Crucible Questions...

[King Stevos]

Posted: 10/15/03 at 9:04pm

First off did anyone see the original production of the Crucible, where the actors stood facing the audience and basically was declaring the lines to the audience?

Secondly. DO you think that Miller had the idea prior to the Mcarthy hearings or did he get it when the hearings came up?

Is Abbey the real antagonist here, or is it a group antagonist, or even one of the totally rare abstract antagonists?

STEVOS

STEVOS

Updated On: 10/15/03 at 09:04 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/15/03 at 9:14pm

My understanding is that Miller got the idea from the McCarthy hearings. I believe in Neil Simon's first book, he talks about Miller stopping by his house and Miller saying he had to go to Salem to do some research to write a play about the hearings.

My belief is that it is group pressure that is the antagonist, the "need" to conform.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/15/03 at 9:34pm

I want to design the lighting for this production coming to a local playhouse.

[PJ]

Posted: 10/15/03 at 10:33pm

Im reading "The Crucible" right now for my Communications class. I love it. It's fantastic.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 10/16/03 at 12:50am

PJ, I am so proud of you. Sweeney Todd and the Crucible. Our little kid is growing up!

[JakeB]

Posted: 10/16/03 at 3:41pm

I did The Crucible with my youth theatre recently. I enjoyed it. I played John Hale.

[Sally]

Posted: 10/16/03 at 8:00pm

"Secondly. DO you think that Miller had the idea prior to the Mcarthy hearings or did he get it when the hearings came up?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3182451.stm

Camouflaged in history
Though Miller had won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for his play Death Of A Salesman, critics and audiences were wary - even nervous - of The Crucible when it opened in New York.
"The country was at the height of its fears of an imminent Communist invasion, and some of the absurdities of that era were already showing themselves - people were being fired out of jobs in libraries, schools, Hollywood, everywhere - on suspicion of having sympathies with the Soviet Union," Miller recalled.

"The wave of fear was palpable and I myself was scared, because it seemed to me that we were being manipulated.
"It was a tawdry time, it was a rotten time to be alive, and I tried through this play to throw some light on it," he said.
Certainly, even in America - with its constitutional commitment to free speech - Miller had to be careful, which was the reason for setting the play at the birth of the country.
"He had to select a historical period so he could get away with the play, because it would never have been put on had Miller written it as of the time and as of the McCarthy period which he was writing about," Branch Marvin, a theatre producer who saw the original Crucible on Broadway, told Masterpiece.
"He had to camouflage it, and he camouflaged it with history."
During its initial run The Crucible often reduced audiences to nervous silence as, midway through, they worked out Miller's point and wondered how to react.
Longterm success
Eventually, three years after The Crucible's first performance, Miller was himself summoned before the House Committee, although interest in their work had declined somewhat.

"I'm convinced that they called me at that time because I was about to marry Marilyn Monroe, and they figured they'd get back on the front page," Miller said.
"In fact the chairman of the committee offered to call off the hearing altogether a day before I was to appear if he could have his picture taken with Marilyn.
"Of course we didn't do it, and the next day I was promptly described as an enemy of the country."
But such an accusation seemingly had little long-term impact on The Crucible's success.
"I feel very attached to the play - it's something that probably and unfortunately is not going to be overwhelmed with irrelevance too soon," ended Miller.

[Hello Gorgeous]

Posted: 10/16/03 at 8:53pm

I read "The Cruicible" in September, and thought it was very well written, but a little dry. I'm sure it would be better to see in person instead of a bunch of 11th graders who can't act for beans reading it.

As for the questions, I do believe that Miller got the ideas from the McCarthy era. It just makes sense to me. I also believe that the whole group is the antagonist.

Posted: 10/17/03 at 3:34pm

I read that the entire play was written because of the McCarthy trials. I did a production of "Crucible" about three years ago as Mercy Lewis, one of the "afflicted" girls and it's defintiely a STRONG play. The screaming in the courtroom scene always wiped me out, lol. One of our girls passed out once coming offstage after screaming so much. HAhaha. Only ours was really stupid and our director was also a high school English teacher and told all of his students that for extra credit they could appear in the show as "extras." Basically they came onstage for about 30 seconds, in the hanging scene, and they all stood on the orchestra pit as it rose up and they SIMULTANEOUSLY turned around, their left hands over their mouth and their right hands pointing to the hanging, ALL DRESSED in the SAME black dress and white bonnet. HAHAHAHA. I was backstage at that part but I'd always watch it over the monitor and CRACK THE HECK UP because it looked so damn fake. Phew, at least they all got extra credit.