The Crucible

“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is a book-turned-play set in the late 1600s. The play consist of McCarthyism and the danger it poses as neighbors accuse each other of witchery in hatred, blackmail, and jealousy. “The Crucible” was directed by Jordan Galindo, this play will be shown at the PAC theater on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at Buena Park High School with an admission of $10.

This play revolves around an affair involving John Proctor (Played by Andrew Penn) and a young girl named Abigail Williams (Played by Mackenzie Shane). Abigail, who is in love with John, goes to the woods with the pastor’s slave, Tituba (Played by Vania Bartlett), Sarah Good(Played by Dymond Thompson) along with the Purtitin girls(Played by many actresses) to perform a ritual to have Elizabeth Proctor (Played by Leila Saldana) killed. After the kids are caught Abigail is accused of witchcraft and tries to escape her fate by blaming innocent people in the village for being witches.

 Cast members said this play was a major change from the goofy, good ending, semi-humor plays like “Clue”and “Cinderella”. The last play that was almost as dramatic and dark was “The Bad Seed” versus “The Crucible” that’s filled with pure drama and psychological horror. One of the many things that makes this play so great is it’s suspense, action, gaslighting, and drama. When Shane was asked she responded “The play is very interesting because of how we’re showing it two days before halloween to give the spookish vibes because the opening of the show we tried to make it as creepy as we can and the rest isnt that ominous but you still get that feeling at the end of every scene of “Oh something big just happened” but to add onto that there will be screams that’ll make you think ‘What just happened’ ” Penn added on to shane by stating  “I have to agree with Shane with the end of every scene of “something terrible is about to happen” and in my opinion there is a scene I can’t wait to do because its gonna be fun for me but scary or intense for the audience.” For many people performing in front of an audience, there could be a mixture of feelings as stated by Shane “I like listening to the gasp or sounds of shocks by the audience when there is a suspenseful scene or when audience members would tap their friend to point at one of the cast members when they figure something out.” or like how Penn likes to state “Once I go up on stage and start getting into my character I forget that there even was an audience in front of me.” Along with having things that make a play so good are the setups for the play explained by Lily “I’m excited to see how it all comes together: the set, the costume, the show, and seeing everyone walk in.” But not to forget that tech theater has been putting in work making the set, choosing sounds, doing the lighting, and working with the costumes plus makeup. But for the play, the students have their rehearsal time told by Macedonio “Rehearsals at the beginning go from 4 to 5 and now that it’s getting closer to the day it goes onto 6 but what I think makes it is the people because throughout the play you get closer to them because its fun rehearsing with them.” But with this play rehearsals are important to those who are in the play quoted Macedonio “I personally don’t like that the play is set this far back because memorizing lines because they’ll add unnecessary words throughout the play.” With that being said Theater and Tech theater has been putting in a lot of work just to give the chills for this play by building an atmosphere around the play with the sounds along with the music having the students practice to go along with the music, having the students project their voices to make it feel more natural instead of using microphones to deliver those bone-chilling dramatic scenes that make the play a bit more believable and somewhat scarier, and finally, the practices of the old Shakespearean wording brought up by many of the actors in the play since they want to be as accurate as possible when saying their lines.

Be sure to come and support the Theater production crew on the opening night of “The Crucible”. Be sure to come with friends or family unless you want to be accused of having a pact with the devil or being a witch. Remember the play goes on from October 26-28 at 7 pm with the admission staying at 10 dollars.