John Proctor Is the Villain

By Kimberly Belflower
Directed by Kyle Boatwright

Oct. 25, 26, Oct. 30, 31, Nov. 1, 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 29 at 10 a.m.
Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.

The Curtain Theater

$5 students, seniors, Card to Culture, $17 general admission

What if the heroes of The Crucible…are actually the women?

Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain, by turns intense and laugh-out-loud funny, follows a group of teenage girls who are grappling with the implications of sexuality and oppression as they study Arthur Miller's classic. Inspired by the #MeToo movement, they form their own feminism club at school—and are shocked to discover that maybe the heroes handed to us aren't heroes after all. It's a healing work that balances urgent political discourse with relatable, contemporary humor and the delirious joy of friendship, girlhood, and growth. 

Content advisory: discussions of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and grooming. Recommended for children age 15 and up

All audience members are invited to participate in the postshow discussions planned by the dramaturgy team:
Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 matinee
Post-show Discussion
Moderated by Dramaturg David Keohane and Assistant Dramaturg Genesis Locke

Oct. 29 matinee
Post-show Panel with the Production Team, including Director Kyle Boatwright, Scenic Designer Anya Klepikov, and select cast members
Moderated by Dramaturg David Keohane

Oct. 30
Post-show Actor’s Forum, including Director Kyle Boatwright and members of the cast
Moderated by Dramaturg David Keohane

Nov. 1
Post-show Panel: Gender Studies and Local Witch Trials
with Professor Laura Ciolkowski, Senior Lecturer of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
(UMass Amherst) & Dr. Bridget M. Marshall, Professor of English (UMass Lowell)
Join us after the performance for a paneled conversation with two distinguished
Professors of English. The panel will reflect on the themes of the play as they
relate to particular areas of our guests’ research. Topics will include an
exploration of gender-based violence, with particular attention to storytelling,
narrative, and the politics of representation, as well as a historical examination of
local western Massachusetts witchcraft trials, including accused witches Mary
Parsons of Northampton and Mary Webster of Hadley. Finally, we will open up
the discussion by taking questions from the audience.
Moderated by Dramaturg David Keohane

Guest Bios

LAURA CIOLKOWSKI is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of the study of gender-based violence, critical prison studies, feminist pedagogy, and literary studies. Her “Rape Culture Syllabus,” published in Public Books in 2016, is widely shared and circulated by feminist scholars and activists across the country. Her book on rape culture, with Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, is under contract with Columbia University Press. Professor Ciolkowski is also co-founder of the UMass Jail Education Initiative and teaches college courses in literature and the humanities in jails and prisons in Massachusetts and New York State. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards in support of her work in prison education, including the Provost’s Distinguished Community Engagement Award for T eaching (2021) and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Outstanding T eacher Award (2023).

Dr. Bridget M. Marshall is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell where she is the resident expert on all things creepy: Gothic literature, horror stories, and witchcraft trials. She has recently completed a book on what she calls the “Industrial Gothic” focused on how nineteenth-century writers represented the darker side of industrialization, including threats to workers and to the environment. She completed her PhD in the English department at UMass Amherst in 2004. During her graduate studies, she interned at Historic Northampton, where she researched the history of local western Massachusetts witchcraft trials, including accused witches Mary Parsons of Northampton and Mary Webster of Hadley. She has also written about witch-themed tourism in Salem and teaches a course on the literature of New England witchcraft trials.

Poster design by Kitty Ryan