Mark Weiss wrote:
> Agreed, all around.
The Crucible at 12, Mark? Goodness, how corrupting:-) I had to waiting
until high school to read it. I've never seen it but I have a vigorous
imagination. I somehow missed the Nicholas Hytner film (I am not scared
off by Winona Ryder, who I gather was superb, anyway), but that is
easily remedied via the local video store. I would love to see Robert
Ward's operatic version which has been around since 1962 and thus has a
reasonable chance of becoming part of the standard repertoire at least
in secondary city companies (San Jose is playing it now). The
play...well, it grows in the imagination each year, regardless of
Miller's apparent disregard for historical factoids. The University of
Missouri/Kansas City website pages on the witch trial notes that the
historical Proctor was 60+ when all hell broke loose in Salem, while
Abigail Williams was about 11. No likely involvement there in that
event, Miller's own invention, but the effect onstage was at issue, as
were the dramatic motivators involved to undergird the politics: "hearts
full of passion, jealousy, and hate."
Miller writing The Crucible when he did has to be among the bravest acts
of any American writer. The only fictional parallel I can recall is
cinematic, Breaker Morant, an Australian film that was a gloss on the
Vietnam War. Maybe also on something I don't know about?
A question...apparently when the play was produced on Broadway in 1953,
the night scene in the woods between Proctor (Arthur Kennedy) and
Abigail (Madeleine Sherwood) was omitted. Why?
Miller wrote an essay called "Why I Wrote 'The Crucible'" which appeared
in The New Yorker in 1996. It's been archived. Unlike the NY Times,
which is well on its way to becoming a slot machine, this archive at
least is gratis.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?020422fr_archive02
Ken
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Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538
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