The Crucible (1953) and the Red Scare

In January 1952, playwright Arthur Miller sat across from his closest collaborator, director Elia Kazan, and watched their partnership fall apart. Kazan had just agreed to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Miller cut off all contact with him. Out of that betrayal came The Crucible, a play about the Salem witch trials that Miller wrote as a direct answer to the fear gripping his own country. But bringing it to the stage of the Martin Beck Theatre would test him almost as much as the trials themselves.

And then there was director Jed Harris, one of Broadway's most brilliant but feared men, whose volatile temper and staging choices nearly derailed the production before it ever opened, which was its own disaster. Critics were divided, audiences were stunned, and Miller himself could barely watch. The play closed within seven months, seemingly destined to become a footnote in Miller's career. But then, Arthur Miller's own life became as dramatic as the one he put on paper., and eventually The Crucible would become one of the most performed plays in American history.

Senator Joe episode, Season 2 (listen on podcast apps)

Orpheus Descending episode, Season 3 (starring Maureen Stapleton)

Andrew Angus Dalrymple - ‘Act Two Is Spattered With Ted's Tears’ (NY Times)

Transcript with photos, videos, and a list of sources used

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Produced by Patrick Oliver Jones and WINMI Media with Dan Delgado as co-producer and editor. Theme music created by Blake Stadnik.

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