Crucible Final Thoughts
And so another show comes to a close. I promised you a view “from the rehearsal hall to the closing night party” so I’ll give you a few party happenings a little later. First, the run. The Crucible is a huge cast show in TPAC’s large (read: expensive) Polk Theatre. So we had a jam-packed (8 shows a week), 2-week run, while we usually enjoy a 3-week run. Now I usually believe in the adage of “leave them wanting more,” but this was one of those shows that noone wanted to end (versus those “Do we really have one more week?!?” shows). The cast had really settled into their roles and the flow/rhythm of the show. Add to that the overwhelmingly positive reactions from student and adult audiences alike, and we all would have enjoyed that extra week.
So was the show a “success”? With theatre, there are many, many different ways to define the success of a show. Sometimes a theatre does the show for artistic reasons (see this season’s The Goat)–it’s a show that the theatre strongly believes that the local community needs to see; a show that says something powerful and timely about the human condition; a show that has the capacity to transcend, to move, and to challenge. While theatre’s always have to worry about the bottom line, these shows are produced not because they’re expected to sell out but because they have to be–and we hope that people will respond to the work and turn out to see them. ”Success” for such shows may simply be performances that touch those who come out, that challenge and move them. In the case of The Crucible, I would probably classify it as an artistic show that needed to be done (an American classic that hadn’t been seen in this area in ages); one that we certainly hoped people would come see. And we were pleasantly surprised…twiced. The student audiences (packed–the Humanities Outreach people would have added another student show if we weren’t already at our max) surprised us with their rapt attention and passionate responses to this play written before their parents were born, and the adult audiences surprised us by their strong connection to this play and by coming out in large numbers. Both surprises were welcome from a fiscal perspective as well as artistically gratifying.
It’s always fascinating to hear people’s responses to the plays–particularly from people who know a play well and have seen it many times before. As I said, the overall response was overwhelmingly positive. However, as always happens, there was some spirited debate about some of those “decisions” I talked about a few posts back. We spent a lot of time exploring the relationship between John Proctor and Abigail–they had had an affair months prior, and in the first scene they find themselves in a room alone (well, with the catatonic Betty). We had many questions to think about: Why doesn’t John leave? How much attraction still exists between the two? Why doesn’t John stay and put an end to the “witch nonsense” that very night? At one point in the scene as Abigail is trying to seduce John, she initiates a kiss. He pulls away but then momentarily gives in to temptation and kisses her back. After a brief kiss, he breaks away and turns to leave. This was the moment that sparked some debate. For a few people, this seemed to taint John; for them John Proctor was a “noble man” who simply wouldn’t kiss Abigail; he was a man who had made a mistake months ago but was at heart a good, noble man. And, in rehearsal, we certainly wrestled with these ideas. But is John Proctor a good, noble man from the beginning, or is he a flawed man who finds his nobility, his goodness, in the play’s final moments? Remember that John is content to stay on his farm while the nonsense rages in town; it’s not until the trouble comes to his very door (when Elizabeth is arrested), that he tries to put a stop to it.
But this, to me, shows why theatre is such a wonderful art form. With a movie, a character is set. It is performed once and will never change. With a play, John Proctor changes every time The Crucible is performed. In some productions, he may indeed be a noble man, whose nobility is unquestioned from the beginning, who finds himself thrust into this insane circumstance. You can never truly “know” a character in a play, because the next time you see it, he or she will have changed. And how a director and her actors answer those questions will change an audiences experience and ultimately the message of the play. Which one is right and which one is wrong? Another amazing aspect of theatre–when dealing with these choices, there is no right or wrong–there is only the difference of the choices and how they are received by an audience.
Now, as for the party talk (you thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?)–suffice it to say that tequila shots are a well-established closing-night tradition; especially when it’s discovered that one cast member has never had one (one adult cast member, of course!).
Next up for us…
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[...] read. David does more than just describe what’s happening on stage and backstage. He also writes eloquently about the decisions made during the creative process that most folks never think about. We are lucky enough to see the excellent end [...]