Stagecrafters presents the timely message of ‘The Crucible.’

In Salem, the trouble begins when teenage girls are discovered trying to conjure spirits, and the town explodes with accusations of witchcraft. The finger-pointing leads to vicious trials that expose a community paralyzed by terror, religious extremism and greed.

Stagecrafters’ director Ryan S. Moore has much to be proud of with this production. The large cast delivers a solid ensemble performance and each of the principals is strong.  Aaron Kurilik, as John Proctor, is a standout – with a riveting performance that gives the full, carefully measured weight of conviction to each of Miller’s timeless lines.

The costumes are authentic to the Puritan period, but the set design is abstract and spare, symbolically suggesting a rift in the social fabric, so that everything points to a universal truth that transcends time and place. 

‘Whether you are a current student or your American lit days are decades behind you, you owe it to yourself to see this seminal American work as it was intended to be seen – living and breathing on a stage rather than on a musty page,’ says Moore.

 Moore is a Ferndale resident who has taught theatre and coached forensics at Abbott Middle School in West Bloomfield for 13 years. ‘I was drawn to The Crucible because it meets my definition of a true classic,’ he explains. ‘It only seems to get truer and more relevant with time.’

Noting that Miller was himself a victim of McCarthyism, Moore believes that this play … ‘still speaks to many issues that face our culture in 2011: totalitarianism, persecution, justice, social class. The media that saturate our modern lives only make the dissemination of misinformation and lies easier and faster. The play has much to say about how the powerless will seize power at any cost and about how hysteria can twist and corrupt a social group.  Although the play is dark and disturbing, I find beauty in the way certain characters find redemption by not giving power to a lie, even when the stakes are unimaginably high.’

Stagecrafters stirring production of The Crucible runs at the Baldwin Theatre through November 20th. The Baldwin Theatre is located at 415 S. Lafayette in downtown Royal Oak.

Advance tickets are $18 and $20.  Tickets may be purchased online or by phone at 248-541-6430. All seats are reserved.  If shows have not sold out, tickets can be purchased at the box office one hour prior to the performance for an additional $2.00 per ticket.  Shows take place Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and on Sundays at 2:00 p.m.

The Crucible Cast and Staff by Community