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Happy birthday Cameron Ryan Pajalich!

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LCCC students inducted into Alpha Sigma Lambda society

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Ask the cast of &#8220;The Crucible&#8221; how they&#8217;d feel if they actually had to live in 17th-century Salem and the Wilkes University students who are preparing to present the Arthur Miller classic react with horror.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, goodness no,&#8221; said Melissa Berardelli, who plays a character wrongly accused of witchcraft. &#8220;It&#8217;s very strict and rigorously religious. There&#8217;s no freedom of any kind to speak your mind or to ask questions &#8212; and that&#8217;s something I do every day.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s absolutely frightening,&#8221; said Alex Booth, who plays Salem resident the Rev. Parris. &#8220;If you&#8217;re different, you&#8217;re ostracized and ridiculed.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;When there&#8217;s a problem, everyone in the town is blaming each other,&#8221; said Jordyn Williams, who plays accused witch Sarah Good.</p><p>As audiences will see when they attend the show Feb. 22 through 25 at the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center, being blamed for a problem can lead to accusations that you&#8217;re in league with the devil and, in Puritan New England, could result in a death sentence.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s emotionally exhausting,&#8221; crew member Brianna Rowlands said as she set up props before a recent rehearsal. Praising the intensity of the plot, she added: &#8220;I loved it from the jump.&#8221;</p><p>Much of the drama of the storyline focuses on the relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor, a couple whose marriage has recently suffered the strain of John&#8217;s infidelity.</p><p>&#8220;Because of the time period and their religious beliefs, it&#8217;s amplified,&#8221; said Berardelli, who plays the wronged wife. &#8220;He wasn&#8217;t just unfaithful to her. He was breaking this major commandment.&#8221;</p><p>Speaking of commandments, Miller crafted a scene in which a visiting minister, the Rev. John Hale, asks John Proctor to recite all 10 of them, and Proctor hems and haws a bit. He knows most of them, but there&#8217;s one he has forgotten.</p><p>Oh, what could it be?</p><p>Hmm.</p><p>It&#8217;s up to Elizabeth to fill in the gap, naming adultery as the forbidden sin John can&#8217;t seem to remember.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t deliver the line as a dig. It&#8217;s more of a gentle reminder,&#8221; Berardelli said. &#8220;(Elizabeth) loves him so much and knows he would do anything for her.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He has to regain his wife&#8217;s trust,&#8221; said Justin Gaskill, who plays John Proctor. The character is a complex one, Gaskill said. &#8220;He keeps his emotions bottled up, and he has a soft spot for Abigail.&#8221;</p><p>Abigail is an orphan who served as the Proctor family&#8217;s one-time household help. As you might have guessed, she&#8217;s John Proctor&#8217;s partner in adultery. When Elizabeth finds out about their tryst, she dismisses the girl. Abigail dreams of returning to John&#8217;s arms by getting rid of Elizabeth. And, in old-time Salem, what better way to get rid of a rival than to talk about witchcraft?</p><p>On the surface, the anti-witch fervor seems to be religious in nature, but the witchcraft hysteria that actually took place in 1692 New England may have really been about politics or greed for land, director Jon Liebetrau said.</p><p>Sadly, he said, the theme of finding a scapegoat has repeated itself throughout history, and &#8220;even today, there is suspicion about &#8216;the other.&#8217;&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Elizabeth and John Proctor, portrayed by Melissa Berardelli and Justin Gaskill, have an intense conversation in the Wilkes University production of &#8216;The Crucible.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_elizandjohn.jpg</photo0><caption0>Elizabeth and John Proctor, portrayed by Melissa Berardelli and Justin Gaskill, have an intense conversation in the Wilkes University production of &#8216;The Crucible.&#8217; </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photos </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_crucible.injail.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Arthur Miller&#8217;s classic play, &#8216;The Crucible,&#8217; tells a dramatic story set in Puritan New England. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_crucible.injail.jpg</photo1><caption1>Arthur Miller&#8217;s classic play, &#8216;The Crucible,&#8217; tells a dramatic story set in Puritan New England. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photos </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_justinandmelissa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Despite the difficulties in their marriage, Elizabeth (Melissa Berardelli) and John Proctor (Justin Gaskill) maintain a deep love for each other. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_justinandmelissa.jpg</photo2><caption2>Despite the difficulties in their marriage, Elizabeth (Melissa Berardelli) and John Proctor (Justin Gaskill) maintain a deep love for each other. </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photos </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Production set during mass hysteria of 1692 New England</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> &#8216;The Crucible&#8217;</p><p><strong>Who:</strong> Presented by Wilkes University</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 8 p.m. Feb. 22 through 24 and 2 p.m. Feb. 25</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts, 239 S. River St., Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> $10, $5</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes University theater troupe stages Arthur Miller classic ‘The Crucible’