Lab Theater marks 100th production with ‘The Crucible’

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible will open the 11th season at The Laboratory Theater of Florida September 20. Not only is The Crucible the season opener, but it marks a milestone as the 100th production put on by the theater.

Things take a deadly turn when Reverend Parris finds a number of young women inappropriately dancing in the forest. To save themselves from punishment, they claim they’ve been bewitched by various townspeople. Once these girls, who have never had any voice or control, get a taste of the power that their claims wield, is there anything they won’t do to get everything they desire?

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is as relevant today as it was when it was first released in 1953, not long after the playwright had himself had been accused of un-American activities and communism by the McCarthy Commission. One of the original theater reviewers offered up this tidbit when asked his thoughts: “Arthur Miller’s The Crucible … is one of the great plays of American theater. A powerful and searing indictment of bigotry and ignorance, its depiction of the Salem Witch Trials of exactly 260 years ago is inescapably applicable to events today.         Robert Hilliard, Brooklyn Daily drama critic, January 23, 1953. (Reaffirmed August 12, 2019.)

Assistant Director Kendra Weaver says, “The theme of this play can be paralleled to any time frame, whether is 1692 or 2019. The Crucible is NOW!!”

“I would like to thank Robert Hilliard for his guidance and urging for the theater to produce this award-winning play by Arthur Miller,” Artistic Director Annette Trossbach adds. “It is a great honor and a challenge to direct such a seminal, time-honored, and award-winning show. It has dramatic, supernatural, heart-wrenching, comedic, and profound moments that are expertly woven into a story that continues to have meaningful impact in our modern times. I am blessed to be working with an outrageously talented cast and crew, each member of which had this play in his or her bucket list.”

The play features Steven Coe, Imani Williams, Paul Graffy, Melanie Payne, TJ Albertson, Kinley Gomez, Casey Davis, Lauren Miller, Todd Lyman, Ruthgena Augustin, Patrick Ashton, Art Keen, Daniel Sabiston, Heather Johnson, Mike Dinko, Corey Kane, Isabel Isenhower, Elizabeth Mora, Emmie Spiller and Tamicka Armstrong.

The Crucible is directed by Annette Trossbach and assistant directed by Rachel Burttram Powers and Kendra Weaver. Misha Ritter Polomsky serves as stage manager, with set design by Michael Eyth, light and sound design by Jonathan Johnson, costume design by Kristen Wilson, and stage combat by Annette Trossbach. The production has been generously sponsored by Ella Nayor and Jeffrey Cull.

The Crucible plays from September 20 – October 12 at the Laboratory Theater of Florida.

August 18, 2019.