Photos by Will Hanson
Before QAnon, before the Satanic Panic, before the Red Scare, there was the Salem Witch trials. Weaponized othering for simple revenge or personal gain. The Crucible reminds us that ‘We are what we always were’, and the urgent need for us as a community to push back against this bigotry, before we like Salem, get consumed by it.
In this world of The Crucible, the audience finds itself in The Society, an isolated controlled, cult like community. Here we see how quickly and devastatingly the consequences of repression, brutal control and insidious politics can consume all in its path.
I have never directed a more complicated and complex play. I’ve directed a lot of Shakespeare, endless fight scenes, I’ve directed musicals that require every actor on stage to match their lines and action with the pit. I’ve directed Titus Andronicus for goodness’s sake. But The Crucible beats them all. This is a true ensemble; EVERY SINGLE character is urgently needed to tell this story of a community self-destructing. There are so many layers to every character and every relationship on stage. We are not shying away from the truth that these are real people in real relationships that can be messy, funny, furious, and human.
Nothing is simple, nothing can be taken for granted, nothing is safe, this is the story of a community screaming, yelling, accusing, and blindly running towards self-implosion.
It reminds us that we as humans keep making the same mistakes.
We keep finding ourselves in a crucible of our own making.
The Crucible was performed in 2023 at The Mounds Theatre, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Director – Penelope Parsons-Lord
Consulting Director – Erika Sasseville
Consulting Fight and Movement Coach – Maggie Mae Sulentic
Stage Manager – Abby Narveson
Producers – Penelope Parsons-Lord, Krista Weiss, Rachel Linder & Derek Dirlam
Set Designer – Michael Haas
Lighting Designer – Mitchel Frazier
Costume Design – Penelope Parsons-Lord & Krista Weiss
Sound Designer – Steve Larson
Makeup Design – Robin Gilmer
Production Photographer - Will Hanson
Lighting Op - B Kelly
Set Construction – Jory Wagenman
Musial Arrangement – Mike McKinney
Opening Sequence Choreography – Jacob Hermann
Publicity Design – Aleksander Sievert & Derek Dirlam
Ensmeble – Sarah Quinn
Ensemble – Genna Dow
Mary Warren/Ensemble – Maddie Neal
Susanna Walcott/Ensemble – Nora Lee Young
Mercy Lewis/ Ensemble – Ellie Cassidy
Betty/ Ensemble – Ani Heikkila
Abigail Williams – Rachel Linder
Tituba – Abdimalik Ahmed
Reverend Parris – Kjer Whiting
Ann Putnam/Ensemble – Amanda Chial
Thomas Putnam – Jon Stentz
John Proctor – Derek Dirlam
Giles Cory – Mark Olson
Rebecca Nurse – Robin Gilmer
Reverend Hale – Alyssa Ehlen
Elizabeth Proctor – Penelope Parsons-Lord
Francis Nurse – Al Fiene
Judge Hawthorn – Molly Choate
Deputy Governor Danforth – Aleksander Sievert
