Leland and Gray Players Present

Leland & Gray Players with special guests, Leland & Gray’s A cappella. present TThhee CCrruucciibbllee by Arthur Miller November 8, 7pm; November 9, 7:30; November 10, 3 and 7:30 Leland and Gray’s Dutton Gymnasium, Rte. 30, Townshend, Vermont adults-$6; students and seniors-$4 info: [email protected]; 802.365.7355 x204 student groups welcome Teachers’ Packet: Playwright Synopsis Parallels Characters McCarthyism Sources Researched and compiled, with various sources cited, by Madison Etman. L&G ‘13 The Playwright In the period immediately following the end of World War II, American theater was transformed by the work of playwright Arthur Miller. Profoundly influenced by the Depression and the war that immediately followed it, Miller tapped into a sense of dissatisfaction and unrest within the greater American psyche. His probing dramas proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the time, allowing people an honest view of the direction the country had taken. Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan in 1915 to Jewish immigrant parents. By 1928, the family had moved to Brooklyn after their garment manufacturing business began to fail. Witnessing both the societal decay of the Depression and his father’s desperation due to business failures had an enormous effect on Miller and his plays. Miller saw how his father was living and wrote about what he knew: depression and economic failure. After graduating from high school, Miller worked a number of jobs to save for college until 1934 when he enrolled in the University of Michigan. He had originally wanted to major in journalism, but after writing his first play, No Villain, he switched to English. He spent much of the next four years learning to write and working on a number of plays. His first productions were a bit rocky, but as he became more experienced, his works were accepted and liked by both critics and audiences. After graduating from Michigan, Miller returned to New York, where he worked as a freelance writer. In 1944, his first play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, opened to horrible reviews. A story about an incredibly successful man who is unhappy with that success that play was already addressing the major themes of Miller’s later work. In 1945, Miller published a novel, FOCUS, and two years later he had his first play on Broadway, All My Sons. A tragedy about a manufacturer who sells faulty parts to the military in order to save his business, All My Sons was an instant success. Concerned with morality in the face of desperation, it appealed to a nation having recently gone through both a war and a depression. Only two years after the success of All My Sons, Miller came out with his most famous and well-respected work, Death of a Salesman. Dealing again with both desperation and paternal responsibility, Death of a Salesman focuses on a failed businessman as he tries to attain success dictated by ill-conceived dreams. The play which deals with extraordinary tragedy in ordinary lives expanded Miller’s voice and his concern for the physical and psychological wellbeing of the working class. Eventually killing himself to leave his son insurance money, the salesman seems a tragic character out of Shakespeare or Dostoevsky. Winning both a Pulitzer Prize and a Drama Critics Circle Award, the play ran for more than seven hundred performances. Within a short while, it had been translated into over a dozen languages and had made its author a millionaire. Overwhelmed by post-war paranoia and intolerance, Miller began work on the third of his major plays. Though it was clearly an indictment of the McCarthyism of the early 1950s, The Crucible was set in Salem, Massachusetts during the witch-hunts of the late 17th century. It explored themes of prejudice and persecution such as that experienced by those accused of Communist activities by Sen. Joe McCarthy et al. Within three years, Miller was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and convicted of contempt of Congress for not cooperating. What followed was a difficult time in Miller’s life in which he ended a short and turbulent marriage with actress Marilyn Monroe. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote very little of note, concentrating at first on issues of guilt over the Holocaust, and later moving into comedies. It was not until the 1991 productions of his The Ride Down Mount Morgan and The Last Yankee that Miller’s career began to see a resurgence. Both plays returned to the themes of success and failure that he had dealt with in earlier works. Concerning himself with the American Dream, and the average American’s pursuit of it, Miller recognized a link between the poverty of the 1920s and the wealth of the 1980s. Encouraged by the success of these works, he saw a number of his earlier pieces returned to the stage for revival performances. More than any other contemporary playwright, Arthur Miller dedicated himself to the investigation of the moral plight of the white American working class. With a sense of realism and a strong ear for the American vernacular, Miller created characters whose voices are an important part of the American landscape. His insight into the psychology of desperation and his ability to create stories that express the deepest meanings of struggle have made him one of the most highly regarded and widely performed of American playwrights. Miller passed away in 2005. From: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/ with edits and additions by Madison Etman and Ann Landenberger. Arthur Miller \ The Characters John Proctor- a local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—that proves his downfall. When the hysteria begins, he hesitates to expose Abigail as a fraud because he worries that his secret will be revealed and his good name ruined. Abigail Williams- Reverend Parris’ niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor put her out after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail is smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive when crossed. Reverend John Hale- a young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter Betty. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of witchcraft. His critical mind and intelligence save him from falling into blind fervor. His arrival sets the hysteria in motion, although he later regrets his actions and attempts to save the lives of those accused. Elizabeth Proctor- John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth dismissed Abigail from the household when she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold. Reverend Samuel Parris- Tminister of Salem’s church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power- hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community. Rebecca Nurse- Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous regard by most of the Salem community. However, she falls victim to the hysteria when the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and she refuses to confess. Francis Nurse- awealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife. Deputy Governor Danforth- deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest and scrupulous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft. Giles Corey- an elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous for his tendency to file lawsuits. Giles’ wife, Martha, is accused of witchcraft, and he himself is eventually held in contempt of court and pressed to death with large stones. Ann Putnam- Ann Putnam has given birth to eight children, but only Ruth Putnam survived. The other seven died before they were a day old, and Ann is convinced that they were murdered by supernatural means. She is the wife of Thomas Putnam, whom we never meet in this production due to an ailment. Wealthy, influential citizens of Salem, the Putnams hold a grudge against Francis Nurse for preventing Putnam’s brother-in-law from being elected to the office of minister. They uses the witch trials to increase they own wealth by accusing people of witchcraft and then buying up their land. Tituba- Reverend Parris’ slave from Barbados. Tituba agrees to perform voodoo at Abigail’s request. Mary Warren- servant in the Proctor household and a member of Abigail’s group of girls. She is a timid girl--easily influenced by those around her-- who tried unsuccessfully to expose the hoax and who ultimately recanted her confession. Betty Parris- Reverend Parris’s ten-year-old daughter. Betty falls into a strange stupor after Parris catches her and the other girls dancing in the forest with Tituba. Her illness and that of Ruth Putnam fuel the first rumors of witchcraft. Martha Corey- Giles Corey’s third wife. Martha’s reading habits lead to her arrest and conviction for witchcraft. Ezekiel Cheever- a man from Salem who acts as clerk of the court during the witch trials. He is upright and determined to do his duty for justice. Judge Hathorne- a judge who presides, along with Danforth, over the witch trials. John Herrick- the marshal of Salem. Mercy Lewis and Susanna Walcott- two of the girls in Abigail’s group.

Load more