October 20, 2025 // Diocese

Saint Joseph Cast, Crew Bring ‘The Crucible’ to the Stage

Todays Catholic

By Peter George Baglow

This October, the theater program of Saint Joseph High School will take Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” to the stage: a classic in the world of theater since its release in 1953. The show features an incredible cast of iconic, complex characters who reflect very real and surprisingly modern fears, which are veiled under the guise of the Salem witch trials. The political and religious turmoil represented in the historical context of the production will strike the audience as unnervingly similar to today’s world. Throughout the production process, director A.J. Reynolds has been stressing the ideas of “the other” and “power” as the show’s main themes. This show will tackle the question of whether or not John Proctor (the almost universally accepted “good guy”) is really the perfect man Miller imagined him to be.

Provided by Saint Joseph High School
Joseph Harshman, left, and Sam Mark practice a scene during rehearsals for Saint Joseph High School’s fall play, “The Crucible.”

Writing during the height of the 1950’s era of McCarthyism, Miller used the Salem witch trials as an allegory for Joe McCarthy’s accusations against Communist conspirators in the United States government. McCarthy’s attacks were often referred to as a “witch hunt,” and the show moves the characters away from their historical counterparts, allowing them to better represent such modern events.

The witches in dresses and aprons and the prosecuting pastors in their Sunday best still manage to hint at something much deeper than far-off religious hysteria from the olden days. “The Crucible” reminds us of the world’s constant hunt for a scapegoat from its problems. Costumer Christine Baglow hopes viewers will recognize that the look of the show is designed to be “somewhat timeless, as the show’s premise could happen in any era and to any group.”

This show acts as a cautionary tale suggesting that when we forget that everyone is our neighbor, chaos ensues. We are reminded that we each have a responsibility to sincerely respect and value the other.

“The Crucible” also focuses a great deal on the power structures that shape our society, as well as what happens when those systems are upended for the benefit of the few. Evidence supporting the force theory about the development of human civilization has been around since the dawn of humanity, and Miller uses this to great effect. Miller’s own stage directions put the accused and those defending them at a visual disadvantage from the very beginning, and he plays with who is put into this disadvantageous space in order to push his themes forward. Many parts of this production have been designed to bring emphasis to both the power structures in play as well as the characters’ use of force to obtain what they want. For example, a depression created in the middle of the stage, achieved with multileveled platforms, is used to represent the “crucible” that the play is named after. A crucible, being a type of container in which metal is melted using incredible heat, is a fitting image for a tale revolving around the use of any means necessary to get the “truth” out of its characters. The meticulous stage design will help the audience see that the show itself is built around the power imbalances that give the famous plot its gripping nature.

Finally, this production will raise the simple question of how good “the good man,” John Proctor, really is. Miller never intended for Proctor to be considered anything other than the perfect American man who dies for the truth in reparation for his mistakes. However, the 2018 play “John Proctor Is the Villain” brings some thoughtful scrutiny to this character’s motivations. In a way, this sister show puts Proctor in a literary crucible by exploring what new meaning can be brought out in the flames. Saint Joseph High School’s production has taken inspiration from this piece, and those leading the production have decided to end the show with a question mark instead of a period, hoping to prompt the audience to leave the theater asking themselves whether or not Proctor was the good guy.

In his directing, Reynolds has been using “John Proctor is the Villain” as a piece of guiding material to help the actors think more deeply – and not just about Proctor’s motivations but about the rest of the cast’s motivations as well.

“Personally, I don’t see John Proctor as purely a hero or a villain,” Reynolds said. “He’s a deeply complicated character – flawed, conflicted, and human. And in that complexity, he becomes a powerful reflection of America itself, whether in 1600s Salem, the 1950s Red Scare, or the America of 2025,” Reynolds added.

Sam Mark, a junior at Saint Joseph, has risen to the occasion as the cast’s John Proctor. Mark said he wants “to create the question for the audience of if John Proctor is good or evil as they watch how he acts and reacts to the people around him and see why he does what he does.”

Saint Joseph’s fall play will open on Thursday, October 23, and will end the following day on Friday, October 24. Both shows will be performed at Washington Hall on the campus of the University of Notre Dame beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door. Those involved with the Saint Joseph theater program hope audiences will spend their evening enjoying a wonderful production and, more importantly, will be inspired by a powerful lesson for the turbulent times of society.

Peter George Baglow is a senior at Saint Joseph High School.