THE CRUCIBLE

by Arthur Miller
Off-Broadway Theater, Yale College
October 30 - November 1, 2014
*** Featured in Playbill.com's List of "Innovative Collegiate Productions from 2014-2015" ***

THE CRUCIBLE

Our production of The Crucible was an actor-driven, highly physical, stripped-down, and immersive production of Arthur Miller's seminal play. The production explored Poor Theater staging techniques, the use of found objects, Puritan hymns and psalms, the actor-spectator relationship, and collaborative Story Theater. 

Staged in the round, every element of the show--from lighting to sound effects to music--was collaboratively created by our ensemble members on the spot. As such, no two performances were exactly the same. Lighting was created exclusively through handheld wooden flashlights. No overhead traditional lighting was employed. Sound design was created using household objects and wooden instruments. No sound effects were piped in through speakers. Music was provided by the ensemble, which performed sixteen specially arranged Puritan hymns a cappella from the Ainsworth Psalter and the Bay Psalm Book. Intermission was timed by an hour glass. Throughout the performance, the actors remained sitting amongst audience members and would only leave their seats when needed for a scene. By immersing the audience in the "Puritan Meeting House" of our play, the audience and actors merged into a community that was both complicit in the increasing hysteria of the witch trials and essential for the successful execution of the production.

Synopsis:

In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions. When Abigail Williams accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. As John Proctor attempts to save his wife, he quickly finds himself accused of witchcraft and drawn into the hysteria of the town. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbors to betray one another stands as a study of the debilitating power of guilt, the seductions of power, the flawed nature of the individual, and the courage with which some people confront what seems to be a ruling orthodoxy. 

PRESS

"Innovative College Productions That Thought Outside the Theatrical Box," by Olivia Clement for Playbill.com, August 24, 2015

"Play to Revisit Salem Witch Trials," by Joey Ye for the Yale Daily News, October 29, 2014

Listen

This production featured new arrangements of sixteen hymns from the Ainsworth Psalter, the book of psalms sung by the Puritans in church during the 17th century.