EMU’s production of Arthur Miller’s classic play “The Crucible” opened on Oct. 28 with a full house in the Lee Eschleman Studio Theater, wrapping up the final show on Nov. 5. Students, faculty, and members of the broader community were in attendance for a lantern-lit evening of accusation, conspiracy, and betrayal, all taking place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
Recent EMU graduate Joe Seitz played farmer John Proctor, a conflicted man who is diligent in the maintenance of his sterling reputation, yet cannot escape a glaring hamartia from his past. When Seitz was preparing for the role of Proctor, he began to realize that Proctor’s secret act of adultery with Abigail Williams was more than an ephemeral error. “We were rehearsing the forest scene between Proctor and Abigail, and Abigail has the line ‘You are at this moment singing secret hallelujahs that your wife will hang.’ Justin looked right at me and said ‘You (Proctor) know she’s right.’ This was a huge shift for me in my perception of Proctor. I previously saw him as someone who made a mistake and wanted nothing more to do with Abigail, but the reality was that deep down, he would rather have been with her than Elizabeth.”
Though Proctor is flawed, Seitz sees a noble side to him as well. “He took advantage of a teenage girl and betrayed his wife’s trust, but I do find some redemptive quality in the fact that he was given a chance to live on despite the mistakes he knowingly committed, and decided to instead face the music and accept his fate.”
Senior Anna Hoover took up the role of John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor. To Hoover, Elizabeth “represents the overlooked. She knows exactly what is going on and is able to connect the dots before anyone else. Despite her knowing what is happening, her voice is ignored because in Salem, women were taught to keep their ‘hands at their sides, eyes slightly lowered, and mouths shut until bidden to speak.’”
Though many people come away from reading or watching “The Crucible” believing that Proctor is the hero of the story, Hoover argues that no character is free of guilt. “If people walk away from this show thinking that John Proctor is the protagonist and Abigail is the antagonist, I question whether they were truly paying attention… There are no protagonists or antagonists in life. No one is perfect, yet we are constantly trying to fit people into the labels of good or bad. This may not be the message that Arthur Miller originally wrote the play for, but I believe that it is the message that is needed today.”
Junior Greta Schrag played Abigail Williams, an orphaned teenage girl who wants John Proctor for her husband. Schrag sees past Abigail’s apparent ruthlessness to the tortured soul beneath. “I think it’s easy to write her off as evil or the villain of the story. It’s also been important for me to remember that she saw her parents killed at a young age, which is incredibly traumatic. A lot of the things she does are influenced by the fact that she has experienced extreme violence in her life. Remembering this has helped me empathize with her, which is essential to playing her truthfully.”
EMU alumna Liz Marin took on two very different roles in the show. She played Judge Hathorne, one of the judges presiding over the witch trials, as well as Tituba, a slave from Barbados. “Trying to differentiate between the two characters for me had to do with power. I feel like Tituba had no power as an enslaved person and she was always scared, whereas I feel Judge Hathorne was emboldened by his freedom as an emerging leader in the community.”
The power gap between the two characters also played into Marin’s execution of the roles. “As I acted out Hathorne’s character, I felt myself speaking in a louder voice, and more of a boom came from my throat… When questioned, I played Tituba as someone who was trapped between her reality of cultural practices and having to confess that her work was of the devil. I carried myself as someone who wanted to be as small as she felt.”
With countless hours of recital and performance under their belts, the cast and crew of “The Crucible” has memorized vast and antiquated lines, practiced choreography, and even learned a bit about fire safety! One thing’s for sure: their immersion in the story has unlocked its more obscure messages for them and the surrounding EMU community.
