SALEM

In 1692, accusations of witchcraft spread through Salem. But who bears the greatest responsibility for what followed?

SALEM: THE EVIDENCE - A Debate Across the Centuries transforms the Salem Witch Trials into a compelling theatrical debate in which history itself takes the witness stand.

A modern professor and four student debaters confront reconstructed historical figures including Tituba, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Reverend Samuel Parris, Thomas Putnam, John and Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Magistrate John Hathorne.

At the center of the debate is one provocative question:

Did the authorities who sustained the Salem Witch Trials bear greater responsibility for their fatal consequences than the people who first made the accusations?

Drawing upon surviving court papers, church records, testimony, and historical research, the play examines accusation, fear, spectral evidence, confession, authority, responsibility, and the dangerous distance between suspicion and proof.

The audience becomes part of the experience. Participants vote before the debate, question the historical figures directly, and vote again after hearing the evidence. There is no predetermined winner.

SALEM: THE EVIDENCE also challenges familiar myths surrounding the trials, including the fictional romance between Abigail Williams and John Proctor and simplified explanations of Thomas Putnam, Tituba, and the Salem community.

Designed for theatrical productions, schools, colleges, historical societies, libraries, and discussion programs, this interactive historical drama asks audiences not merely what happened in Salem-but how ordinary fear became deadly authority.

History has already recorded the verdicts.

Now the audience must examine the evidence.