"the crucible" Set Design

"The Crucible"

by Arthur Miller

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Set Designer

Senior Project - Set Design

March 2020 - Phillips Exeter Academy

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1/4 inch scale

Ground Plans

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1/2 inch scale

Front Elevation

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1/4 inch scale

Colour Model

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When I first read Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible,” I was impressed by how relevant it still is today and to various points in history. Although it has a very evident time and place, late 1600s in New England, it has a timeless feel to it. For this reason, I did not want to restrict myself to one time period but instead design something eclectic, allowing me to pull from different time periods and sources.

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I was first inspired by an image I found of leaves floating a few feet of the ground in a mystical but eerie forest. This photograph stuck out to me because, when I first read the play, the imagery of the forest continued to stand out. In the picture, the leaves look weightless and out of place. It looks as though they are dancing, which is what the girls say happened in the play. This image captures the mood I wanted to convey in the set design, so I used it as a source of inspiration.

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In addition, a big source of inspiration for my design was a picture of old, peeling, grimy metal bars in a tired-looking prison. I knew immediately after seeing this image that I wanted to incorporate these bars into the set. For most of the show the bars are kept upstage, pushed up against the backdrops. This was because, for the majority of the play, the audience does not know what is coming and are in a constant stage of anticipation. Anyone can end up in jail at any time, and these jail bars in the background serve as a reminder of that. 

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For acts one and two, I wanted the sets to be more simple and timeless. Both are inspired by rural houses from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Seeing as both acts take place in lower-income homes, the main focus of both sets is practicality. 

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Act three was primarily inspired by the McCarthy Hearings. These hearings were what originally inspired Miller to write “The Crucible.” History.com writes “The word McCarthyism has become synonymous with the practice of publicizing accusations of treason and disloyalty with insufficient evidence.” This definition is exactly what happens throughout the play so I knew I wanted to pull from those hearings at some point, and seeing as this act takes place outside the makeshift courtroom it seemed appropriate. 

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The final act takes place in a jail cell. The metal bars that have been up against the back walls of the first three acts finally get pushed downstage, separating the audience from the characters. The design for this scene is based on the present day ICE detention centres. As I mentioned earlier, it shocked me how current the story is and all its themes. Blame is a big one, and it is very current in American politics, which is filled with people blaming Mexicans for stealing American jobs, the drug issue, and more. Trump also recently referred to his impeachment trials as “The Greatest Witch Hunt in American History!” For these reasons, I used images of the ICE detention centres for inspiration for the last act.