To everyone on the SALEM-WITCH list, My name is Barry Kriebel. I am 28 years old, and I subscribed to this list, not because I have a relative involved in this tragedy, but simply because of my interest in the subject. I wanted to thank you all for allowing me to be involved with your lives as you search out answers to your individual heritage's. Three summers ago I had the honor of directing Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE. Now true, it was not a verbatim account of what happened back in 1692, and the production staff was aware of that as we researched more and more, but we had the pleasure of travelling up to Salem/Danvers to do research for our production. It was a four day trip. Of course on the first day, we made the horrible mistake of visiting all of the tourist traps (because that's what they are) in modern-day Salem (the wax museums...etc...) and we were extremely disappointed with what information we were running into. There were discrepancies between museums as to who Tituba was...we heard African American/American Indian...and we then began to realize that all research on the subject was not cut and dry and we would have to make some artistic decisions (as I'm sure Arthur Miller did)... We found our first ray of hope when we visited the Corwin "witch" House and reveled in the history there. We caught a glimpse of the way the people lived (albeit a wealthy judge)...this is the information we were yearning for - not the puppet shows we saw downtown. The next day we visited the sites located in Danvers - the site of the parsonage - Ingersoll's tavern - Bridget Bishops home - The memorial... And the best site of all - The Rebecca Nurse homestead (it was a rainy day - and how fitting...) The tour guide at Rebecca's home was wonderful to us and we learned so much. It was truly amazing for us to be able to step inside a replica of the Meeting House. We were in awe. We tried to find the Proctor House, but unfortunatley it was torn down and we think it was replaced by a Chinese restaurant...We ate there in honor of John and Elizabeth and have some very funny "cosmic" memories from that time. You know, cause when you think of John Proctor - you immediately think....Chinese food, right?? If we were wrong about the location, someone please correct us...It would most likely make me feel better - if nothing else. We went to the site of what was beleived to be "Gallows Hill" ... Even if it wasn't it had a creepy feel to it - maybe becasue we wished it to feel creepy, but I stole some vines off a nearby tree and they decorated part of the set...hee hee. And lastly the very nice gentlemen who showed us the home of Rev. John Hale. He told us new evidence that cleared teh name of John Hale as an accuser of Bridget Bishop...We still have the addendum to the book that was "hot of the presses"... I am sure when the tour guides hear, "We're doing a production of the CRUCIBLE" they must think to thmeselves..."Oh another group coming through..." but we honestly wanted to learn the truth! We owed it to the charcters we were showing onstage. We took artistic licenses with our production of THE CRUCIBLE following that trip - We saw the spots in the text where history was "twisted" through a magic spectacle glass and altered to fit the needs of the story, but the staff, and myself in particular, were most interested in being honest and true to the people of Salem. We constantly instilled that in our cast members - "You are doing honor to the historical figure you are representing...." There were not any "leads" in our production - it was simply an ensemble of people putting history on a stage for public view. First of all, we changed the name of the character of Francis Nurse to Samuel Nurse as we read that he was the one that saved his mother's body and rowed it down the stream to bury it in secret. I believe we found out that Francis himself was sick in bed and could not plead for her in the presence of the court. I hope I am right here and not offending any family members by my fuzzy memory or three years. The added reason was that the gentlemen playing the Nurse character was a high school student and it would have been a major stretch for him to play an old man (for him, and the audience as well...) We also raised the age of Mary Warren to her proper age - the script says she is a teen-ager and we made her plight stronger in her fight with John Proctor by having her admit "I am 20, and a woman, however single..." We added a "Greek chorus" of sorts - the ghosts of the accused who showed up during the trial scene and were on balcony above, looking down on the action below, lit only by white taper candles. They also stood in as "trees" and "bushes" during the forest scene accusing Hester as she sinks deeper and deeper into the ever growing snowball of her own creation. True Abigail was not the reason that this whole catastrophe took place, but for modern audiences it was extremely powerful to take in. We toyed with the idea of changing the names of the Judges, but we thought that may have been to huge of an undertaking... To honor the people of Salem we added a Prologue and an epilogue that set some of the story straight in our eyes and let the audience know what happened. If anyone is interested I would love to share it with you. I feel as If I've taken enough of your time discussing a play script that many ancestors find an abomination in the eyes of their personal heritage...I found it fascinating - and if this play touched me in such a way that I continue to research the subject three years later, it did it's job in honoring your relatives. I am very fortunate as I am graduating from Temple University this coming Spring and the theater department had decided to produce THE CRUCIBLE. I will hopefully have the honor of playing one of the many characters I have been researching for the past 3 years. It was very difficult to put all this away - and now I have the pleasure of reliving it all again. I have already made plans to come up to Salem for the conference that was mentioned, running at the Peabody Essex Museum (the weekend of my birthday Sept. 18th!!!). If anyone is planning on attending please let me know as I would love to meet up with all of you. My sister played the role of Betty Parris three years ago, and was unable to travel when the staff went up three years ago - but I will be bringing her to all the wonderful sites I found so informative and sharing them all with her. On our trip up to Salem, the staff tried to contact Richard Trask the day we were leaving to come home, but he was unavailable and swamped at work that particular day, but he very nicely said if we ever "have any questions for him he was a phone call away." Hopefully, I will get to meet him at the Peabody Essex conference as I believe he is a speaker - he is a celebrity in my eyes, and it would be a great honor to meet him. His book was an invaluable resource to our production! I really enoy it when people post books that they think people would enjoy to read in reference to this episode in our nations history - I am already hoping I get my hands on copies of SALEM POSSESSED: Reading the Witch Trials and the two Drake books metioned yesterday. Can anyone recommend any others? I hope to act as Dramaturg for Temple's production as I am armed with a weatlh of knowledge from past research. Thanks again, for sharing your lives with me - and I look forward to reading the rest of the discussion as they relate to the history of 1692. Best wishes to all! Barry Kriebel in PA PS - Sorry this was so long....I just kept writing and writing....(Barry winces)