'The Crucible' Reveals the Danger of Misinformation

On a recent Sunday morning, Bay Street Theater was abuzz with activity. Just a few days into rehearsals, director Will Pomerantz greeted his cast as they sat down to discuss the script of their upcoming production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which will be staged as this year’s Literature Live! offering. Designed for young audiences and tied to the high school curriculum, from November 9 to 26, Bay Street Theater will present the play, both for students during weekday performances and public audiences in evenings and on weekends.

Miller wrote “The Crucible” in 1953, and he based his script on real-life details from the Salem witch trials in the 1690s. Those trials pitted residents of an overly-zealous religious community in Massachusetts Bay Colony against one another in the face of rumors, lies and innuendos with inevitably deadly consequences.

Though Miller used the witch trials and the Puritanical story of possession and accusation in Salem as the construct in “The Crucible,” the plot offers thinly veiled commentary on what was happening in Washington, D.C. in the 1950s. Specifically, it was the era of the McCarthy hearings, when well-known actors, writers, directors and others were pressured by elected officials to confess their rumored ties to communist organizations and offer up the names of others involved in order to save themselves.

“When Miller wrote the play, it was in the midst of the Red Scare and the HUAC [House Un-American Activities Committee] hearings,” Pomerantz explained. “He was asked who can you implicate? Who can you name? Miller didn’t name names and his response was to write this play, while Elia Kazan, who did name names, wrote ‘On the Waterfront’ where the hero names names in the film.

“It was an interesting time and an important time,” he added. “There’s that resonance with today.”

This era of fake news and AI-generated content, compounded by efforts of governmental agencies and organizations to regulate everything from morality to library shelves, speaks to the dominant themes in “The Crucible” and helps to explain why the play was chosen as this year’s Literature Live! production. In fact, a poll conducted by Bay Street’s director of education Allen O’Reilly (who will portray Reverend Samuel Parris in the production) revealed a strong interest among school groups to see “The Crucible” performed on stage.

“When asked what they would be interested in, this was by far the most popular choice,” confirmed Pomerantz, adding that there are currently many productions of “The Crucible” being staged around the country. “It’s interesting. It’s always relevant because it explores what happens when fear drives actions and decision making. But perhaps more specifically now, it celebrates the importance of knowing the truth — and a society that can’t agree on what is true or not is in grave danger.”

As the curtain rises on “The Crucible,” the audience learns that a group of young women have recently been caught dancing naked in the woods and they are called out by village elders and clergy who demand they explain themselves. Abigail Williams, the ringleader of the girls, has been spurned by her former lover, the much older (and very much married) John Proctor. As the details of the woodland escapades grow in scope and seriousness, the girls turn to blaming their sinful transgression on the devil himself. In order to save themselves, they begin to bring forth names of community members who are involved in witchcraft, with a jealous Abigail adding to the list of names that of Elizabeth, John Proctor’s stoic and upstanding wife.

“For me, it’s one of the most brilliantly constructed plays and I think it’s Miller’s most brilliant play — more than ‘Death of a Salesman,’” said Pomerantz. “There’s a terrible inevitability to it. It feels like a horror movie. There’s a sense of an absolute sickening feeling. Then you realize this will turn out the way you don’t want it to.

“One scene after the other is filled with great characters. They’re historical figures, but Miller found a way to make them come alive,” continued Pomerantz. “Within the story is the great love story between John and Elizabeth Proctor. Their relationship is in a difficult place when the play starts, with great distance between them. But by the end, they have found a way to come together in a really profound way. They both so deeply love and admire each other. It’s very theatrical.

“The sad part is, the people who don’t deserve to be punished are,” he said. “But it celebrates the importance of truth.”

For actor Joe Pallister, who had not seen the play prior to being cast as John Proctor, the weight of responsibility in his role in “The Crucible” can’t be ignored.

“It’s a great challenge — and it’s a story that needs to be told,” said Pallister. “It’s a lot. It’s fun and exciting and I’m terrified, but in a good way. I just want to do it right.

“I think there are so many things touched upon in the play,” he continued. “How women are treated — and continue to be treated — and anyone who is an outsider or elderly or female were cast out for being anti- what the church wanted.”

Actress Kate Fitzgerald will take on the role of Abigail Williams, the ringleader of the girls and John Proctor’s former mistress. Though her character is not the most sympathetic in the play, the plight of women, who were blamed for any and all sexual transgressions in Puritanical New England — and in some societies, still are — looms large in her actions.

“I’m interested in feminine rage and the fear of that,” Fitzgerald explained. “Abigail has a lot of rage, for a lot of good reasons. How she chooses to channel it is not in the most productive ways. But I’ve always found her to be sympathetic. I think school-age kids could learn how they can channel their anger.

“It reminds me of the women in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and the children in ‘The Children’s Hour’ — and how children act when adults put pressure on them,” added Fitzgerald.

