By Camyllie Huynh
School drama productions are not nearly as commonplace as weekly football games. However, after weeks of hard work, the La Cueva High School theater community is bringing The Crucible to the stage of the Performing Arts Center on March 2-4. Each show will be held at 7 p.m., and student tickets are available online for $5.
The show is being directed by Steve Pinzone, who thinks that The Crucible is “super relevant right now” and that “it has something to say about the world we’re living in today.” He hopes The Crucible, his big show of the year, will leave a lasting impression on the audience. “We do this for the school,” Pinzone said.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is literally about the Salem Witch trials of the 1690s while it makes commentary on the Red Scare of the 1950s. It is also a play many of LCHS’s students read during their junior year.
However, “plays were written to be performed and not just to be read,” Miriam Shurtz, a senior cast as Elizabeth Proctor, said. It is an entirely different experience to watch a show onstage than analyzing it in the classroom and The Crucible crew and cast are working diligently to deliver their very best.
“You need the fruits of your labor and the fruits of your labor in theater are that the audience enjoys the show and they’re impacted--that’s your reward,” Pinzone said.
The students putting this show together are very passionate about theater and are excited to show the audience the product of all their hard work. “What we get out of it is going to be worth what we put into it,” Shurtz said confidently after admitting that working on The Crucible is “emotionally taxing.” The play is filled with dramatic, heavy, and emotional scenes that Aidan Lujan, a junior playing John Proctor, hopes will make the audience cry.
“I put my heart and soul into this,” Lujan said.
“Everyone working on a production is working towards a common goal, and that’s the beautiful thing,” Pinzone said. “A range of backgrounds, and students, and ages, and we all come together for a unified purpose. That’s the power of collaborative art.”
To buy tickets, go to: