JJ Margolis

The Crucible is a timeless piece with a relevance in today's climate that cannot be ignored. It was a fantastic opportunity to work on a piece that has such a resounding message. The image that our Design Team sought to emphasize with this piece was that it is a play about power. Characters in the play, for a wide variety of reasons, take an opportunity to press their own agenda. The well-meaning pastor, Paris, seeking to secure his position in the village, and more specifically, Abigail, seeking to take advantage of people's fear to seize power over everyone which was, at that time, largely unavailable to women.

Instead of seeking a very realistic, period piece, the visual elements of the piece merely suggested a period while grounding the piece into a world of tension, suspicion, and weariness.

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My design for this piece revolved around amplifying the emotional undercurrents of every scene. I incorporated a combination of scores from Sofia Gubaidulina and heavy drones.

The greatest hurdle that one faces with this play is to carry suspense and drive the belief in magic and the fear of the 'other' that the characters hold without leading the audience to believe that there is a supernatural presence in the play.

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Production Photos and Sample Audio Content Coming Soon!