by Stacey Hall, Staff Photographer and Writer
From Nov. 4-7, the Fountain Valley High School Theatre Department put on their long-awaited fall production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
Set in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692, right in the middle of the historic Salem witch trials, The Crucible tells the tale of a town engulfed in a frenzy of witch-hunting after a series of suspicious events. Beginning when a young girl named Betty Parris, played by Gina Ngo (‘17) falls into a coma after dancing with an alleged witch, a black woman named Tituba, played by Hana Rohfeld (‘16). After this incident, the townspeople become obsessed with finding and killing the supposed witches among them in order to bring justice to Betty and the other alleged victims of the witches’ black magic, and to prevent anyone else from falling prey to the dangers of witchcraft.
Mark Soliman (‘16) and Leila Majd-Faridi (‘17) shone on stage from the very beginning with their performances as John Proctor and Abigail Williams respectively, bringing their characters to life with a tense chemistry that set the scene for what proved to be an exciting evening full of drama and suspense.
Several months prior to the events of the play, Proctor and Williams, who worked for the Proctor household, began a romantic affair, arousing suspicion in Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, played by Claire Pritchard (‘16). After Abigail and her friends are caught with Tituba, she and the other girls are interrogated by the townspeople. They quickly enter into a state of near hysteria and begin naming other women who they accuse of being witches, including Elizabeth and eventually Proctor himself, both of whom are convinced that the girls are lying.
Once his affair with Abigail is discovered, Proctor is forced to admit to his actions and is convinced to confess to being a witch. The play closes as Proctor and the other accused witches are brought to the gallows and executed for their alleged crimes.
The staging, lighting, and costuming were every bit as impressive as the acting itself. The backstage crew did an excellent job of recreating Salem with the eerie overtones of witchcraft and darkness, bringing the audience into the world of the Salem witch trials.
The FVHS Theatre Department has been working hard on The Crucible since the beginning of the school year, from auditions on Aug. 31 all the way up to their first performance at the student preview on Nov. 7. All of the hard work that the students put into the production definitely paid off. The audience recognized the talented cast with a standing ovation and a round of cheering and applause.
Emma Hall (‘18), who saw the play on student preview night on Nov. 4, praised the effort that the cast and crew put into the production.
“It turned out really well! The whole [play] was really well done and you could tell that everyone put a lot of work into their parts and making the whole thing turn out well,” Hall said.
Promo for “The Crucible”:
