Prologue:
The woods outside of Salem Village
Act 1--Scene 1:
A bedroom in Reverend Samuel Parris' house,
Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1692.
Act 1--Scene 2:
The common room of Proctor's house, eight days later.
Act 2--Scene 1:
The vestry of the Salem Meeting House, two weeks later.
Act 2--Scene 2:
A cell in Salem jail, three months later.
**Intermission:
There will be a 15 minute intermission between Act 1 and Act 2. Food, beverages, and snacks are available in the lobby. Show shirts are also available for order.
HISTORICAL & BACKGROUND INFORMATION
by Alec Roseland & Spencer DePue
McCarthyism and the Red Scare
Joseph McCarthy served as a Republican senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. McCarthy’s term was built around lies; he was elected by spreading rumors about his opponent, Robert La Follette. Yet the lies only got worse afterwards; in 1950, he gave a speech at the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, in which he claimed to have a list of 205 known Communists working in the government. McCarthy’s only evidence was from Louis Budenz, who had heard about the Communists thirteen years prior. McCarthy’s false claims caused over a thousand government employees to be fired. McCarthy’s accusations were dubbed the “Red Scare,” a time still infamous to America today.
Arthur Miller & The Crucible
Arthur Miller was a playwright born in Harlem, New York, in 1915. In his works, Miller was famous both for his social commentary in the form of allegory and for his tendency to bring in new characters right after building high tensions. Miller wrote The Crucible in 1948 as an allegory to the ongoing Red Scare, using the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s as his basis. Miller’s other works include The Man Who Had All the Luck, All My Sons, and Death of Salesman.
The Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials began in January, 1694, when a group of girls began showing strange symptoms after having performed fortune-telling tricks with the local minister’s (Reverend Samuel Parris) slave, Tituba. The girls were questioned until one of them, Abigail Williams, accused Tituba of witching her, as well as accusing Sarah Good, Sarah Osbourne, and Bridget Bishop of witchcraft. Abigail’s accusations sparked a steady stream of accusations from the girls, with all the accused being put to trial. At the trial, if one confessed to witchcraft, they would be sent to jail, as this was seen as a wish to come to God’s side; if not, however, they would be hanged, as with Bridget Bishop, the first person to hang from the trial. Gradually the accusations began to get more and more ridiculous, as the girls were accusing people of high regard in the town; eventually the governor, Simon Bradstreet, put an end to the trials when his wife was accused. Still today, the Salem Witch Trials are a reminder of the effects of mass hysteria and thinking illogically.
