Our current endeavor

Athur Miller's

THE CRUCIBLE

A few months ago I was in my mother's office and we were talking about what was next for Lights Up!, her theater troupe.  We threw out ideas like "Little Women" around Christmas-time, a big musical like Suessical for the spring, or - hey! - wouldn't it be cool to do "The Crucible" around Halloween?! 

Ya know, a play about witches and witch trials the week before we all go Happy Haunting?!  That would be awesome!  And ya know what else?  Muad'Dib knows a lot about it.  He did a scene from it in High School (or something) and it's, like, one of his favorite plays! 

We're just riffing, right?

Two weeks later, Mom asks if I'm really going to do it.  I have this feeling...so I say, "I'll run it past the husband and see what he says."

So then in the car I turn to my hunny and say, "Yeah, and Mom and I were talking and we mentioned how cool it would be to do The Crucible around Halloween."

His response was foresee-able: "We're going on vacation three weeks before Halloween; and we did say that we were going to take a theater break.  I don't think we should do it."

"Okay.  I see that. I'll tell Mom."

But then...a few minutes later..."But if we DID do it, we'd do it like this - "

Before I really grasped what was happening, Muad'Dib was all fired up and on board. 

Well, then I thought, "There's no way we'll get the theater for those dates... lets just go talk to the Station."

I was right, there was no time available for us in the theater.  It seemed like Crucible was dead.

Then the lady in charged asked us what the play was about.

I explained that it was a play set in 1692, following the Salem witch trails, with themes on morality, fear, infidelity, hysteria and goodness.

She got SO excited and basically said, "We have to find a place to put this on!" 

All said and done, we decided on Gallery 51.  To me, it looked small.  To my mom and the lady, it seemed perfect.  An intimate setting for an intense play.

Well, then it seemed unlikely that we could get a talented, age appropriate cast to show up for auditions.

Still, we set up auditions and held them.

Nine people came.  Nine, for a cast that required at least 18 people.

We told those who did come that we didn't have enough.  If they had any friends interested, we'd hold another set of audition/callbacks two days later.  If we didn't have a cast by then, we'd call it off.

When Muad'Dib asked me if it was going to happen...I had a feeling.  Yes, it was going to happen.

The next audition rolled around.  Not only did we get enough people, we got enough TALENTED, AGE APPROPRIATE people to fill the cast - including Shematite and Mayflower.

We have blocked the play in about three weeks.  We will go on a vacation for two, then come back and rehearse three weeks.  Then we will open. 

This is the story.  All of these seemingly impossible things have come together to form what is already an impressive endeavor.  I hope you'll all plan to come see it.

We will open with a noon matinee on October 23, and then have further performances at 7:30pm October 25 - 29. 

Tickets are $10.00 general admission

$7.00 students and seniors

$5.00 for students accompanied  by a paying adult.