USM Theatres Spring Schedule Concludes with Arthur Millers "The Crucible"

As part of his graduate thesis at The University of Southern Mississippi, theatre student Corey Bradberry is directing an American classic play that has spoken to many generations - Arthur Miller's The Crucible - which was the first production performed in USM's Martha Tatum Theatre in 1999.

The Crucible opened last weekend, but has three more showings April 27, 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Tatum Theatre on the Hattiesburg campus of Southern Miss. Ticket prices are $14 for the general public, $10 for USM faculty, staff, seniors and military, and $8 for students. To purchase tickets, visit southernmisstickets.com or call 800.845.TICK.

“The Crucible is about the fallout of the events of the Salem witch trials that occurred in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692,” Bradberry said. “I think audiences will see a lot of parallels between what went on then and what's going on now. Miller was responding to the political climate of the early 1950s, which resonates even more strongly with us in our contemporary point on the timeline.”

Bradberry, a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing candidate and native of Atlanta, and the cast and crew have been working on the production for more than a year since it was selected by Department of Theatre faculty as part of its annual season selection process last March.

Robinson J. Cyrprian, a sophomore from Hammond, La., is playing the role of John Proctor. The role of Elizabeth Proctor is played by Haley Beasley, a senior from Ellisville, Miss. Senior Jonathan Damare, originally from Covington, La., is in the role of Reverend Hale. Taylor Hanes, a second-year M.F.A. a graduate from Las Vegas, Nev., is playing the role of Deputy Gov. Danforth.

English professor Dr. Luis Iglesias spoke about The Crucible at an event prior to this past Saturday's matinee. “Arthur Miller's parable about the McCarthy era should be understood against the cultural history of Puritanism. The play draws our attention to the mental struggles and the crisis of conscience that drove the Puritan mind to heights of intellectual inquiry and the depths of self-justifying explanations - a deeply rooted sense of paranoiac self-consciousness that has haunted American exceptionalism ever since,” Iglesias said.

For more information about Southern Miss Theatre, visit www.usm.edu/theatre.