John Proctor is the Villain

Theatre Review: Nashville Rep’s ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ Flips the Script on ‘The Crucible’ with a Vibrant, Thought-Provoking & Impressive Youthful Eye

October 9, 2026 by Jonathan Pinkerton

If you join us here on JHPEntertainment.com with any regularity, you likely know, after two decades of covering area theatre and a lifetime of loving it, I truly enjoy getting the opportunity to see something new. Having debuted on Broadway just last year, playwright Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor is the Villain fits the bill. For its Tennessee premiere—on stage at TPAC’s Johnson Theatre thru October 18— Nashville Repertory Theatre wisely places Lauren Shouse at the helm. Shouse’s beautifully staged production of the acclaimed play proves that sometimes the most important thing young people can do is question the stories they’ve been told.

If the name in the title seems familiar, there’s good reason. He’s the perceived tragic hero of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. There is something wonderfully audacious about taking one of the most frequently assigned American plays in the high-school curriculum and essentially telling an audience, Wait a minute…what if we’ve been looking at this all wrong? That is precisely what playwright Kimberly Belflower does with John Proctor Is the Villain, and Nashville Repertory Theatre’s new production embraces that challenge with intelligence, humor and a remarkable amount of heart.

Rather than attempting to retell Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Belflower uses it as a jumping-off point for a much larger conversation about the stories we inherit, the people we label heroes and villains, and what happens when a younger generation starts asking questions that previous generations may have been too comfortable not asking. And in the hands of this terrific company, those questions become anything but academic.

Taking place in 2018 and set inside a rural Appalachian Georgia high-school classroom in a one-stoplight town (they’re getting another one), John Proctor Is the Villain follows a group of teenagers whose discussions of Miller’s classic begin to collide with their own increasingly complicated understanding of feminism, relationships, power, reputation, consent (yes, it takes place right smack in the middle of the #MeToo movement) and what it means to actually listen to someone else’s experience. It is indeed serious subject matter.

Fortunately, Belflower knows that teenagers don’t spend their lives speaking in serious declarations about serious subjects. They joke.They gossip. They interrupt each other. They misunderstand each other. They fall in and out of alliances. They say something hilariously inappropriate at exactly the wrong moment. And sometimes, almost accidentally, they say something extraordinarily profound. That balance between humor and emotional weight is one of the greatest strengths of Belflower’s writing—and Shouse’s production understands it beautifully. One can only assume Shouse’s “day job” as an Associate Professor of Theatre Directing at nearby MTSU might have aided her direction.

There is a natural rhythm to this staging that allows the comedy to land without ever diminishing the more difficult material. Just when you think you’re settling comfortably into a funny classroom exchange, the conversation shifts and suddenly you’re thinking about what you’ve just heard. Simply put, that is good theater. And John Proctor Is the Villain is very good theater. Shouse proves particularly adept at working with this predominantly young ensemble. There is no sense that she is directing young actors to act like teenagers. Instead, she gives them the freedom to create recognizable young people with individual personalities, insecurities, contradictions and senses of humor. The result is an ensemble that feels genuinely connected.

Norah Younger’s Shelby Holcomb might not be in the opening scene, but once onstage, immediately commands attention. Younger gives Shelby an appealing intelligence and quickness, but wisely show restraint and uncertainty. There is something more complicated happening underneath Shelby’s rapid-fire observations, and Younger gradually reveals those layers with an impressive combination of confidence and vulnerability.

Advika Ravishankar’s Raelynn Nix is equally compelling. Ravishankar finds the humanity in a character who has spent much of her young life navigating expectations—expectations about who she should be, how she should behave and what her relationships should look like. Watching those assumptions begin to crack is one of the production’s more affecting journeys, and Ravishankar handles that evolution with considerable sensitivity. One of my personal favorite Raelynn moments comes early on in the play when she fires off a rapid succession monologue of exposition to catch up Nell, the newest student, she ends the fast-paced info dump with “and that’s what you missed on Glee”—taking a cue from the intro phrase from the iconic teen-driven TV series that always started each episode.

