Audiences in the Norris Ely Orchard Theater were spellbound by the intense drama and the eerie staging of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, this year’s fall production.

The 26 student cast members and 11 student technical crew members, including a number for whom this was the first experience in a NEO production, captivated audiences for five sold-out performances October 26–29.

Set in Massachusetts during the late 1600s, Miller’s fictionalized story of the Salem Witch Trials, written in 1953, has been characterized as an allegory symbolic of the anti-communist “witch trials” of the 1950s, which served to victimize and condemn citizens feared to be “un-American.”

“Unfortunately, mindless persecution and demonization of others ‘not like us,’ [or] against those who pose an imagined threat … is still alive and well centuries past the Salem trials,” noted David McCamish, director and theater teacher, in the show’s program notes.

Senior Brendan Nelson played the troubled John Proctor alongside junior Sarah Gyurina, cast as the antagonist Abigail Williams, the scorned and calculating young woman who ignites the flames of fear in the Puritan community. Powerful performances by senior Ben Kallus as Deputy-Governor Danforth, senior Nate Blumenthal as Reverend John Hale, and junior Macon Jeffreys as Reverend Samuel Parris made for some electric and memorable courtroom drama.

The role of Tituba, the Reverend Parris’s slave and suspected practitioner of “black magic,” was shared alternately and each adeptly by senior Sidney Steward and sophomore Marahyah Richardson. Junior Logan Katz as Francis Nurse and sophomore Kimmy Tufton as Elizabeth Proctor were welcome additions to Loomis Chaffee’s deep bench of acting talent. And senior Isaac Guzman was finally coaxed to the NEO stage this fall, where he delighted audiences with his bold portrayal of the resolute Giles Corey.    

While the actors shared their talents on stage, the crew of 11 “techies,” led by stage manager senior Ramal Rauf, worked behind the scenes to create a haunting atmosphere with a combination of scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound.

The Crucible is included in the freshman English curriculum this fall, so the Theater & Dance Department presented an exclusive performance for freshmen and their teachers to give life to the text they study in class.

Theater & Dance Department Head Candice Chirgotis, production manager of the play, led a team of dedicated adults, including faculty members and theater professionals, who supported the students in many ways throughout the successful run of the show.

For detailed acknowledgements as well as students’ bios, connect to the production’s Playbill.

Connect to The Crucible’s photo gallery for views of the production.