The Crucible images
Director John (different John—John was in the cast, though, playing John Proctor) wanted a cold look in a space that could function as a single room but also had scope and perspectives for crowd scenes. The space had to go four ways, too, as a bedchamber, a living room, a courtroom and a jail. What I proposed was what you see above. The main space had its own coherence but offered these two doors with enormous vestibules where crowds could collect before spilling into the main space. The Upstage wall (dashed line) had four identities, illustrated in sketches at right.
We settled on a bleak, chilly light blue for the room, with a heavy rich blue in the vestibules. The Act 1 bedchamber got some bright colors from authentic painted furniture. (A grad school bud of Fran's was working at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts and sent us some photos; by the 1690s these dour Puritans were using a lot of color in their paint, along with an exuberance of design that just made your mind reel. Note to self: Rethink whole "dour" thing about Puritans.) Proctor's house in Act 2 was more subdued, with most of the visual lines centering on the fireplace (bottom left in the sketch).
The courtroom in Act 3 was really the vestry of the church in Salem. It was the scariest room of all, no color except the blue and some black fabric. The whole town crowded in for the trial, more than filling the stage. The young girls staged one of their manifestations on the stage apron. Molding treatment on the replaceable wall provided all the detail. The Act 4 jail was simplest of all, just a window too high to see through.
Hmm, my numbers have gone wrong. There are five acts and five locales, plus the "forest dance" induction at the top. Amanda built a curtain of sheer fabric that functioned as a scrim; the dancers worked behind it, and John and Abby's tryst took place in front. You could see the townspeople in court behind them, good effect.
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