Which Of Your Neighbors Will be Crying, ‘Witch’?

Susan Holtz and Suz Stone of Maplewood can be seen in The Crucible, Arthur Miller's well-known Colonial “witch hunt,” when it plays at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts in Maplewood over two weekends in October. It is being presented by interACT Theatre Productions.

The Crucible provides a harrowing glimpse of the living nightmare of the 17th-century Salem Witch Trials. The play features a group of troubled girls in Puritan Salem whose accusations of witchcraft and devil-worship spiral out of control into mass trials and hangings in which every good citizen is soon pointing the finger at their neighbor and crying out for their blood. 

“Unfortunately, the witch hunts are not isolated in the past,” said Director Nicholas J. Clarey. “In Arthur Miller's time, and still today, the witch hunters are alive and well in our culture. Whether rooting out alleged communists, hanging witches, dehumanizing homosexuals, condemning minorities, or fomenting resentment across racial lines, the story is the same; it is just the costumes that have changed."

A simmering adulterous triangle complicates the situation between community pillar John Proctor (Erik Gaden of Denville), his wounded wife Elizabeth Proctor (double-cast with Holtz and Christine Gaden of Denville), and the calculating ringleader of the girls crying “witch,” Abigail Williams (Shiva Kiani of Newark). Stone shares the role of Ann Putnam.

Local neighbors in the cast keep it all in the family: Mother/daughter Sarah Rosen and Dora Kianovsky, and Father/daughter Dean and Elyssa Nielsen all have featured roles. Plus see Shona Roebuck, who runs theater programs at Morrow and will be director of interACT’s children production Charlotte’s Web. Meet the full cast @ InterACT.

Performances will be 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12; Saturday, Oct. 13 (matinee and evening at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.); and Sunday matinee on Oct. 14 at 2 p.m.

The play will also run the following weekend, with performances at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19; Saturday, Oct. 20 (matinee at 2 p.m. and evening showing at 8 p.m.); and Sunday matinee, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students (w/ID) and seniors.

More information is available from interACT Theatre Productions @ http://www.interactproductions.org or (973)-544-8489. Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts is located at 10 Durand Road in Maplewood.