Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE Selected As This Year's Presentation For Bay Street's 15th Annual Literature Live! Series

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced 2023's much-anticipated, Literature Live! presentation: Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play THE CRUCIBLE.

Classic yet timely THE CRUCIBLE opens on Thursday, November 9th... public performances run through Sunday, November 26. School performances begin November 6th. Bay Street's own Associate Artistic Director Will Pomerantz has been tapped to direct the compelling drama. This is the 15th anniversary of the popular Literature Live! performance series.

THE CRUCIBLE is a gripping play set in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem witch trials. It explores mass hysteria, deception, and the consequences of false accusations in a Puritan community. The story follows the unraveling of a tight-knit society as paranoia and fear lead to a witch hunt that destroys lives.

As part of the programming of Literature Live!, free performances are available to school groups. Teachers and administrators may register their school groups by contacting Director of Education & Community Outreach, Allen O'Reilly, at allen@baystreet.org or by calling 631.725.0818. Free admission is available to all school students, teachers, and administrators who can reserve weekday performances at times that work for them on a first-come, first-serve basis. Literature Live! is an annual BOCES-approved Arts-in-Education program where teachers are provided curriculum guides in advance to help with content and additional aspects of learning. Each student performance will be followed by a talkback and Q&A session with various members of the team and the audience.
 
Now in its 15th year, Literature Live! was started by Bay Street Theater's Executive Director Tracy Mitchell: ”This program came about when seeing how little of the performing arts were being incorporated into my own daughter's curriculum. I was shocked because my own exposure to theater had been so life-changing, and I can't imagine if I hadn't had that, what experiences I would have missed out on in my own life.” Bay Street Theater is committed to supporting students with little or no access to the performing arts in schools. To date, Bay Street has served over 80 schools and over 35,000 students, including those with special needs, homeschoolers, and students from as far away as New Jersey and New York City in person, and numerous others with digital access during COVID-19. 
 
Literature Live! is sponsored by Irvin Stern Foundation, Sunny & Abe Rosenberg Foundation, Rea Charitable Trust, Town of Southampton, Neuwirth Foundation, Alan & Annette Leve Foundation, The Bridgehampton Association, and an Anonymous donor as well as Sag Harbor Books, Michael Hebron, and PSEG Long Island and more forthcoming!

Tickets for the public start at $37 and are available online 24/7 at baystreet.org or by calling the Box Office at 631-725-9500, open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 30 minutes prior to performances.

Will Pomerantz has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres as The Guthrie, American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble, The Mark Taper Forum and Ensemble Studio Theater. He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, and Kira Obolensky.  Will is currently Associate Artistic Director for Bay Street Theater, where he has directed The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, My Witch, and his newly envisioned production of Evita. As a playwright, his scripts include both plays and books for musicals, including This Side of Paradise, For The Last Time, and About Love, which have been produced in New York and regionally.