Students to show flair for the dramatic in 'The Crucible'

By Steve Van Kooten

Later this month, the students at Prairie du Chien High School are going to show everyone how dangerous words can be with their stage production of The Crucible.

Based on a 1953 play by Arthur Miller, The Crucible is an often-adapted drama about a struggle to gain power in a 17th-century Massachusetts village addled by rumors and accusations of witchcraft. The play was adapted into a Hollywood film in 1996 starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder and has received many stage and film interpretations over the past 70 years, including a notable French version called Les Socieres de Salem in 1957.

According to Caitlin Bittner, the play's director, the students were the driving force to bring The Crucible to the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center (PAAC) this year.

"The juniors and seniors fondly looked back on learning it in English 101 with Cory Willhite," she said. "Doing a play that they were passionate about was important to me because I thought that would make everyone involved more invested."

The play, which is full of fear, suspicion and betrayal, is a stark departure from the school's other recent musicals and plays, which have focused on fantasy and comedy, such as Studio C and Into the Woods. For some of the students, the change is a (pardon the pun) dramatic shift in tone.

"I would match this play closer to Letters of Sala," said Brecken Toberman. "You don't come here to laugh or something overjoying. It's a serious, solemn play that shows us what happened before. It's a very meaningful play."

Toberman is a senior, and this will be his last play before graduating high school in May. He plays Judge Thomas Danforth, who is a lynch pin in the story. 

"He's been the judge for roughly 32 years — he's like the top of the chain when it comes to government," he said. "He's the power and everything the play is about. Without him, there wouldn't be any tension."

Toberman has taken roles in several plays and musicals over the past several years, including George Banks in Mary Poppins as well as this past year's Studio C, but playing the judge gives him a chance to stretch his acting muscles. "It's pretty different than any other character I've ever played. He believes in witchcraft and believes in the Bible, and he'll achieve what he deems is right at any cost. In one of the lines, he talks about how he has sentenced 470 people to the jails and executed 40 by his signature alone, and he's ready to do the same thing in this town to rid it of witches."

Hope Walker, a sophomore, plays Mary Warren, one of the young girls swept up in the deceit that threatens to destroy Salem. "She's a meek girl who has to decide if she wants to be on the side of the truth or the side everyone else is on."

Walker said The Crucible's serious tone is a welcome challenge after previously working on the district's versions of The Lion King and especially Studio C. "That felt much more disorganized because it's separate skits — the separate jokes that don't flow into the same story. This is one huge story; everything comes together nicely to tell you the whole picture."

She continued, "It's an interesting story about how things can get with mass hysteria... Everyone is so expressive this year and so loud. It will be really interesting, especially with so much expression in Old English."

"I feel the students have been swept up in the power struggle of Salem. The truth is brought to light several times throughout the play, and our cast and crew have come up with some really cool interpretations of how to represent the presented and perceived truths," said Bittner.

The Crucible is Bittner's first play in the district as the director; however, she's supported by a strong production and technical team. "I am very thankful to be able to work with my assistant director Cory Mezera; our set creator extraordinaire, Levi Blackburn; our costume master, Adrienne Udelhoven; and Matt Lenz, who knows the ins and outs of the PAAC better than anyone else."

The Crucible will hold a dress rehearsal of Act I at the high school on April 15, with full shows on Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m. The final show will be on Saturday, April 18, at 1 p.m.