The Crucible Playbill

the crucible arthur miller artist note: Derek Boyes Life rarely gives us second chances. This production of The Crucible is offering me one. In 1989, I was invited to play Reverend Parris at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. Robin Phillips directed and the core of the company was made up of future Soulpepper founding members Albert, Susan, Stuart and Bill. What a glorious time we had. Stories of those months together, both on and off the stage, have become theatrical legend. A thrilling show performed by young actors revelling in the joy of performing classical theatre. The rumblings I heard then of a possible theatre company in Toronto have led to the 15th anniversary season of the amazing Soulpepper and I have been invited again to play the role of Parris.

As I write this, we are halfway through rehearsals and I am struck by several things: I realize that great plays don't age, actors do, and this is a good thing. No acting class can ever top life experience and I am thrilled to be able to explore this play again with so much more to draw on. I'm also finding it fascinating that, although the words of the play did not stay in my mind after 23 years, the physical sense memory of the tension and struggles in this harrowing play are as fresh in my body as if it happened yesterday. This is an incredible play that an actor should consider himself blessed to get an opportunity to experience once. I am revelling in my second. Thank you Soulpepper!

Derek Boyes, Rev. Parris in The Crucible

a message from the artistic director The Crucible has bookended my relationship with Derek Boyes. All those years ago when we met we were both playing ministers… he Reverend Parris and me Reverend Hale (now played properly by Oliver Dennis).

Some years ago I asked Derek to become an Associate Artist at Soulpepper and we have jokingly referred to him ever since as “Minister of Community Development”. Whether he is playing the Minister on stage or off, Derek Boyes brings passion, commitment and a brilliant sense of humour to every day’s journey. He is as sweet and fine a gentleman as you would ever hope to meet.

In his letter above, Derek mentions how great plays never age. How right he is! This play has been an absolute thrill and joy to come back to. May it move you as it has us.

Best,

Albert Schultz, Artistic Director

illustration: brian Rea

the crucible arthur miller

u.s.a. 1952

production

cast

Albert Schultz director

Akosua Amo-Adem Tituba

Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster Mary Warren

Lorenzo Savoini Set & Costume Designer

Derek Boyes Reverend Parris

Hannah Miller Abigail Williams

Steven Hawkins Lighting Designer

Oliver Dennis Reverend john Hale

Nancy Palk Rebecca Nurse

John Gzowski Sound Designer

Raquel Duffy Mrs. Ann Putnam

Gregory Prest Deputy

Darragh Parsons Production stage manager

Patricia Fagan Elizabeth Proctor

Mike Ross Marshal Herrick

Ashlyn Ireland assistant stage manager

Justin Many Fingers Hopkins

Harveen Sandhu Mercy Lewis

Kate Duncan aprentice stage manager

Rong Fu Betty Parris

Paolo Santalucia Deputy

Simon Fon fight director

Michael Hanrahan Thomas Putnam

Michael Simpson Judge Hathorne

Esther Jun assistant director

Stuart Hughes John Proctor

Maria Vacratsis Martha Corey & Sarah Good

John Jarvis Francis Nurse Qasim Khan Deputy Sarah Koehn Susanna Walcott

William Webster Giles Corey Daniel Williston Ezekiel Cheever Joseph Ziegler Deputy governor Danforth

production sponsor

The Crucible is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. New York.

There will be one 20 - minute intermission. Approximate running time 2 hours and 30 minutes.

background notes During the Cold War, fear of communism had the United States in its grip. In 1947, the government created the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to investigate this threat (among others). Anyone who had even attended a Communist Party meeting was under suspicion. Inflated rhetoric fuelled an ever-more passionate and polarized debate.

Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller’s friend who had directed Death of a Salesman, appeared before HUAC and named names (accused other people of being communists). The friendship between the two men never recovered. Miller channelled his pain and outrage into researching the 1692 Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. The play that resulted is considered a classic of the American canon, but its premiere put Miller in the crosshairs. He was compelled to testify before HUAC. He refused to name names, was convicted of “contempt of Congress”, fined, sent to prison, and blacklisted. Though he was later exonerated, what he went through had a lasting effect on him.

Personal experience and historical fact were the seeds but Miller’s social conscience led him to larger themes of truth and righteousness, fear and hysteria, accusation and confession, private appetite and public reputation. The Crucible is set in a Puritan community where church and state are fused; there is no higher authority than God. As Danforth puts it, “A person is either with this court or he must be counted against it.” In Salem it’s God or the Devil, pure and simple.

But with human beings nothing is that simple. So what happens when reason and fact become clouded by irrational fear, when the desire to blame others is greater than the need to understand what has happened? Miller looks at these questions from both the private and public point of view. When we first meet Elizabeth Proctor, she is furious with her husband.

John has wronged her and though he’s apologized she cannot forgive him. She behaves correctly toward him, but without warmth or generosity, making him feel constantly accused and punished. He expresses his frustration memorably: “Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.”

Their private drama is echoed in the larger story about the potential presence of witches in the community, which pushes many of the characters toward hysteria. Terrified, they abandon civility and reason in favour of blame and accusation. Hysteria enables them to believe that neighbours with whom they have had longstanding, and mostly peaceful relations are capable of committing unspeakable crimes. Hysteria, in the guise of religious duty, also permits the characters to indulge old resentments and pursue old grudges.

Darker, more twisted emotions and sentiments suddenly have a socially acceptable outlet.

The repercussions can be fatal. If you are one of the accused. If your reputation or your name comes under scrutiny.

In this play Arthur Miller asks us to consider what we stand for, what we would be willing to stand up for. And to consider how easily, in the right situation, with the right pressure, any one of us could be swayed.

Biography The second of three children, Arthur Asher Miller was born on October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York, to Isadore and Augusta Miller. It was after reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov that Miller decided to become a writer, graduating with a degree in English from the University of Michigan. Miller’s career spanned seven decades, producing a massive catalogue of drama, fiction and non-fiction, screenplays and radio programs. Some of his notable plays include All My Sons (1947), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge (1955) and The Price (1968). His work garnered him accolades and awards including The Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Spain’s Asturias Prize naming him as “the undisputed master of drama.” Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005 on the 56th anniversary of Death of a Salesman’s premiere.

Background Notes by Associate Artist Paula Wing.

soulpepper production Jacqueline Robertson-Cull

Janet Pym

wardrobe coordinator

wig maker & stylist

Susan Dicks & Co. Geoff Hughes Joanne Lamberton

Barbara Nowakowski 1st hand

cutters

Stefan Dean Lisa Farinaccio Kathleen Johnston

Natalie Swiercz dresser

sewers

Mike Keays Radoslaw Smaczny carpenters

scenic artists

Tracy Taylor

Greg Chambers

props buyer

props builder

soulpepper thanks:

Paul Boddum Duncan Johnstone Daniela Mazic

Jeff Chruchill, Alison Sealy-Smith, Jitter Bug Boy.

Soulpepper Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Decorators employed by Soulpepper Theatre Company are represented by Local 828 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Soulpepper thanks

for his generous support of The Crucible

YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DISTILLERY HISTORIC DISTRICT