This fall, join Radnor Actors Workshop for a powerful presentation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, directed by Mr. Brian Dietzler. Set in the Puritan Town of Salem,, Massachusetts the play unfolds during the investigation and speculations now known as the Salem Witch Trials. Puritan culture had a strong dismissive attitude towards dancing, so when Abigail Williams and her group of Salem girls are caught dancing in the forest, chaos ensues. As hysteria spreads, the girls of Salem begin falsely accusing several villagers of witchcraft placing the community in turmoil. John Proctor, the main protagonist, is then left to defend his wife from the accusation of witchcraft, but his ties to Abigail and the rest of the village make it difficult to form a simple solution.
Debate over whether John Proctor is really the protagonist of The Crucible has spiked in recent years sparked in part by the contemporary Broadway play John Proctor Is the Villain, written by Kimberly Belflower and directed by Danya Taymor. The production opened on March 20th, 2025, and was an immediate success. By the time the show closed on September 7th, 2025, it had brought in over one million dollars. The show followed American actress Sadie Sink- best known for her role as Max in Stranger Things- as she began to question John Proctor’s role in The Crucible. Her classmates soon take this insight and begin to further question if John Proctor is really the hero of this story.
The Crucibles’ fame doesn’t end there. It is often grouped in the category of “classic novels” read in high school classrooms across the country. Mr. Brian Dietzler agrees that the Crucible is a “staple of high school theater and holds so many lessons and layers” that he knew “could be done well” at Radnor. Dietzler appreciates that “everyone is locked in and focused on bringing out this show’s greatest potential.” When asked for his stance on the perception of John Proctor through John Proctor is the Villain, Dietzler responded “I think it’s incredibly simplistic to blame one character in this play when it is a collective of sins and faults, they all contribute. John Proctor is no saint, but he is no sinner.” Senior Julia Kaisermann (Codirector and props manager) agrees that “There is no one person to blame. You could even blame the person who killed Abigail’s parents-it’s a chain reaction.”
A prominent theme throughout the story is religion and the way it haunts the characters as they endure these horrifying acts that contradict their own moral foundation. In Arthur Miller’s The Journey to the Crucible, Miller conveys his deep interest in the history of Salem. The town’s terrifying past and sequence of sins seemed to fascinate him; “Here hung Rebecca, John Proctor, George Jacobs people more real to me than the living can ever be… that people could have such belief in themselves and in the rightness of their consciences as to give their lives rather than say what they thought was false” (Miller).
As the show dates near, excitement continues to grow among the cast, Dietzler says the goal is to get “one audience member to love theatre as a result. In an era of tech, there’s nothing more solid than storytelling.” So, join us in Puritan England as this fascinating story embarks and the true mystery of Salem is uncovered.
Tickets are linked at Radnor Actors Workshop | Radnor High School | Radnor, PA.
