For many years, Burton Adventist Academy, the largest Seventh-day Adventist school in the Southwestern Union, has built a reputation for itself from its dynamic, original, and family-friendly drama productions. Every year, families across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex come and enjoy these productions. As Burton Academy decides on it’s next production to perform, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible should not be selected or performed because it is not appropriate for a family-friendly and Christian environment, and its clichéd nature and historical inaccuracies further misalign it from the dynamic vision of Burton Academy’s drama department.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible depicts Salem Village, Massachusetts during the infamous Salem Witch Trials. After a group of young girls were caught dancing in the forest, which at the time was considered to be the devil’s playground, rumors of witchcraft quickly spread through the town. To get out of diabolical trouble, the girls decided to give names of women who had “bewitched” them, the first being a black slave named Tituba who lead the dancing. Later on in the play, it is discovered that the leader of the group of girls, Abigail, who was about 17 or 18 years old, had an affair with a married man named John Proctor. The considered sentiment being that this is certainly not appropriate for a family-friendly production. Not to mention, the strong and profane language employed in the play further disentitles it. For example, the vocabulary used in the end of Act III, Proctor says, “You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!” This word is repeated several times in the drama, and it is tremendously degrading to women and utterly not appropriate for a family-friendly audience.
Moreover, Burton Adventist Academy takes great pride in the originality of its productions. Every single production ever performed at Burton Adventist Academy, with the exception of two, was written by the Drama director, Devin Anavitarte. The Crucible may be one of the most frequently performed plays there is (Hayes). It is performed almost every year by many schools in the country. Performing such a play would take away from Burton Academy’s unhackneyed upper hand. Also, a further point to be considered, The Crucible was originally published in 1953; it is outdated. In an innovative and advancing era there should be more modern and relevant plays presented.
The counterargument is that The Crucible should be performed because of its historical context and timeless moral lesson. It is important however, not to overemphasis the strengths of this sentiment because the play has far too many historical inaccuracies and inconsistencies to be considered almost solely for its historical clout. Arthur Miller, the playwright himself, admitted the play wasn’t historically accurate. To begin with, the whole story of John Proctor and Abigail William’s affair is completely fictional and Abigail was actually about 11 or 12 years old, not 17 or 18 (Burns). The Crucible was inspired by the hysteria and fear of communism during the Cold War; the time period in which Miller wrote the play. Burns writes, “In Miller’s play and screenplay, however, it is a lovelorn teenager, spurned by the married man she loves, who fans a whole community into a blood-lust frenzy in revenge. This is simply not history.” Furthermore, the black slave Tituba never actually lead any dancing in the woods. In fact, there’s no historical evidence, that there ever was any wild dancing rite in the woods at all (Burns). Lastly, The Crucible does have a timeless moral lesson, but there are plenty of other plays with good lessons that are actually family-friendly.
In conclusion, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible should not be performed at Burton Academy because it has proven not suitable for all members of the family and Christian environment. Also, its clichéd nature and historical inaccuracies were well proven to further misalign it from the dynamic vision of Burton’s drama department. Burton Academy’s drama department has a great reputation and it shouldn’t be compromised for a play with a little historical clout and a good moral lesson. Given these points, Burton Academy’s drama department should stick to its effective tradition of writing original plays. It is what makes them unique and ensures the plays meet the dynamic vision of the drama department.