Aubrey Bagley’s Beth Powell is perfection as the eager to please brainiac of the group who strives for acceptance. She’s the every-girl we all knew and were friends with in high school. Brityn Ramsey’s Nell Shaw, the newest addition to the classroom, having relocated from the more metropolitan Atlanta area, is the cool girl who isn’t afraid to follow whatever is said with an oh-so-biting retort or a not-so-subtle eye roll. Ella Saliba’s Ivy Watkins, who finds herself at the center of one of the many subplots offers up a quieter, unassuming version of the typical well-to-do school girl who could easily be stereotyped as a mean girl, but absolutely isn’t.

At no point do these actors seem like they’re standing around waiting for their next line. They are listening, reacting, judging, supporting, teasing and occasionally steamrolling over one another in ways that make the classroom feel genuinely inhabited. There is a terrific sense of rhythm to the dialogue as presented by the playwright and as brought to life among the performers.

And then there are the adults of the piece Lucas Calhoun as Mr. Carter Smith and McKenna Steel as Ms Bailey. Lucas Calhoun’s Carter Smith, who finds just the right balance in the production’s adult male presence. As the English teacher and faculty advisor to the girls’ newly formed feminism club, Carter occupies an interesting position within the story. Calhoun doesn’t make him a conveniently enlightened adult who always knows exactly what to say. Instead, there is a humanity to his performance that allows Carter to listen, learn and occasionally realize that the most useful thing he can do is get out of the way. That makes Calhoun’s performance considerably more interesting—and considerably more believable. Calhoun’s Mr. Smith is the teacher we all remember from high school. Just a little older than the students, good looking, interested, but not hovering…again reference Glee, think Matthew Morrison as Mr. Will Schuester. McKenna Steel’s Ms Bailey Gallagher, the schools guidance counselor who many of the girls know from when she was a student herself, brings a welcome grounding presence. The girls relate to Steel’s Ms Bailey because she sees herself in them and they in her. When one of the girls unexpected blows up at Ms Bailey, it’s a tense moment that quickly quiets because of the familiarity of their shared experiences as women in a small rural community.

Rounding out the cast and reppin’ the boys, Lorenzo Rivera’s Mason Adams and Brent Bentley’s Lee Turner provide some of the production’s lighter moments without ever allowing their characters to become broad caricatures. In the hands of less skilled young actors, both roles could easily be stereotypes…Mason the jokester, Lee the cocksure jock, but as played by Rivera and Bentley, they reveal layers of uncertainty, self-doubt and eventual understanding, not only of themselves but of their female counterparts. Don’t get it twisted though, this play is about the young women. That said, it is an impressive company from top to bottom.

The chemistry among Younger, Ravishankar and their fellow cast members is one of the production’s greatest assets. There’s never a moment in the action that the audience has to be convinced that we’re not privy to a group of high school girls expanding upon the drama that is being a teenager in the modern era.

These characters have to feel like people who have known one another for years. They need to possess the casual shorthand of friendship—the glances, interruptions, private jokes and tiny frustrations that tell us there is a history between them even when the script isn’t explicitly telling us about it.

A lot of the success also comes from the physical world they’ve been given to inhabit. Scenic Designer Gary C. Hoff creates a classroom that feels immediately recognizable without becoming overly fussy or distracting. It is an environment that feels lived in, and because the entire play unfolds within this world, that authenticity becomes an important part of the storytelling. I frequently say I could live on one of Hoff’s sets and while I have no desire to return to the classroom, Hoff’s classroom is warm, inviting, and memory-unlocking. Minute details like an authentic intercom speaker box we all remember those morning announcement booming from, portraits of literary greats Wilde, Poe, Austen and the like lining the wall above the chalkboard all come together seamlessly to create a believable environment. Oh, and those fall leaves among the smooth rocks lining the path just outside the non-existent school wall nearest the front-facing audience. Nice touch!

The Johnson Theater’s intimacy works especially well here. Rather than placing the audience at a comfortable distance from the action, the space makes us feel almost like another group of observers inside the classroom. We’re close enough to catch the reactions, the shifts in body language and the moments when someone realizes that a conversation has suddenly become much more personal than expected. That closeness is invaluable.

Lighting Designer Amber Whatley complements the staging with a design that subtly tracks the emotional shifts without calling attention to itself. The lighting becomes increasingly expressive as the world of the characters begins to change, helping Shouse transition between the playful, familiar atmosphere of a classroom and the more emotionally charged territory the play eventually explores. Without giving too much away, that Lorde-enhancing pivotal “Green Light” sequence…cinematic indeed!

Melissa K. Durmon’s Costume, Hair & Makeup Design is equally effective. The characters look like contemporary teenagers rather than actors dressed to announce that they’re playing contemporary teenagers. Each individual has a distinct personality reflected in their appearance, while the ensemble still feels like a believable collection of students from the same community. From Mr. Carter’s teacheresque khaki pants to Mason’s plethora of sarcastically phrased t-shirts the wardrobe details do not go unnoticed.

That authenticity extends to the smallest details. And those details matter. From Lee’s fidget spinner to Beth’s stress stuffy. From the way Beth carefully places her books and binders in a mannerly fashion to Raelynn casually tossing her backpack on the floor. Each movement, carefully curated to reveal more about these characters.

Because Belflower’s play is ultimately about authenticity. It’s about the difference between the story we’ve been handed and the story we experience ourselves. It’s about the danger of accepting a narrative simply because it has become familiar. It’s about the uncomfortable realization that the people we have been taught to admire may not always deserve our admiration—and that people we’ve been taught to dismiss may have considerably more to say than we ever bothered to hear.

That is a particularly potent idea to place in the hands of young characters. And Belflower never underestimates them. That’s perhaps what makes John Proctor Is the Villain so refreshing. The adults aren’t automatically right. The teenagers aren’t automatically right, either. Nobody gets to walk away with the moral high ground simply because they have the best argument in the room. Instead, the play asks everyone—including the audience—to listen.

Belflower’s writing is smart enough to leave room for disagreement, while Shouse’s direction keeps that disagreement rooted in character rather than turning the production into a lecture. And that’s an important distinction. This isn’t a play telling an audience what to think. It’s a play encouraging an audience to think. By the time the production reaches its most emotionally resonant moments, the title John Proctor Is the Villain has become more than a provocative punchline. It has become a question about the very nature of heroes and villains—and about how easily those labels can be assigned when we only hear one version of a story. That is where Nashville Rep’s production really hits its stride. What begins as a clever reexamination of The Crucible gradually becomes something much more personal. Because eventually, the question isn’t really about John Proctor. It’s about us. What stories have we accepted without questioning? Whose version did we automatically believe? Who taught us what a hero was supposed to look like? And what happens when someone finally has the courage to say, Maybe that’s not the whole story.

Nashville Repertory Theatre has assembled a production that understands the power of those questions without becoming weighed down by them. Shouse keeps the pace energetic, the young cast keeps the world vibrant and Belflower’s script provides plenty of humor along the way. That combination makes John Proctor Is the Villain not only an important piece of contemporary theater, but an entertaining one. And perhaps that’s the biggest surprise. You come expecting a play about The Crucible. You leave thinking about the stories you’ve been carrying around your entire life. That’s the kind of theatrical alchemy Nashville Rep does exceptionally well.

With Lauren Shouse’s assured direction, Kimberly Belflower’s incisive script, Gary C. Hoff’s authentic scenic design, Amber Whatley’s evocative lighting, Melissa K. Durmon’s finely detailed costumes, hair and makeup, and an exceptionally committed ensemble led by Norah Younger, Advika Ravishankar and Lucas Calhoun, Nashville Repertory Theatre’s John Proctor Is the Villain is a production that earns both its laughs and its more difficult conversations. It doesn’t ask audiences to forget The Crucible. It asks us to look at it again. And perhaps more importantly, it reminds us that sometimes the most important lesson in the classroom is learning that you don’t have to accept the lesson exactly as it was given to you. Smart, funny, provocative and deeply human—Nashville Rep’s John Proctor Is the Villain is contemporary theater at its most engaging, giving a talented young ensemble a story that trusts them to question everything, including the stories we thought we already knew.

Nashville Repertory Theatre‘s John Proctor is the Villain continues at TPAC’s Johnson Theatre (505 Deaderick Street, Nashville, TN 37243) with performances weekends through Sunday, October 18. Thursday thru Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm. Saturday and Sunday matinees begin at 2pm. Tickets range in price from $45.53-$89.23 (including fees). CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.

Following John Proctor is the Villain, Nash Rep presents Disney‘s Frozen starring Rachel Potter as Elsa and Aleia Eagleton as Anna, with Lane Adam Williamson as Hans, Colin Carswell as Kristoff, Reagan Allen as Olaf and Connor Adair as Sven. Frozen will be presented in TPAC’s Polk Theatre from December 4-20. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets or for more information. As always, check out Nashville Rep online and follow them on Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram.

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‘The Crucible’ Gets a Gen-Z makeover: Rapid Fire 20Q with Cast & Director of Nash Rep’s ‘John Proctor is the Villain’; at TPAC’s Johnson Theatre October 2-18

October 1, 2026 by Jonathan Pinkerton

Playwright Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain turns Arthur Miller’s The Crucible upside down, trading Salem’s witch trials for a Georgia high school classroom where feminism, friendship, consent and long-held assumptions are suddenly up for debate. As Nashville Repertory Theatre brings the acclaimed Broadway hit to Nashville for the first time, JHPEntertainment fires off 20 questions for director Lauren Shouse and cast members Lucas Calhoun, Norah Younger and Advika Ravishankar about reexamining a classic, finding the humanity beneath their characters and navigating the complicated—and sometimes hilarious—world of growing up. From a teacher caught in the middle to young women finding their voices, this Rapid Fire 20Q goes behind the scenes with the artists bringing Belflower’s provocative, funny and conversation-starting play to TPAC ‘s Johnston Theatre stage.

RAPID FIRE 20Q WITH CAST MEMBERS AND DIRECTOR OF NASHVILLE REP’s JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN

RAPID FIRE WITH JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN‘s LUCAS CALHOUN

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Carter Smith is the English teacher who becomes the faculty advisor for the girls’ newly formed Feminism Club, which makes you one of the relatively few male voices in a play dominated by young women. What has been interesting about occupying that particular place in this world—and being the guy who has to know when to speak and when to simply listen?

LUCAS CALHOUN: I am an insatiably curious person. My experiences are wholly my own and in so limited in their breadth. To be surrounded by people whose journey through life has granted them unique and foreign experiences to me is a gift. If ever I have to consider when to listen or speak the answer is almost always listen. I’m not sure Carter would agree.

Carter’s pedagogy lies deeply in giving his students a voice. He creates a space where students are encouraged to question, challenge, fail, and fully express their viewpoints outside the restrictive conventions of their small religious town. To him this requires control. This ideology is called into question when Shelby returns and tests Carter’s control, belief in himself, and his skill as a teacher. That particular challenge is the interesting bit.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Your own résumé includes graduating from The Second City Conservatory in Hollywood and eventually teaching in Second City’s youth program. Did that experience working with younger performers give you any particular insight into the rhythms, humor or occasionally gloriously unpredictable energy of the teenage world you’re surrounded by in this play?

LUCAS CALHOUN: Kimberly Bellflower masterfully captures the contradiction of the teenage experience. That sense of ‘knowing everything’ while in a constant state of insecurity over their understanding of the world. The Second City in addition to my training at Improv Olympic made me an active and attentive listener who searches for the new and unexpected. The beauty of working with teenage characters is their lives are rich with new and unexpected experiences. I just need to be willing to go along for the ride.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Carter is teaching The Crucible while his students are essentially dismantling some of the assumptions behind it. As an actor playing the teacher, do you find yourself thinking about the difference between teaching young people what a story says and encouraging them to question why the story has been told that way?

LUCAS CALHOUN: I’m not sure there is any daylight between “what a story says” and “why the story has been told that way.” Both are essential when seeking meaning. This play challenges the fallacy of “evergreen art” by pitting a known historical allegory against a modern dialogue.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: You’re also a dad to a young daughter. While you have a few years before you’re faced with the inevitable task of helping her navigate some of the challenges young women face in today’s cultural climate, has working on this play planted any new seeds in your mind about how you hope to keep the lines of communication open with her?

LUCAS CALHOUN: One strength my wife and I share is the willingness to have difficult conversations. I admire my daughter’s bravery and self actualization at such an early age. She’ll inevitably face difficult challenges and uncertainty – I’m confident when those moments arise she’ll advocate for herself.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Carter spends a lot of time in a room where the conversation is getting increasingly complicated, personal and uncomfortable. What’s the one thing about playing him that has surprised you most—and has there been a moment when you thought, “Okay, Carter, you really need to sit down and let the kids talk now”?

LUCAS CALHOUN: I imagine experiencing Carter from the audience and as the performer might be very different. To elaborate before we open would be doing both a disservice, but therein lies the surprise.

RAPID FIRE WITH JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN‘s NORAH YOUNGER

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Shelby Holcomb is described as someone whose brain works faster than her mouth—and whose mouth works pretty darn fast—while also being someone people have consistently underestimated. What part of Shelby’s personality was the easiest for you to connect with, and what part required you to dig a little deeper?

NORAH YOUNGER: The part of Shelby’s personality that was the easiest to connect with was her rage. To be completely honest, as a woman experiencing the world outside the shelter of childhood, everything that is wrong and broken with the world makes me ragefully angry. Shelby’s frustration with her circumstances and with the troubles she must face was a very accesible connection for me. One aspect of Shelby that required me to dig a little deeper was the trauma she carries into this show. Without giving too much away, Shelby has been through some shit, and the majority of my character research was toward the short and long term psychological effects of some of those events.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Shelby’s return to school after being away for a while changes the temperature in the room pretty quickly. Without giving away too much, what do you think she desperately wants the other girls—and perhaps the audience—to understand about her?

NORAH YOUNGER: Shelby’s desperation in this show comes from the need for her friends to listen to her. Shelby is constantly dismissed, interrupted, and never taken seriously by authority figures and her own best friends. So as a result she finds ways to make people listen.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: There’s a lot of very serious subject matter in John Proctor Is the Villain, but Belflower also gives these girls plenty of humor, pop-culture references and teenage attitude. I was struck at how perfectly the playwright captures the speech pattern and tone of 2018 youth. As someone who isn’t too far removed from their own teen years, has that aided you in finding Shelby’s voice?

NORAH YOUNGER: Somehow, Kimberly wrote Shelby’s speech pattern in a way that very much emulates my own, which has connected me to the character in such a beautiful way. Kimberly’s genius use of dialogue has given me so much insight into not only the character but her relationships with the others. So much of this show is dependent on the character relationships, and the text informs so much of those distinctions.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: With all the pop culture and music artist references present in the dialogue of the girls, while reading the script in anticipation of chatting with your director and cast mates, I couldn’t help but thing…this work could absolutely be a musical! Humor me…What tune, past or present could easily be Shelby’s ‘theme’?

NORAH YOUNGER: “Mad Woman” by Taylor Swift could easily be Shelby’s Theme. The song expresses how society scorns women who seem “crazy” and “angry” because women are never allowed the space to react proportionately to any terrible situation. Any time they speak up it seems like they are “breathing flames”.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: This play really depends on the feeling that these young women know each other—their friendships, frustrations, inside jokes and occasional explosions all have to feel lived-in. What has the fast-paced process of bonding with this cast been like?

NORAH YOUNGER: The bonding aspect of this play process has been one of the easiest parts for me. Not only is everyone in the cast just a lovely human, this play gives permission to be seen, to feel, to speak to not only the audience but also to us, as actors. I clicked with the other girls almost instantly on the surface level. But working on this play has brought the deepest, most vulnerable part of my soul to the surface; fragile and exposed, and my cast mates see this part of me every day and still accept me and love me through it all.

RAPID FIRE WITH JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN‘s ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Raelynn Nix initially looks like she has the whole small-town high-school experience figured out—the cheerleader type who has spent much of her life living according to other people’s expectations. What did you discover underneath that exterior that changed the way you saw her?

ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR: Rae definitely looks like she has it all figured out, but honestly, almost none of it was ever up to her. Her dad is the town preacher, so everyone knows him, which means everyone knows her too. She isn’t just representing herself; she’s representing her dad and her whole family, so there’s an image she always has to maintain. What she actually wants doesn’t really matter, because everyone has already decided who the head cheerleader and preacher’s daughter is supposed to be. Once I understood what her life has been like, it completely changed how I wanted to tell her story. Her arc felt so much bigger, and her struggle felt so much more real.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: I love that Raelynn is dealing with some pretty complicated questions about identity, relationships and the expectations placed on her. Is there a particular aspect of her personality or her journey that feels surprisingly close to something you recognize in yourself?

ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR: Setting aside the fact that I was a high schooler in 2018 (funny enough, I read The Crucible that year too), there’s a lot I recognize in her. I’m definitely not from a one-stoplight town in Georgia, but there are real similarities between Raelynn’s community and the one I grew up in, especially with the unspoken expectations about who you’re supposed to be. Throughout the show, Raelynn tries to take up as little space as possible. Women are so often taught to be agreeable, never make mistakes, and have everything figured out, and I know what it’s like to be shamed for not fitting the mold people build for you. Whenever I speak my mind or let my personality show, I’m sometimes told I’m ‘too much’ or that I need to ‘calm down.’ So, like Rae, I find myself shrinking back to avoid ruffling any feathers. But also like her, I feel free to break away from those expectations when I’m leaning into the female friendships in my life. My friends from high school and the ones I found in college make me braver than I’ve ever been about just being myself, the same way Shelby and the feminist club do for Rae.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: One of the fascinating things about John Proctor Is the Villain is watching these characters discover that growing up sometimes means questioning things you previously accepted without thinking twice. What is the biggest question Raelynn finds herself wrestling with—and has exploring that question changed anything about how you view her?

ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR: I think the biggest thing Rae wrestles with is who to believe. When the show starts, Shelby’s been gone for a while, and no one really knows why, so the whole town has a theory. Rae and Shelby have a complicated history, and she’s stuck choosing between what people are saying and what she knows about the girl she grew up with. For someone who’s always gone along with the crowd, that’s huge. It might be the first time she’s ever had to make up her own mind and actually stick to it. It’s easy to see her as a follower, but watching her learn to trust herself showed me she’s had this quiet strength the whole time. Questioning something that people around you take as fact is scary, especially when you have as much to lose as she does. And really, the debate over whether John Proctor is a villain is just the tip of the iceberg. Once Rae starts asking whether the hero of The Crucible is actually a hero, she starts asking that about everything she grew up believing, like how girls are supposed to act and who always seems to get the blame.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: What has working with Lauren Shouse been like? With a young ensemble tackling material that can become emotionally intense, what does Lauren bring into the rehearsal room that helps everyone feel comfortable enough to take risks?

ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR: I cannot say enough good things about Lauren. She’s reminded me that the best work comes from a room where you’re allowed to be fully yourself, messy and vulnerable and all. I didn’t expect this show to hit so close to home, and it can be really hard to let your guard down enough to do these characters justice. Lauren is constantly checking in with us, and on the days when the material hits too hard, she always makes sure our mental and physical well-being comes first. She’s also created a space where we’re free to play with these characters and the world around them, and she’s encouraged us to make them our own and lean into the relationships we’ve built with each other. I think that’s a big part of why the friendships onstage feel so real: we’ve built real ones offstage too!

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Finally, this is a show about a group of teenagers who spend a lot of time talking, arguing, laughing, challenging one another. IF the characters in John Proctor had a group chat, who do you suspect would be the first person to get kicked out? AND who would quietly remove themselves from the chat?

ADVIKA RAVISHANKAR: For who’d get kicked out first, my gut says Mason, but not permanently. He’s hilarious and means well, but he’d absolutely send something out of pocket, and Nell (or even Beth) would clock him and put him on probation for a couple of hours while he “thinks about what he’s said.” Then he’d get added back just in time to send a notes app apology that Beth probably edited for him. Quietly leaving could go a couple of ways, but my first instinct is Rae. Lee would say something dumb, and she’d just leave without a word because she doesn’t want to deal with it.

RAPID FIRE WITH JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN DIRECTOR LAUREN SHOUSE

JHPENTERTAINMENT: You’re an Associate Professor of Theatre Directing at Middle Tennessee State University, where your teaching includes directing and script analysis. How much did the classroom side of your life—particularly teaching students how to break down a script and make directing choices—inform your approach to directing this predominantly younger cast?

LAUREN SHOUSE: I love working with young people and feel fortunate to have a front row seat to people in the critical stage of becoming who they are and finding their own unique voice. So for me, this process continues to teach me, not only all the cultural references that go over my head as they chat at lunch, but just what matters to them as individuals and as a generation. Also working with Governor’s School of the Arts for the last 5 years has given me the opportunity to see just how naturally Kimberly Belflower has crafted the language of this play for teenagers. The cast has said many times that they speak just like their character. It has been a gift to work with this exceptionally talented cast. Their energy has been infectious and the future is bright.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: John Proctor Is the Villain was just on Broadway last year, and now you’re the director introducing Kimberly Belflower’s very timely take on The Crucible to Nashville audiences for the first time. Is there an extra bit of excitement—or pressure—that comes with getting to be the person who brings a brand-new Broadway title home to Nashville?

LAUREN SHOUSE: I feel lucky and excited as this play has been on my list since I first read it in 2019. Also, the very first show I worked on with Nashville Rep was the 2007 production of The Crucible – I was the assistant stage manager. So, it has been fun to come full circle nearly 20 years later.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: The Johnson Theater at TPAC is considerably more intimate than a traditional proscenium setting. With a play that essentially puts us inside the world of a close-knit group of high schoolers—where conversations, alliances and secrets can change in a heartbeat—what does that intimacy give you as a director?

LAUREN SHOUSE: I love working in the Johnson with the thrust staging, especially for a fast-moving play like this. The dialogue is snappy and the tension builds throughout the play, so being close and especially if you are on the side audience banks, you feel like you are eavesdropping in the best way. I also feel like we just get to share the emotional moments of the play in a more impactful way, where the audience have the access to the actor and are collectively gasping or laughing with them.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: While researching your chat with you and members of your cast, I loved Mason’s line at about the midway point of the play when he says, “I feel like I’m reading a completely different play…I thought The Crucible was about witches.” One of the things I love about John Proctor Is the Villain is taking a canonical work like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and essentially saying, “Okay, but what if we look at this story differently?” If you could give another classic play the John Proctor Is the Villain treatment and reexamine it through a modern lens, which one would you love to tackle—and why?

LAUREN SHOUSE: Oh man, what a question! I am sure I would have a deeper answer with more time, but my first thought is just to look at the genre of the Golden Age musical and how women were depicted in many of those “classic” musicals. I feel like in almost everyone one, the women give away their agency almost immediately and so I would love to explore what would it be like for a young woman today to play such a role and what does it say to our students? Those are the questions I would love to investigate in that genre.

JHPENTERTAINMENT: Without giving away the discoveries audiences will make along the way, what do you hope people walk out of the Johnson Theater thinking—or perhaps talking about—after experiencing John Proctor Is the Villain?

LAUREN SHOUSE: For me, this play is specifically about that moment in adolescence where we stop regurgitating the things our parents, teachers, church, government leaders said verbatim, and we shape our own individual truth. I hope the audience will ask what stories they have readily believed because someone in power told them it was true. John Proctor Is the Villainreminds us that the question is not simply whether we will tell the truth. It is whether we will have the courage to listen and act when someone else does.

With its mix of sharp humor, teenage candor and questions that refuse to stay neatly inside the classroom, John Proctor Is the Villain is sure to give audiences plenty to chew on long after the final curtain. We’ll leave the last word to Lauren, Lucas, Norah and Advika—because sometimes the most interesting part of rewriting the story is discovering what happens when someone finally asks, “But who gets to tell it?”

Nashville Repertory Theatre‘s John Proctor is the Villain opens at TPAC’s Johnson Theatre (505 Deaderick Street, Nashville, TN 37243) Friday, October 2 and runs weekends through Sunday, October 18. Thursday thru Saturday evening performances are at 7:30pm. Saturday and Sunday matinees begin at 2pm. Tickets range in price from $45.53-$89.23 (including fees). CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.