META Performing Arts announces its first production for 2006: The Crucible by Arthur Miller opens on Thursday, February 16th  and plays through Sunday, February 26th .  Performances are on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30p.m and Sundays at 2:00p.m at the Phillip Taro Theatre at Skagit Valley College, Mount Vernon. 

Arthur Miller’s modern classic, The Crucible, borrows from actual events surrounding the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of the late 17th century.  Miller used the Salem hearings and executions as a metaphor for the “witch trials” in the early 1950’s, designed by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, to root out communist sympathizers in this country. Major targets of these hearings were screenwriters and playwrights, people who could utilize the mass media to directly or subliminally spread their ideology on the unsuspecting citizenry. Miller himself, along with many other writers and artists, was brought before the committee and asked to demonstrate his patriotism and good faith by naming names of friends, family and colleagues who might have communist leanings.  Though many were blackmailed into cooperation with the committee through threats of being blacklisted, Miller himself never did succumb.

The production is directed by Carl K. Turner and designed by Elizabeth Haba. It features a strong ensemble of actors, and the teenaged girls who foment the mass hysteria that drives the plot, are played by META veterans Sami Detzer, Lydia Randall, Adrie Wohl, Demi Fair and Melia Schoonover. 

Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors; the second Thursday performance is “Pay what you can Afford” night.  Tickets can be reserved at 360-421-4352 and are also available at the box office the day of the show.  All seats are festival style.  The box office opens one hour prior to performances.

CAST LIST