various measurable outcomes for student success through an opportunity to work intensely on
this specific text:
•
All Levels of NCEA Drama require students to respond to live theatre experiences in the external
examinations (1.6. AS90011; 2.6 AS90304; 3.6. AS90612)
•
The play contains sophisticated extended monologues and paired dialogue scenes for script
interpretation, using Stanislavski techniques (3.2. AS90608) and Part 1 of Scholarship Drama)
•
This play has the imaginative potential for adapting characters and situations to new contexts
(3.3. AS90609)
•
The work reflects features of a specific theatre form with the evocative potential for developing a
production concept as either director or designer (Questions 1 and 2 of the external examination
3.4.AS90610 )
•
Scene study in both rehearsal and performance, with production technologies added, reflects
Question 1of the external examination,( 3.6. AS90612 )
•
The whole play has Year 13 class production potential (3.5 AS90611) because the cast is large
enough for ‘assuming diverse artistic or technical responsibilities’. 5
RESOURCES
WEB
Royal Shakespeare Company, The Crucible Learning Pack www.rsc.org.uk
Why I Wrote the Crucible (article by Arthur Miller) published in The New Yorker, October 1996
www.newyorker.com/archive
http://www.ibiblio.org/miller/ official website of the Arthur Miller Society
BOOKS
Arthur Miller, The Crucible in History and other essays, Methuen 2000
Gottfried Martin, Arthur Miller His Life and Work, De Capo Press 2003
FILM
Nicholas Hynter directed the 1996 film of The Crucible (screenplay by Arthur Miller) starring
Daniel Day-Lewis as Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail and Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor
5
From the draft of The New Zealand Curriculum for Level 8 Drama.
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