For the annual fall play, the MLWGS Drama Department performed The Crucible, a harrowing tale written by Arthur Miller dramatizing the events of the Salem Witch Trials. The story, directed by Chewie Lo Moore and Elle Meerovich, follows Abigail Williams, played by Ellie Agnello (‘26), leading her friends into a frenzy of witchcraft accusations after being caught participating in highly illegal witchcraft. All of this reaches a boiling point when Elizabeth Proctor, played by Hiya Agrawal (‘25), is accused. Her accusation sends her husband John Proctor, played by Brennan Harbour (‘26), into an attempt to prove that the girls are lying with the help of Mary Warren, played by Veda Urban (‘28). While fighting for his wife’s innocence, it is later revealed that John had a prior affair with Abigail, leading to him being accused himself and ruining his chances to free his wife. Refusing to admit to any form of witchcraft or throw any of his friends under the bus, he takes the punishment of death. Although the play is not completely accurate to the actual events of the witch trials, it includes portrayals of real accusers and accused.

Miller wrote this play in 1953 during the height of the Second Red Scare by using the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory to McCarthyism due to their similar natures. Miller reported in The New Yorker that “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties." Since the release, the play has been adapted into many award-nominated films, has been performed countless times, and is still taught in English classes today.

After a long two months of rehearsals and behind-the-scenes work, the cast and crew put on an amazing performance. Unfortunately, due to sickness among the cast, the third and final show had to be cancelled for the safety of everyone involved, but that did not stop them from working their hardest on the performances they were able to share with the MLWGS community. With another play in the books, we are ecstatic to see the MLWGS Drama Department’s upcoming spring musical Mean Girls!