Here is some the research about the play:
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692/93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists. Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible
I also wanted to look into the plot overview to have an idea of the whole story so when we started it had an idea of what was going on while I was performing.
While
Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to
some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor,
a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone
else in the town, while working in Proctor’s home the previous year she engaged
in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth.
Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her
foolishness with the girls.
Betty
wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in
her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between
Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam
soon ensues. This dispute centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that
deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend
Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail
about the girls’ activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior,
and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a
brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically
accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins
her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other
townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into
an uproar.
A
week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth
Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who
have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce
Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still
harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail’s
circle, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of
witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed,
and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a
visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis
Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested.
Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have
taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and
expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.
The
next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will
testify that the girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor’s motives
and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared
for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary
to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are
brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious,
Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by
jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor’s claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and
asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty,
she lies to protect Proctor’s honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar.
Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them,
and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages
against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the
proceedings.
The
summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in
neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all
of Parris’s money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the
accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they
refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing,
and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and
the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else,
and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor
grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale’s
desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch
trials reach their awful conclusion.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/summary.html
We also watched the film so we got to see how others have played these characters and I think this have helped us out a lot to see whats scenes we are going to do from it and how we want to play it and display it to the audience in our own way.
These are the main points within The Crucible that should be shown.
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