Southgate Community Players is holding auditions for our first adult show of the 2025/2026 season, "The Crucible". Auditions will take place on Monday, August 18 and Tuesday, August 19 at 7pm ET at the Corner Playhouse, 12671 Dix-Toledo in Southgate. Registration will begin 30 minutes prior to start time. Please plan on staying the entire time. You need not attend both sessions, but are welcome to do so. The audition will consist of readings from the script and monologues for select characters.
Rehearsal Calendar:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16vnLQCZGRYlXHmJwtDpCnRpUmzUwExQK/view?usp=sharing
Pre-registration can be completed here:
https://forms.gle/utLMg5nfREzYsWRYA
Actors of all ethnicities are encouraged to audition and will be considered for any and all roles. Roles will be played as the gender written, but actors are encouraged to audition as the gender they identify as. This will be an inclusive cast.
Directed by Steven Hilburg
Assistant Directed by Jema McCardell
Produced by Isabella Kroczaleski
Please see below or
http://www.scponstage.com/crucibleauditions for the director's note, character descriptions, and available monologues.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE:
Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” has always been a thought-provoking and rebellious piece of theatre. Its origin as a protest against the hysteria caused by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities makes it historically significant. That is why we approach “The Crucible” as a piece of historical American folk art. As an historian, I am always looking for ways that certain aspects of cultures and communities in the past can be communicated to people today. We are quick to assume that our lives are in no way similar to the lives of people one hundred years ago. This production team believes that “The Crucible” acts as a connection between all time periods. No matter where or when it is set, “The Crucible” offers themes that most people can relate to, like exclusion and anxiety. That is why we feel that it is appropriate to translate the story of “The Crucible” into a small-town in 1940s-1950s America. Like the play’s original setting of the 1690s, small towns in twentieth-century America were filled with tension stoked by fears of racial integration, nuclear war, communism, the challenging of gender roles, and the rise of evangelical Christianity. Small towns, where everyone knows each other, act as the perfect setting for a story with such themes. Therefore, the names and descriptions of some of the characters below have been changed according to the period of significance. Please read these descriptions carefully.
Characters:
Betty Parris - 12-25 (playing the younger end), Female, requires some physicality – Reverend Parris’s daughter. Betty falls into a strange stupor after Parris catches her and the girls dancing in the forest with Tituba.
Reverend Samuel Parris - 35-55, Male – Minister of Salem’s church, disliked by many residents because of his power-hungry, greedy, and domineering personality. He is more concerned about his reputation than the well-being of his sick daughter Betty. He is paranoid of being thrown out of Salem for having a witch as a daughter. Should be played similarly to a contemporary evangelical preacher.
Tituba - 20-50, Female, preferably a person of color – Reverend Parris’s servant. Tituba agrees to perform voodoo at Abigail’s request and tries to raise the spirits of Ann Putnam’s dead children. In the first scene she is turned in as a witch by Abigail and under duress accuses four other Salem women. By the end she is troubled by mental instability, haunted by hallucinations and hysteria.
Abigail Williams - 16-35 (playing the younger end), Female – Reverend Parris’s niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after discovering that Abigail had an affair with her husband, John. Smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive when crossed, she uses her charismatic influence over the girls to gain power to supplant Elizabeth so she and John can marry. The writer originally viewed Abigail as the antagonist. She is a victim of circumstance and had a sexual affair with a man potentially 30 years older than her. Interpret this as you may.
Susanna Walcott - 16-35, Female – Susanna is a nervous and hasty girl, younger than Abigail. She works for Dr. Griggs. She participates in the ritual in the woods with Tituba.
Mrs. Ann Putnam - 35-60, Female – Thomas Putnam’s wife, has given birth to eight children, but only Ruth Putnam survived. The other seven died before they were a day old, and Ann is convinced that they were murdered by supernatural means.
Thomas Putnam - 35-60, Male – A wealthy, influential citizen of Salem, Putnam holds a grudge against Francis Nurse for preventing Putnam’s brother-in-law from being elected to the office of minister. He uses the witch trials to increase his own wealth by accusing people of witchcraft and then buying up their land.
Mercy Lewis - 16-30, Female – Servant to the Putnams, Mercy is a “sly, merciless girl” She proves to be Abigail’s closest friend, sticking by her to the end.
Mary Warren - 17-35, Female – A timid servant in the Proctor household and a member of Abigail’s group of girls. Easily influenced by those around her, she tries unsuccessfully to expose the hoax, but is thwarted by Abigail and the other girls. In order to save herself from their accusations of witchcraft, Mary ultimately recants her confession and turns on John Proctor.
John Proctor - 30-45, Male – A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. His hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—proves his downfall. When the hysteria begins, he hesitates to expose Abigail as a fraud because he worries that his secret will be revealed and his good name ruined. He was originally written as the protagonist. However, it is important to note that despite his perceived heroism, he is flawed — demonstrated by his sexual affair with a minor.
