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The Crucible
The Crucible
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Biz Bestseller!
Author: Arthur Miller Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 95 Pub. Date: 1982 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822202557 ISBN-13: 9780822202554 Cast Size: 10 female, 10 male
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About
the Play:
The
Crucible
was
one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th
century.
The
Crucible has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes and Male/Male Scenes.
The
Crucible
is a full-length drama by Arthur
Miller.
Set
amidst the Salem witch trials, in which a group of girls accuse
upstanding women in the town of witchcraft to divert suspicion from
their own activities, The
Crucible
is a
powerful
political drama that
still
has relevance more than a half century after its initial publication.
Especially
recommended for school and contest use.
The
Crucible
is about a time in American history where the forces of justice bent
to the crying plea of mass hysteria, executing innocents under the
guise that they were witches. A small group of teenage girls in 1692
Salem, Massachusetts caught dancing in the woods are compelled to
tell lies that Satan had invaded their bodies and forced them to
participate in the rites and are obligated to name those involved.
Thrown into the mix are greedy preachers and major landowners
trying to steal others' land and a
young farmer, his wife, and a young servant-girl who maliciously
causes the wife's arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl
to court to admit the lie – and it is here that the monstrous
course of bigotry and deceit is terrifyingly depicted. The farmer,
instead of saving his wife, finds himself also accused of witchcraft
and ultimately condemned with a host of others. Except, this parable of power and its abuse is not
confined to the late 17th century. Writing
at the height of the Red Scare just as the Hollywood blacklist was
tearing apart the lives of many of his colleagues and peers, Arthur
Miller
drew a parallel between the political hysteria of the era of
McCarthyism and the more literal witch-hunt of 1692, the memory of
the violence, torture, and murder that was inflicted on some 60,000
people – 80% of them women – in the early modern period. A
haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural
community, The
Crucible
is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our
contemporary society. It is where we glean the term 'witch-hunt',
used, and widely misused today.
The
Crucible
premiered
in 1953 at the Martin Beck Theatre (now known as the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) on Broadway and won the 1953 Tony
Award for Best Play. This Miller classic has enjoyed five revivals on
Broadway and is still enormously popular. The
play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and is regularly performed in regional, middle school,
high school, college, and community theatre productions.
Cast:
10 female, 10 male
What
people say:
"A
powerful drama." — New York Times
"As
high-school drama clubs and community theaters well know, it is hard
to go wrong with The Crucible. What has been
easy to forget, however, is how firmly, yet how gracefully, his
sturdy words and warnings still hold the stage." — Los
Angeles Times
"A
drama of emotional power and impact ... Strongly written." —
New York Post
About
the Playwright:
Arthur
Miller (1915-2005) is considered one of the great American
playwrights. During the Depression, finances were scarce and he paid
for his college tuition by working as a shipping clerk in a New York
factory. He later wrote his first plays in college. With a career
that spanned over 50 years, he wrote more than thirty plays that
transformed American Theatre and proved to be both the conscience and
redemption of the times. His probing dramas received many awards in
his lifetime, including two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his
plays, a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama in 1949, for Death of a Salesman.
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