From the Classroom to the Stage: The Crucible Comes to the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center on March 8

Adelphi presents the Tony Award-winning play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, directed by Chair of the Department of Theatre Nicholas Petron M.A. '70, in the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center Black Box Theatre, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. End Quote

New York, NY (1888PressRelease) February 10, 2011 - From March 8 through March 13, the Department of Theatre at Adelphi University presents the Tony Award-winning play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, directed by Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre Nicholas Petron M.A. '70, in the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center Black Box Theatre, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play, The Crucible is the most frequently produced work from Miller's impressive repertoire. A tale of love, morality, fear, and hypocrisy set in seventeenth century Salem, MA, this dramatization was written as an allegory for McCarthyism and the House Committee on Un-American Activities of the 1950s. Inspired by Miller's personal experience of being interrogated by the committee about his political views and activism, The Crucible continues to resonate with audiences today with its powerful insights into personal betrayal and social oppression.

"This production," Professor Petron said, "is homage to one of the greatest playwrights of our time, whose revelations…are still relevant today." He sees the play as a way to understand the role of political divisiveness within society. "Oppression leads to misperceptions of phenomena and, certainly, important historical events," Professor Petron explained.

Arthur Miller (1915-2005), one of America's most renowned playwrights, was the author of several cornerstones of twentieth century theatre, including All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). His work has received dozens of awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, several Tony Awards, and a New York Drama Circle Critics Award. In 2002, the most recent Broadway revival of The Crucible received six Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, and three Drama Desk Award nominations. In an appreciation following Miller's death in 2005, Charles Isherwood wrote in the New York Times that his "greatest plays, in which he used both his conscience and his compassion to question the prerogatives of American society, remain both as unfashionable and as necessary as ever."

Individual tickets for this event are on sale now and are $7-$15. To learn more about AU PAC's 2010-2011 season, please visit aupac.adelphi.edu or call the AU PAC Box Office at (516) 877-4000.

About Adelphi University: Adelphi is a world class, modern university with excellent and highly relevant programs where students prepare for lives of active citizenship and professional careers. Through its schools and programs-The College of Arts and Sciences, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Honors College, Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, and the Schools of Business, Nursing, and Social Work-the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls nearly 8,000 students from 41 states and 60 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie, the University, chartered in 1896, maintains a commitment to liberal studies in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.

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