In staging “The Crucible,” Pomerantz is adding a prologue to further the imagery of the mischief the girls get up to in the woods prior to the play’s opening scene, hinting at the repression they endure by day and the need to find freedom under the cover of night.

“One of the imagery references is this ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ bonnet and wings and a cape,” he said. “I’m hoping it will resonate with younger audiences. [Sound designer] David Brandenburg has created some original music to create atmosphere. Also, in talking to [scenic designer] Mike Billings, I really wanted a simple platform that could be used for multiple settings to focus on the actors and the text.

“I think it will be visually compelling, but very stripped down,” Pomerantz added. “We’re focusing on the basics. You get a flavor of that period, but it still feels immediate and alive and now. Otherwise, we’re not doing our job, especially with young audiences.

“The costuming is more modern, though we have decided to keep the women close to what they wore in that time,” he added. “To me, the fear of women and sexuality in this society and the repression leads to the cause of the events. They let lose at night, this creates the construct of the play.”

Another conscious decision that Pomerantz made in staging this production was to cast 10-year-old actress Sonnie Betts in the role of Mercy Lewis, a young servant girl and Abigail’s friend.

“The role she’s playing is usually an older kid,” explained Pomerantz. “But she becomes the familiar to Abigail, like the sidekick.”

Rather than being in her late teens and about the same age as Abigail, in this production, Mercy is several years younger and far more impressionable. As a result, young Mercy becomes a loyal ally of the older and deceitful Abigail, faithfully parroting her lies and accusations when the time comes to name names.

“The one thing about this version of ‘The Crucible,’ you really do see where the younger ones on stage are imitating what they heard and are repeating it and it makes it appear they’ve been taught this — the lies you’re witnessing,” explained Tracy Mitchell, the executive director of Bay Street Theater. “One of the reasons we picked this play was the times we’re dealing with now. When is truth the truth? Who is putting their ‘truth’ out there? Do our students and young people understanding truth vs fiction? They’re being inundated and depending on where you get your information, you’re bound to hear false things.”

In her longtime role as executive director at Bay Street Theater, Mitchell has come to understand that it’s vital children be exposed to theater, which can help put world events into context, especially during confusing times like those we are now all living through. This is the 15th year for Literature Live! and Mitchell, recalls that the program was born out of the lack of theater arts education that she witnessed when her own daughter, who is now in college, was a student in Sag Harbor.

“I saw she had two days of theater incorporated in their curriculum,” said Mitchell. “To me, it was completely unacceptable. This art form was left out. In any art form, if you’re not exposed to it and don’t feel comfortable coming in as a child or teen, you will not likely do it as an adult.

“Telling these stories, like ‘The Diary of Anne Frank,’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ or ‘The Crucible,’ all of these are simply different methods of exploring a piece of literature these kids are studying,” she added. “For some, reading may not stick, they may not understand the characters. To bring them to life on stage where someone witnesses the emotion, you can’t ignore what you’re seeing.”

But Mitchell adds, it’s not about just seeing. It’s also about discussing the material that is presented on stage.

“You cannot have great art without dialogue. The best shows we put on are when people are leaving talking about it,” Mitchell said. “It’s the same with the kids. We do the talkbacks afterward for that reason — to hear them, and sometimes we hear different things. For me, one of the most interesting parts is that we have schools from so many different places across Long Island and even the city who come to see this show. I think the only way we solve problems is through arts and dialogue. How else do you learn the stories of fellow human beings who may have a very different story and life experience?

“You have to be willing to look at something in a different way,” she added. “I always say you only see the world from behind your own eyes until you witness someone else’s story. It’s more critical now than ever. Only then will you be able to understand.”

Bay Street Theater’s Literature Live! production of Arthur Miller’s Tony Award-winning play “The Crucible” opens Thursday, November 9, and runs through Sunday, November 26. The cast features Allen O’Reilly as Reverend Samuel Parris, Kate Fitzgerald as Abigail Williams, Teresa DeBerry as Mrs. Ann Putnam and Rebecca Nurse, Gabriel Portuondo as Thomas Putnam and The Bailiff, Sonnie Betts as Mercy Lewis, Anna Francesca Schiavoni as Mary Warren, Joe Pallister as John Proctor, Meg Gibson as Elizabeth Proctor, Keith Reddin as Reverend John Hale, and Matthew Conlon as Deputy-Governor Danforth.

Tickets for public performances start at $37 at baystreet.org or 631-725-9500. Shows are Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. Additional matinees will be offered over Thanksgiving weekend, November 24 to 26, at 2 p.m. A sensory-friendly performance will be presented on Saturday, November 11, at 2 p.m. for individuals with autism and other special needs. On November 11, admission for veterans for both the 2 p.m. sensory-friendly performance and the regular 7 p.m. performance is free. Veterans should call the box office at 631-725-9500 for tickets. Free weekday performances are available to school groups. Teachers and administrators may register school groups by contacting Allen O’Reilly, at allen@baystreet.org or by calling 631-725-0818. Bay Street Theater is on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor.