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Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Survey Says: ‘John Proctor’ Is the Most-Staged Play in the U.S.
The New York Times: “John Proctor Is the Villain,” a kinetic teen drama about a group of high school girls who are enraged and energized by the echoes of their own lives that they find in a classic play, will be the most-produced show in the country this season.
The headline of this article really surprised me. I love John Proctor as the Villain and think that everyone needs to see a production of the show; however, high schools producing it surprises me. John Proctor isn't graphic or overly descriptive, but it deals with topics that can be heavy and contentious, and that schools and communities often shy away from. While I think so many high school students could benefit from seeing John Proctor, it doesn't seem realistic that very many school boards, principals, or theater teachers will allow schools to put on such a politically charged play, especially in our current political climate where securing funding for the arts in schools is already so hard. The other thing I found interesting about this article is that the total number of productions of John Proctor is the Villain is around 20, a very small number compared to the large sample size taking the survey.
I find this both surprising and not at the same time. John Proctor is such a good show, I think that the themes and topics discussed are very important, but they are also the reason I’m kind of surprised it’s the show with the most productions from this past season. With such heavy topics I’d imagine it would be hard to put on in a school setting. However, with how popular the Broadway and West End runs were I’m not surprised more people have been wanting to put it on. The latest large-scale productions of this show were truly so amazing and it got a lot more audiences excited and more appreciative of the play that smaller theaters putting it on more seems kind of inevitable. As always, theatre pieces like this being spread on a larger scale will never be a bad thing, I think it’s great that more people have access to it from local productions and such.
It's interesting that this play made as big of a splash as it has. It makes alot of sense to me for colleges, where your acting pool is college aged people who have a very strong grasp of what it means to be a kid in high school, unlike other productions where every character is a middle aged person who's lived a life which can often feel inauthentic coming from the voice and body of a 21 year old actor. But this play’s story seems to resonate with a lot of people. Maybe its because we were all forced to read the crucible at some point and its nice to know that we all have a shared experience. Or maybe people just enjoy a group of girls screaming at the top of their lungs about life. Who knows? Either way it is a pretty fantastic show and I’m glad so many people are going to get to appreciate it.
I am not surprised that ‘John Proctor is The Villain’ is so frequently produced – especially in high schools. I think more and more high school programs are looking for plays that are not only accessible to the audience watching them, but to the actors in the play. Sitting in a high school English class discussing and discovering something about a book is a scene that highschoolers are familiar with. Not to mention the fact that the plays holds one location and majority of femme presenting characters. While I appreciate the information about this being the most frequently produced play in the US, I found that the article lacked any information that I didn’t already get from the headline. This is annoying and I feel like this is a more frequent occurrence than it used to be. I used my CMU library access to read the article, which means I didn’t pay for it, but I cannot imagine purchasing a subscription or even a copy of the paper just to read this article that pretty much doesn’t tell me anything. Why are we not asking why?
This does not shock me whatsoever, to be honest, it actually shows something positive about what theater programs in the United States and regional theaters choose to highlight at the moment. A play that helps render a text with a modern twist usually has a significantly longer life span because it's actually providing directors and students with two elements at once. I remember when we did this show in 2024 and immediately fell in love with it. Not only do I love everything that it stands for, the integration of Lorde, but the way it makes this comparison between old texts and modern day allows others to understand these fundamental concepts that might have been introduced in 1600 are still prevalent. I would be really interested to see how this play ranks among classic works, for instance, the Shakespeares and Millers, as such a change reflects some real evolution in schools and community theaters' attitude towards what works are worth presenting to the public.
I’m surprised and also not surprised at the same time that this is the most produced show this year. I for one have never seen it but I know our production a few years back was a hit and of course the Broadway production with Saddie Sink set to Lorde songs was a revolutionary production. It got young people and high school students to the theater for a show that they could relate to and see themselves in. A huge player in their success is their director Danya Taymor. Taymor, who also directed the Outsiders Musical which is also on Broadway, has a knack for telling the stories of young people. Something super exciting is that she will be returning to the production ahead of their movie adaptation. Hopefully the movie will have some, if not all, of the original Broadway cast and will help to get more folks into the theater.
Well, there is one thing that is making me so happy about it. Apparently, Kimberly Belflower's John Proctor Is the Villain is the most performed play in America at this time, having 20 performances. Not only does it beat some other major names such as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose (14 performances), but also the most produced playwright of all is August Wilson.
The best thing about this play is that Kimberly Belflower's piece talks about teenagers reading The Crucible and questioning who the hero is. It is a new play with a young cast, and I think that theaters finally understood that people want stories that will be relevant to them. This is a great choice for theaters, especially regional and school ones, as they will get opportunities to give some major roles to young actors.
It is also great that most of the plays were new and not classics. Honestly, it makes me believe that theaters are ready to work with new talent, and I hope that some of those 20 productions will be closer to me so I can see it.
It is refreshing to see a play like John Proctor is the Villain get the magnitude of attention that it has. I haven't had the opportunity to see a production, but I did read the play and found it poignant. It creates a nuanced discourse between Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the reality of being a young woman in highschool. Having gone to an all girls college, finding plays that resonated with a woman’s, especially a young woman's experience was hard. There’s simply not enough of them, or enough of them that are well known and garner interest from both students and audience. John Proctor is the Villain is refreshingly resonant in this way, and I think it would be particularly so for college/university theatre students who have only just left high school. Due to the themes and subject matters, I doubt many of the theatres putting on John Proctor is the Villain are high schools. However, I hope that the number is made up in large by colleges and community theatres as college aged actors would have both a recent understanding of what high school is like while also being removed from the scene. It’s a contemporary show that, through its relevance I think has the potential to engage a wide range of audiences, and create discussion. I'm delighted that it is being so mass produced, and thus hopefully seen on a wider scale across the country. I see this then as a step in the right direction, and can only hope more similar works follow.
8 comments:
The headline of this article really surprised me. I love John Proctor as the Villain and think that everyone needs to see a production of the show; however, high schools producing it surprises me. John Proctor isn't graphic or overly descriptive, but it deals with topics that can be heavy and contentious, and that schools and communities often shy away from. While I think so many high school students could benefit from seeing John Proctor, it doesn't seem realistic that very many school boards, principals, or theater teachers will allow schools to put on such a politically charged play, especially in our current political climate where securing funding for the arts in schools is already so hard. The other thing I found interesting about this article is that the total number of productions of John Proctor is the Villain is around 20, a very small number compared to the large sample size taking the survey.
I find this both surprising and not at the same time. John Proctor is such a good show, I think that the themes and topics discussed are very important, but they are also the reason I’m kind of surprised it’s the show with the most productions from this past season. With such heavy topics I’d imagine it would be hard to put on in a school setting. However, with how popular the Broadway and West End runs were I’m not surprised more people have been wanting to put it on. The latest large-scale productions of this show were truly so amazing and it got a lot more audiences excited and more appreciative of the play that smaller theaters putting it on more seems kind of inevitable. As always, theatre pieces like this being spread on a larger scale will never be a bad thing, I think it’s great that more people have access to it from local productions and such.
It's interesting that this play made as big of a splash as it has. It makes alot of sense to me for colleges, where your acting pool is college aged people who have a very strong grasp of what it means to be a kid in high school, unlike other productions where every character is a middle aged person who's lived a life which can often feel inauthentic coming from the voice and body of a 21 year old actor. But this play’s story seems to resonate with a lot of people. Maybe its because we were all forced to read the crucible at some point and its nice to know that we all have a shared experience. Or maybe people just enjoy a group of girls screaming at the top of their lungs about life. Who knows? Either way it is a pretty fantastic show and I’m glad so many people are going to get to appreciate it.
I am not surprised that ‘John Proctor is The Villain’ is so frequently produced – especially in high schools. I think more and more high school programs are looking for plays that are not only accessible to the audience watching them, but to the actors in the play. Sitting in a high school English class discussing and discovering something about a book is a scene that highschoolers are familiar with. Not to mention the fact that the plays holds one location and majority of femme presenting characters.
While I appreciate the information about this being the most frequently produced play in the US, I found that the article lacked any information that I didn’t already get from the headline. This is annoying and I feel like this is a more frequent occurrence than it used to be. I used my CMU library access to read the article, which means I didn’t pay for it, but I cannot imagine purchasing a subscription or even a copy of the paper just to read this article that pretty much doesn’t tell me anything. Why are we not asking why?
This does not shock me whatsoever, to be honest, it actually shows something positive about what theater programs in the United States and regional theaters choose to highlight at the moment. A play that helps render a text with a modern twist usually has a significantly longer life span because it's actually providing directors and students with two elements at once. I remember when we did this show in 2024 and immediately fell in love with it. Not only do I love everything that it stands for, the integration of Lorde, but the way it makes this comparison between old texts and modern day allows others to understand these fundamental concepts that might have been introduced in 1600 are still prevalent. I would be really interested to see how this play ranks among classic works, for instance, the Shakespeares and Millers, as such a change reflects some real evolution in schools and community theaters' attitude towards what works are worth presenting to the public.
I’m surprised and also not surprised at the same time that this is the most produced show this year. I for one have never seen it but I know our production a few years back was a hit and of course the Broadway production with Saddie Sink set to Lorde songs was a revolutionary production. It got young people and high school students to the theater for a show that they could relate to and see themselves in. A huge player in their success is their director Danya Taymor. Taymor, who also directed the Outsiders Musical which is also on Broadway, has a knack for telling the stories of young people. Something super exciting is that she will be returning to the production ahead of their movie adaptation. Hopefully the movie will have some, if not all, of the original Broadway cast and will help to get more folks into the theater.
Well, there is one thing that is making me so happy about it. Apparently, Kimberly Belflower's John Proctor Is the Villain is the most performed play in America at this time, having 20 performances. Not only does it beat some other major names such as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose (14 performances), but also the most produced playwright of all is August Wilson.
The best thing about this play is that Kimberly Belflower's piece talks about teenagers reading The Crucible and questioning who the hero is. It is a new play with a young cast, and I think that theaters finally understood that people want stories that will be relevant to them. This is a great choice for theaters, especially regional and school ones, as they will get opportunities to give some major roles to young actors.
It is also great that most of the plays were new and not classics. Honestly, it makes me believe that theaters are ready to work with new talent, and I hope that some of those 20 productions will be closer to me so I can see it.
It is refreshing to see a play like John Proctor is the Villain get the magnitude of attention that it has. I haven't had the opportunity to see a production, but I did read the play and found it poignant. It creates a nuanced discourse between Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the reality of being a young woman in highschool. Having gone to an all girls college, finding plays that resonated with a woman’s, especially a young woman's experience was hard. There’s simply not enough of them, or enough of them that are well known and garner interest from both students and audience. John Proctor is the Villain is refreshingly resonant in this way, and I think it would be particularly so for college/university theatre students who have only just left high school. Due to the themes and subject matters, I doubt many of the theatres putting on John Proctor is the Villain are high schools. However, I hope that the number is made up in large by colleges and community theatres as college aged actors would have both a recent understanding of what high school is like while also being removed from the scene. It’s a contemporary show that, through its relevance I think has the potential to engage a wide range of audiences, and create discussion. I'm delighted that it is being so mass produced, and thus hopefully seen on a wider scale across the country. I see this then as a step in the right direction, and can only hope more similar works follow.
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