Rebecca Nurse - 40-80 (playing the upper end), Female – Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman. A pillar of the community, held in highest regard by most of Salem. Jealous of Nurse’s many children, the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and, not only does she refuse to confess, but she voices her opposition to the idea of witchcraft and falls victim to the hysteria.
Giles Corey - 50-80 (playing the upper end), Male – An elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous for his tendency to file lawsuits, and a friend of John Proctor. After Giles’s wife, Martha, is accused of witchcraft, he is held in contempt of court and pressed to death with large stones. In spite of this torture, he refuses to plea (allowing his children to retain ownership of their property) and he refuses to accuse anyone else.
Reverend John Hale - 25-45, Male – A young minister, a committed Christian nearing forty, reputed to be an expert on witchcraft, called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter. His critical mind and intelligence save him from falling into blind fervor. His arrival sets the hysteria in motion, although he later regrets his actions and attempts to save the lives of those accused, even begging some—like John Proctor—to lie and confess in order to live.
Elizabeth Proctor - 25-40, Female – John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail with whom her husband was having an affair. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold, especially to John whom she understandably cannot forgive.
Francis Nurse - 50-80, Male – A wealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife.
Ezekiel Cheever - 25-60, Male – An astute but morally weak man from Salem who acts as the witch trials’ court clerk. This upright friend to most residents of Salem quickly turns on former friends and those accused of witchcraft, handling their arrests.
Marshal Herrick - 25-60, Male – The marshal of Salem responsible for bringing defendants before the court. Sympathetic, he comes to disbelieve the witchcraft allegations.
John Williard - 25-60, Male – The marshal of Salem responsible for bringing defendants before the court. Sympathetic, he comes to disbelieve the witchcraft allegations and refuses to make further arrests. He was then charged himself, arrested, and hanged.
Judge Hathorne - 35-75, Male – A judge who presides, along with Danforth, over the witch trials. Cold, ignorant, and antagonistic, he denies any possible explanation other than witchcraft.
Danforth - 35-75, Male – Presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest, scrupulous, and the ultimate authority, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft.
Martha Corey - (Voice only) Giles Corey’s third wife. Martha’s tendency to hide the books she reads lead to her arrest and conviction for witchcraft. Only her voice is heard from offstage as she testifies before the court.
Sarah Good - 25-60, Female – One of the first to be accused of witchcraft, she is poor and often rejected from society. Pregnant at her trial, she gives birth in jail but the baby dies. The ordeal has affected her to the point of mental instability. She appears only briefly in the last scene.
Hopkins - 18-75, Any – Salem’s jailer. Appears briefly in the last scene but does not speak.
Ensemble - 18-25, Any - This group of 5 to 10 people listen and react to testimonies during the courtroom scene in Act II. They are on Abigail’s side and follow her move.
AUDITION MONOLOGUES:
JOHN PROCTOR: (breathless and in agony):
It [meaning Abigail] is a whore! Mark her! Now she'll suck a scream to stab me with but- I have known her, sir. I have known her.... A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that. In the proper place – where my beasts are bedded, on the last night of my joy, some eight months past. She used to serve me in my house, sir. A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you – see her what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir – Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now.
ABIGAIL WILLIAMS: (returning to PROCTOR’s home after being dismissed): But John, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire you walked me through and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John. We lay in fire. And from that night, no woman called me wicked any more, but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up my skirt; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called me loose. And then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December tree I saw them all – walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me strength to call them liars and God made men listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again! You will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house!
REVEREND PARRIS: (to ABIGAIL): I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a dress lying in the grass and I thought I saw someone naked running through the trees. I saw it! Now tell me true, Abigail. Now my ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life.... Whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there. I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when there must be some good respect for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child, I have put clothes upon your back—now give me an upright answer – your name in the town – it is entirely white, is it not? Abigail, is there any other cause than you have told me, for Goody Proctor discharging you? It has troubled me that you are now seven months out of their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service.
ELIZABETH PROCTOR: (to JOHN PROCTOR): Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. And she may dote on it now - I am sure she does – and thinks to K*ll me, then to take my place. It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name – I am no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted. She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place, John.
MARY WARREN: (to ELIZABETH and PROCTOR): I never knew it before. I never knew anything before. When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleeps in ditches, and is so very old and poor. But then - then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then – (entranced) – I hear a voice, a screamin’ voice, and it were my voice – and all at once remembered everything she done to me!
DANFORTH: I judge nothing. (Pause. He keeps watching Proctor, who tries to meet his gaze). I tell you straight, Mister - I have seen marvels in this court. I have seen people choked before my eyes by spirits; I have seen them stuck by pins and slashed by daggers. I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me. Do you understand my meaning?
REVEREND HALE: (pleading to DANFORTH): Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell; I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! l may shut my conscience to it no more – private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now, and I pray you call back his wife before
we –
REBECCA NURSE: (sitting, calmly): I think she’ll wake in time. Pray, calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she’ll wake when she tires of it. A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.
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