'How Did We Get Here?' Kimberly Bellflower Wants Broadway to Reexamine the Morally Gray

In 2017, when the Me Too movement was sweeping the country, playwright Kimberly Bellflower was struck with an idea for her next project. Now, eight years later, that project has become one of the most anticipated new plays of the Spring 2025 Broadway season- John Proctor Is the Villain.

History repeats itself, and it's a theme that is ever-present in Bellflower's new play, which revolves around a high school English class studying The Crucible. As they delve into the American classic, the students begin to question the play’s perspective and the validity of naming John Proctor the show’s hero. 

Bellflower took a break from rehearsals to chat with BroadwayWorld about the play's origins, reuniting with director Danya Taymor, and more.

I know that you are deep in rehearsals right now. How are they going?

They're going beautifully. I'm so happy! Danya [Taymor] and I have been trying to work on this play together for years, so finally being in a room with her is just beyond. It's a better fit than I even dreamed it would be. I feel like we're almost always on the exact same page. There have been several instances of her asking me something and then me texting her a very specific answer right as she texts me the same exact thought. There's a lot of playfulness and joy and also deep rigor and conversations. 

I know this show being on Broadway has been a long time coming. Can you talk me through the early days- how did you come about to write this?

I first had the initial spark of the idea for this in 2017. I had read this amazing book by Stacy Schiff, The Witches, Salem 1692- a nonfiction book about the Salem Witch Trials that really cracked open my understanding of the context around them, specifically what was going on in the lives of these young women. And so I had read that book, not for anything, just for pleasure. And then that fall is when the first tidal wave of Me Too hit. I, like a lot of people I know, was completely consumed with it. I was reading every article, looking back at my own life and feeling like I had the vocabulary to name certain experiences that I didn't get before. Like, "Oh, that wasn't a weird thing at a party, that was assault!"

Then I think Woody Allen was the first person in an interview to call it a witch hunt. And I had just read this book... so I thought, "I should reread the Crucible!" which is how my dork brain works. [Laughs] And in rereading The Crucible with the specific Me Too-lens, I realized that I remembered this story completely differently. I don't think when I read it in high school I was paying attention to the ages of the characters, the power dynamics at play, and I didn't know all of this context that Stacy Schiff's book made me realize. 

My family has a farm in North Carolina and I was back home and I found myself saying out loud to my parents over dinner, "It's crazy because it feels like John Proctor Is the Villain..." From there it all lined up perfectly. I was interviewing for this commission called the College Collaboration Project, where several colleges and universities co-commissioned early career playwrights to develop a play alongside their theater students. I had submitted a different pitch for a different play. And then in the interview, I was like, "I'm also thinking about this other thing!" And that was all in 2017.

And when did Danya come into the picture?

I had briefly met Danya when I was in grad school in 2016. I went to observe at Playpen and she was directing a play there that summer. I remember then just being so struck by her. I felt myself going back to her rehearsal room multiple times because I was just like, "Man, she's so smart! Man, the way she talks about plays is so cool." And just found myself really drawn to her. 

And then when in 2019, I was talking to Studio Theater about possible directors for the premiere, her name came up. I remember my phone call with Danya lasted for two hours and was so far ranging and deep. My whole body is just kind of buzzing with excitement. I think the play is darker and weirder than a lot of people think it is on first read, and she really got that underbelly immediately. And just the questions she was asking, the references she was putting forward... it was just an amazing conversation. 

Then time passed, and watching her star rise was such a joy. Then when Sadie [Sink] read the play, the producers mentioned Danya and it was so exciting. And you know, in the meantime, I had worked with multiple other directors on the play and the play has changed several times, which can always be challenging and complicated, but I found it really enriching. And then when it came back around to Danya and I had a conversation with her, I loved being in the room with her so much. I remember talking to my partner on the phone and he's being like, "Man, it's really living up to like my own self-created hype!"

Let's talk a bit more about the ensemble of young women that you have assembled.

I'm obsessed with them. Now the play is inadvertently a period piece. You know, I started writing it in the first Trump administration and now here we are again. And it's very fitting because the play is so about how cycles repeat themselves. Sadie and Danya and I were at breakfast yesterday and we were talking about the Me Too movement and Sadie said, "Yeah, I was like 14!" So now there's a group of actors who are playing high schoolers during the moment in time when Me Too hit... were high schoolers. I didn't really clock that when we were in auditions. Them having that direct lived experience and them kind of being in this generation that has kind of felt the world shift underneath their feet multiple times, in multiple ways... They are able to bring such honesty and directness because of that.

And also, they're just so smart. They're so funny. Getting to know them as people and then having them bring their individual selves to these roles is just so, so special. 

The play is set in a rural town in Georgia, much like the one I grew up in, and none of our actors grew up in that town. But the compassion and empathy that they're able to bring to that experience while bringing their own experience to it is just so remarkable. 

What do you think is going to surprise audiences about this play?

Well, not to toot my own horn, but I think the play is very funny. I think that it is tackling these big ideas, these big questions, these moral gray areas, and it can get very intense, but it remains funny throughout in a way that may be surprising when you read on paper what the synopsis is. 

Why do you think that this is a play that people need to see in 2025? 

I think it connects back to this idea that moments like Me Too don't happen in a vacuum. Moments like this- the Salem Witch Trials- they  don't happen in a vacuum. It's like...history repeats itself, cycles perpetuate themselves. I guess I want us to look at this moment, look back at our recent history and in our distant history and kind of be like, how does this keep happening? How did we get here? 

The play is certainly not a Arthur Miller hit piece by any means. It's not even The Crucible itself that is a problem. I feel like we get really married to one interpretation of canonical literature- this is right, that is wrong. This play says- but maybe there's this other thing too... I think that the more that we can do that, not just with books, but with everything... the more that we can hold two truths in the same hand and really live in that moral gray area, I think the better off we'll be. I hope that the play hopefully will plant those seeds that continue to grow.

John Proctor Is the Villain will open on April 14 at the Booth Theatre. View the full 2025 Spring Preview!