The Bi-Co Theater Department’s fall semester main stage production of John Proctor is the Villain in the Katherine Hepburn Teaching Theater closes this weekend after eight performances. The play, first performed in 2022 and written by Kimberly Bellflower, follows a group of female students at a rural high school in Appalachian Georgia in 2018. As the group reads The Crucible in their English class, they begin to see it reflected in their real lives as they tackle sex ed, feminism, and harassment scandals. As they continue examining The Crucible, the students begin to wonder if John Proctor is really the hero everyone says he is.
Set against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, “John Proctor” is not afraid of shying away from difficult subjects. The teenage characters are dealing with their anger and frustration over the state of the world and how it’s affecting their small town. The characters call each other out, have their own unique flaws, and explicitly discuss this controversial moment in time they are living through. It’s hard to watch at times because of the tense atmosphere and difficult conversations, but at the same time, the show is incredibly funny. The writing is intense and realistic, accurately portraying the teenage girls it centers on. Fitting for the time in which it is set, there is a litany of references, including but not limited to Buzzfeed, Taylor Swift, and Twilight. Though sometimes cringy, the writing of the characters is endearing and doesn’t belittle the girls for their passions and flaws, instead showing that their intensity of emotion is in its own way a strength and that the love they have for each other can prevail through the most difficult times.
The set is also incredibly realistic, perfectly capturing a high school classroom, including rectangular LED lights, blue plastic chairs, and lockers behind the door through which the characters enter and exit. Even the costumes were meticulously picked out to reflect the time it is set in, making sure that it is realistic to the period and complementing the other costumes on stage. Each detail comes together to viscerally transport the audience back to their time in high school.
Outside the Hepburn Theater, the Goodhart Atrium had posters on the windows asking questions like “What was your favorite book you read in high school English class?” and “What were your favorite song(s) or musicians when you were in high school?” Audience members are encouraged to add their answers in brightly colored sticky notes before and after the show, allowing them to reflect on their own high school experience in conjunction with the show itself.
Catharine Slusar, the Director of the Bi-Co Theater Program, is directing this performance of “John Proctor.” She chose the piece after reading it with her New Works Ensemble class and was struck by how well the play was able to capture young women’s voices. She said, “it’s so rare to read a contemporary play that centers a teenage girl in a way that is so respectful and powerful. I just fell in love with the play.” For Slusar, the play is about female friendship and reexamining the canon, even if the canon is relatively recent, considering that “The Crucible” was written in the 1950s as an allegory for the encroach of McCarthyism at the time. She emphasizes that, if possible, people should go into the show knowing as little as possible other than the basic premise and let “John Proctor” take them on the cathartic journey it embarks on.
The rehearsal process for “John Proctor” has been intense. Actors met almost every day to dive into the characters each of them were playing, fleshing them out as much as possible, and examining what the actors are comfortable with. Even the ensemble developed their own storylines and arcs to enhance the realistic atmosphere. Char Gillman-Boggs ‘27, the Assistant Director, described the process as “getting into the English class analysis side of it.” On stage, the depth and authenticity of the performances are evident, each actor embodying their character with precision and skill.
Julia Saint-Amour ‘25, who plays lead-character Shelby, described the process of bringing the play to life as “layers of intensity that get added as the rehearsal process goes, gradually enough too that it never feels like you’re getting pushed into hot water about it.” For her, the play has been her emotional center of the semester, a constant to come back to and reflect on with the same people each day.
Since the play is set in high school, the actors need to return to that time in their lives and face the difficult topics presented in “John Proctor.” “It’s brave to play all the roles in this play,” said Slusar. “I wanted to make sure that students felt supported in this and that they could take risks without risking their own safety and mental health. I think we’ve done that. I think that the people in the play feel powerful.” Slusar emphasized rehearsal as space of learning as well as acting during the production and the importance of ritual to separate oneself from the character as needed.
Saint-Amour seconded this, saying that the intimacy coordination rehearsals were some of her favorite parts of rehearsal. “It made me think in retrospect about the theme in this play about bodies and bodily autonomy and figuring out what it means to have a body and exist in one physically… My body isn’t just me. It’s also a thing that I have ownership over… I had never thought about my physical form quite in that explicit level of check-in and permission before.”
At the end of the night, the cast does a handshake that each actor contributed to in order to step out of their roles. “At the end of the night, we do the handshake, and that’s our signal, our ritual that we will leave the story in the space. And we don’t have to take it home with us,” explained Saint-Amour.
In the current state of the world, it is easy to feel disparaged and pessimistic. “John Proctor” acknowledges such feelings and delves into them, letting them take over, and coming out on the other side despite it all. It says that it’s alright to let certain feelings out, whether you need to scream, dance, cry, or just laugh even if things aren’t okay. It’s impactful for the audience to see these characters go through this large range of emotions that everyone has felt at some point in their own lives.
“John Proctor” is also a heartwarming reminder that it is important to rely on your friends in times of struggle and find a way to get through the tough times together.
From Gillman-Boggs’s perspective, the show is still very relevant in the way it discusses morality, consent, and relationships through the lens of complicated teenage feelings. “This is sort of classic and cheesy, but you don’t always know what someone is going through. Sometimes it’s really rough, so we have to be kind to each other, and we also have to support each other, because that’s the only way that we get through it together,” they stated.
“After the election, you start thinking like, we’re a pretty liberal crowd of artists, what does this mean for us?” said Slusar. After discussing it with her cast, they decided that, “the answer to a restrictive government, to a choice that we don’t agree with… is art. This play became even more important, and the story became even more important.”
Saint-Amour, when asked what she is hoping people will take away from the show, responded, “I hope people leave shaking. That feels kind of mean to say, but I think it’s where we are right now as a society. Allowing ourselves to experience art, that is at times really uncomfortable to see, does have this very physical and bodied effect on you. It’s so important to let yourself feel that.”
“This play, for me, is able to achieve what so few modern or contemporary plays achieve, which is catharsis… in a way that can only happen in the theater,” said Slusar. “It’s sitting next to people who are exchanging air with you, who are breathing in the moment, who are laughing, and crying with you, that through that, we are able to achieve catharsis. So I do urge people to come. And it’s why we tell stories, right? It’s what the purpose of fiction is so that we can understand our world better, so we can understand ourselves better, and to give you community even in a time of struggle.”
Performances of “John Proctor is the Villain” continue this weekend through Saturday evening. Please note that the show is rated R for language, sexual assault, and the mention of suicide. You can reserve tickets here.
