The Gallery Players Presents THE CRUCIBLE, Opens 3/20

After selling out NYC's first revival of Caroline, or Change this winter, The Gallery Players is proud to open the spring with Arthur Millers' classic The Crucible. Directed by The Gallery Players' Artistic Director Heather Siobhan Curran, the 1953 Tony Award winner for Best Play opens Saturday, March 20 2010.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible has been called, "A powerful drama," By NY Times, "Strongly written," by NY Daily News, and comes to The Gallery Players' stage for the first time in its 43-year history March 20-April 4th 2010. This exciting drama is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. The story focuses on John Proctor, a farmer, and Abigail Williams, the young servant-girl who maliciously accuses Proctor's wife Elizabeth of witchcraft. Proctor brings Abigail to court to admit the lie-and it is here that a monstrous course of bigotry and deceit is terrifyingly depicted. Proctor, instead of saving his wife, finds himself also accused of witchcraft and ultimately condemned with a host of others. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror that Miller uses to reflect the anti-Communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States.

"For many people, Arthur Miller's The Crucible may be the first play they've ever read," says Director Heather Siobhan Curran. "They may have never seen a production of it, but the story makes a deep impression on them, and they remember it. Miller's theatrical combination of hysteria versus logic, love versus hate and taking a vengeful act to the extreme has immense power. Although the play was written as a response to the McCarthy-era ‘witch hunts' in the 1950's, it has become more universal the further removed we are from that time period. As long as intolerance and fear, whether political, ideological or religious exists, we can all continue to ask the question: how far would you go for what you believe is right?"

The cast of The Crucible at The Gallery Players features John Blaylock* (Bus Stop, The Gallery Players), Gil Brady*, Daniel Damiano (As You Like It, The Gallery Players), Lisa Darden*, Genevieve Gearhart, Emily Hagburg (Measure for Measure, Shakespeare & Company), Justin Herfel* (The Underpants, The Gallery Players), Frederic Heringes*(The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway, National Tour), John Isgro*, Tom Lawson, Jr.*, Lindsay Mack, Russell Mahrt, Rhyn McLemore*(Violet, The Gallery Players), Sofia Munn, Alison Ostergaard (Women Beware Women, Red Bull Theatre; Pride & Prejudice, The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey), Bob Pritchard, Elisa Pupko (The Children's Hour, Astoria Performing Arts Center), Joe Regan and Gina Stahlnecker*

The Crucible is directed by The Gallery Players' Artistic Director Heather Siobhan Curran and produced by Graham Mills for The Gallery Players. The set designer is Lilia Trenkova, costume designer: Megan Q. Dudley, lighting designer: David Roy, sound designer: Neal J. Freeman, Properties Design: Virginia Monte, Dramaturg: Amanda White and the Production Stage Manager is Michael Aaron Jones* *appearing courtesy of AEA

The Crucible opens Saturday, March 20, 2010 and runs Thursdays, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm and Sundays at 3pm through April 4, 2010.

Tickets to The Crucible are $18 for adults, $14 for Seniors & Children 12 and under. Individual tickets can be purchased by calling TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101, or online at www.galleryplayers.com. The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th St., between 4th and 5th Aves. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Take the F Train to 4th Ave. or the R Train to 9th Street. By car: BQE to Hamilton Avenue to 14th Street.

A New York institution since 1967, The Gallery Players has served actors and audiences alike for more than 4 decades by showcasing burgeoning new talent and offering a home base for theater professionals. Its eclectic programming of intimate revivals and ambitious new work in inventive productions has earned it the reputation of "New York's Best Kept Secret." The Gallery Players is the recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review's 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement and is the three-time recipient of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical in 2007, 2008 and 2009 for their productions of Urinetown! The musical, Yank! A New Musical and Like You Like It. Among its famous alumni are founding member Harvey Fierstein; Broadway regulars Nancy Anderson, Jeffry Denman and Diedre Goodwin; New York theater personality Seth Rudetsky and many others.

The Gallery Players' 43rd season continues with City of Angels May 1-23, 2010, and closes with The 13th Annual Black Box New Play Festival, June 10-27, 2010. For more information on The Gallery Players' 43rd season, visit www.galleryplayers.com.