Hi! I have attached a chart (made in Excel) that I made for myself when I directed this a few years ago. There are 4 acts. I divided my script further down into beats (except they weren't true beats exactly, so I called them units- long story). There were 24 "units" in the script as I divided it. On the chart I put a big X for the character if they are in that unit and had lines and a little x if they are in the scene but do not speak. Feel free to take it and adapt it for your needs if it's helpful to you.
I did the show with a cast of 22 -- 10 men and 12 women. I could have used fewer women, but I'm not sure that using fewer men was possible. It was a challenge. All of the men appear in (and speak or have action in) Act III. That's the problem Act.
There's something about the character of Willard/Herrick where the name changed from one publication to the next or something like that. I can't remember the details and I don't have my copy of the script handy. Historically they are two different people, but their function in the play is basically the same. Ours was called Willard and we also used him for "Hopkins" who appears in Act IV. So technically that was the only doubling we did for the men.
It would be a little easier to double some of the women, but I'm guessing that's not your problem. We didn't double any women's roles in our production (except the offstage voice of Martha Corey) and we added two "afflicted girls" for Act III just to give more girls the opportunity. Here are some ideas:
- Ann Putnam only appears in Act I so she could easily reappear as an afflicted girl in Act III and/or Sarah Good in Act IV.
- Alternatively, Sarah Good could be doubled with one of the minor "afflicted girls" roles: Mercy Lewis, Susanna Walcott, or Betty Parris.
- Martha Corey is an offstage voice, so she could be doubled with any of the other female characters. (We used Mercy Lewis).
- In theory Tituba could be doubled with Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth, or Mary Warren, but I'm not sure that would be very wise for many reasons.
- You could have Tituba, Ann Putnam, Rebacca Nurse, and/or Sarah Good all double as "afflicted girls" for Act III (the "courtroom" scene), depending on how many girls you want. (But I would be very careful to make their costumes/hair very distinct so you don't confuse your audience.)
If you're willing to do some gender-bending with the casting, you may be able to double some of the men's and women's roles, but that's not something I looked into at all, and I feel like that could get pretty complicated with costumes.
We really struggled with having enough men to fill the 10 parts, but we made it- barely!
Good luck!
PS- Just a quick word of warning - don't underestimate the role of Gov. Danforth. I definitely did and my poor newbie actor pulled through, but man it was hard! He has SO MANY LINES!!!
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Emily Olson
Theatre Arts Teacher and Director
Fort Stockton, TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-23-2018 17:40
From: Taylour Matz
Subject: Casting for "The Crucible"
Hi theatre peeps,
We're going to be doing "The Crucible" for our Fall production, and I'm already anticipating that I may not be able to fill each role. I'm curious if any of you have been able to find ways of actors playing multiple characters that don't require too many crazy, fast, costume changes. Thanks so much!
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Taylour Matz
Theatre Teacher
Everett Alvarez High School
Salinas CA
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