About this show
A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America’s foremost playwrights, Sarah Ruhl.
Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who’s just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She’s also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven’t they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family’s legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era.
The Artists
PLAYWRIGHT: SARAH RUHL
DIRECTOR: POLLY NOONAN
SET DESIGN: JACK MAGAW
COSTUMES: JESSICA GOWENS
LIGHTING: CHRISTINE BINDER
PROPS: MARIAH BENNETT
SOUND: ANDRE PLUSS
DIALECT COACH: EVA BRENEMAN
FIGHT/INTIMACY: GABY LABOTKA
STAGE MANAGER: TINA JACH
PRODUCTION MANAGER: JULIE JACHYM
Content advisory
This production includes the following: Mature/Adult themes, Drug Abuse, Mentions of Death, Torture, Strong Language, Fog, Loud Sounds, and Flashing Lights
DIGITAL PROGRAM
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DISCOUNTS
Our waived ticket program makes SGT accessible to all economic backgrounds. Find the right ticket for you.
Accessible Performances
Audio-Described and Touch Tour:
Friday, November 8th at 8pm
(6:45pm touch tour, 8pm curtain)
Open-Captioned Public Performance:
Sunday, November 10th at 3pm
FEATURED ENSEMBLE MEMBERS
LINDA REITER, REBECCA JORDAN, and
ADAM SCHULMERICH
THE CAST
BECKY NURSE: Linda Reiter
BOB: Ramón Camín
GAIL: Isabella Maria Valdés
STAN: Diego Rivera-Rodriguez
A WITCH: Rebecca Jordan
SHELBY: Hilary Williams
THE JAILER: Adam Schulmerich
Running Time
This production runs at about 120 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.
-
Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. (Official Headshot by Greg Constanzo)
-
Polly Noonan was most recently seen at the Goodman Theatre in Passion Play: a cycle in three parts. Polly has worked on Sarah Ruhl’s plays for ten years, including the premieres of Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination), Passion Play: a cycle in three parts (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes nomination), Eurydice (Madison Rep), Melancholy Play and Orlando (Piven Theatre Workshop). Other credits include: Eurydice, Brilliant Traces and American Voices (Piven Theatre Workshop); Orlando (Actors’ Gang); Melancholy Play (the Echo), Methusalem and Accidental Death of An Anarchist (New Criminals); and new works at Sundance, the Geva Theatre Center, New Dramatists, Soho Rep, REDCAT and Playwrights Horizons. Polly was a member of the Piven Theatre Workshop’s Young People’s Company and a founding member of the New Criminals. She attended Vassar College and SAIC. Polly first worked at Steppenwolf as part of the New Plays Lab, where she directed the workshop and the premiere of Goodbye Stranger by Carrie Luft. Film credits include: Novocaine, High Fidelity, Arizona Dream and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you like music, check her out on the cover of the Lemonhead’s album It’s a Shame About Ray or listen to her random phone message (track 11) on Lovey. She lives in New York City.
Ruhl’s spiky heroine and her small but sweet circle of loved ones won me over in this supernaturally tinged family drama
—The Chicago Reader, Reader Recommended
you’ll realize how masterfully Sarah Ruhl
intertwines so many hot button issues
—Buzz Center Stage
a showcase worthy of Reiter’s formidable skills - Reiter’s powers have only grown over the decades.
—Chicago Sun-Times
a cool piece of acting on hand from relative newcomer Valdés
—Chicago Tribune
weird and wonderful play with a whole lot of heart
—Stage and Cinema