A Look Into: Student Production “The Krucible”
The cast taking their final bow together after the show.
November 18, 2022
Ava McClure, senior Theater major at Las Vegas Academy, was given the opportunity to write and direct her own play called “The Krucible”, which is her take on the famous play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller and Robert Icke. Her play was performed and rehearsed with a cast of students from the Thespians club at LVA.
This all started during quarantine when she first got the idea, but she officially started writing it in the second semester of her junior year. She said that while still writing it, “I showed it to one of my friends and then they were like ‘This is good’ and then I finished it and I showed it to the Thespians people and they were like ‘We’ll do it’.”
Looking back: she claimed the process of making the play was messy, not something super planned out or concrete, but it got the job done.
“It was kind of inspired by the Crucible. But I wanted to do [a] Monty Python version, I wanted to make it like a comedy. Essentially these two little girls get hexed by witches and the two town lawyers decide that they’re gonna burn [the witches] and then the town lawyer’s daughter is like ‘What, no’ so she and her friend go on a mission to stop the lawyers from burning the witches.”
The auditions were held and then the rehearsals started at the beginning of September this year. The first rehearsal consisted of a first-time reading through the play together during lunch.
They continued to have rehearsals during lunch only because of the other theater rehearsals going on after school for the play “A Christmas Carol”. This proved to be a struggle within those of the cast and crew of “The Krucible” who were also in the other play.
“We do our rehearsals during lunch and the rehearsals for Christmas Carol are after school but we had to work around the schedule so it’s been kind of stressful,” says Mcclure.
“I’ve got a couple other shows going on so it’s difficult to get all the lines but all the lines were so funny and memorable that it made it easier to get them all down,” said cast member Jared Linford who played John Hawthorne, co-magistrate of Salem.
Throughout the whole process of rehearsals and coming up with dates, there were a lot of scheduling do-overs, “We had a lot of scheduling issues and we had to rewrite the schedule like four times,” said Mcclure.
They were also given their performance date barely a week before they were going to perform. This was also two weeks before they intended on performing the show. They ended up having about 6 weeks to rehearse. Despite all the scheduling issues and short-notice performance dates, the cast and crew persevered.
The show took place on October 15 in the Knapp amphitheater at LVA. There was an unexpectedly large turnout which got the cast and crew excited. The crew had to go and find more chairs to seat this huge audience. “I was totally not expecting this turnout, which is the entire theater. We had to use the entire second floor of Knapp,” said Mcclure.
The cast had the audience captive throughout the show, prompting several laughs and cheers.
“I loved the originality of it and the fact that it was written by [a] student,” says Eva Williams, LVA student council adviser. “I love how [the show] had important issues and humor, how well the cast worked together, and how [they were] unafraid to just be silly.”
After the show, the audience wasn’t the only ones sharing cheers. The cast and crew also gathered together to congratulate each other.
“I feel great. That was a lot of fun,” said Aleesia Rael who played Prudence Hawthorne, the daughter of John Hawthorne.
“I feel amazing. I also feel very hot. It is very hot out here,” said Linford.
There were many photos taken with the cast and even an autograph signed.
“I think the show as a whole is something to be proud of. I’m proud to just be a part of it. I feel like the writing was genius thanks to Ava,” says Linford.
“I’m most proud of my castmates. I’ve been there to see all their struggles and fumbles. Seeing them go out there on the stage and do [their] absolute best was so amazing,” says Rael.
There may have been struggles and problems that were in the way of them. But the cast and crew of “The Krucible” prevailed through the difficulty. Mcclure now has an interesting and useful achievement under her belt.
Mcclure’s advice for anyone who wants to write/produce/direct their own play:
“Honestly, if you have a good idea, go for it. The worst thing that can happen is someone says no and you just find a different place to put your show on. For the most part,
people at our school are really into the idea of student productions. Even though it’s stressful, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great learning experience.”
And a final word from Rael, “Donate to Thespians.”
