Welcome to Salem Village. 1692.
It's a bad time to visit. Here, wealthy landowners want your land, local magistrates want your confession, unpopular reverends want your respect but more importantly your firewood, and everyone wants someone to be punished for something. Meanwhile, several local children try to make sense of a hysteria they find themselves at the center of. Oh! And the newest villagers, the Bloodkravens are here too. They are confused.
A darkly comedic, yet (mostly) historically accurate take on the Salem Witch Trials and all the (mostly) historically accurate horrors which may occur when populism runs rampant, injustice is a day to day occurrence, and a rigid religious minority sets the laws of the land. You know, old timey problems. A companion, or an alternative, to a certain other Salem play you probably read in high school.
From Matt Cox, writer of the oft produced, notably silly and deeply adored Puffs; or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, comes a new laugh out loud comedy about a dark chapter in American history. With keen political satire, Witches!? In Salem?! will make you laugh, will make you worry, and make you wonder at all the different ways different humans react to a crisis.
"History is the story of events, with praise or blame. Ah! destructive Ignorance, what shall be done to chase thee out of the World!" - Reverend Cotton Mather.
Help us share the lessons of the past. Support Witches!? In Salem?! Coming to HERE select dates, March 16th through the 30th. Tickets available at www.WitchesInSalem.com
Directed by Rachel Dart (Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical, Dance Nation regional premiere) the play will be featured as a part of Witches, Queers and Clowns, a three week performance series at HERE focused on societal outcasts. It is produced by Jonathan Cottle and Matt Cox in association with BonfireWorks Foundation, a Hudson Valley based non-profit dedicated to supporting the commission, development and creation of public artworks and arts experiences to inspire and promote human connection. More information at: bonfireworksfoundation.org
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The full company includes Jessie Cannizarro (Puffs), Nick Carrillo (Puffs) , AJ Ditty (Puffs, Paddington Gets in a Jam!), Carolina Đỗ (Linda Vista, Grand Horizon), Aaron Parker Fouhey (Night of the Living N-Word!!! Fringe NYC, The Christmas Tree Farm Mile Square Theatre), James Fouhey (Puffs), Jake Keefe (Jesus Christ Tater Tot, Puffs), Andy Miller (Puffs, The Mysteries), Jess Mosher (Murder on the Links, “Mr. Robot”) and Jordan Sison (The Wolves Hippodrome Theatre).
Scenic, Costume and Puppet design is provided by K.C. McGeorge and Noah Ruff. Original Score by Brian Metolius. Stage Managed by Vanessa Rebeil.
How Your Contribution Helps Us:
Making new theater has become quite the ordeal. It truly takes A VILLAGE. (Dun dun dun.) You will be assisting us with everything it takes to make the show go on our way:
- The rental of our space at HERE
- Costumes + Props + Having an actual set to do it all on
- Some big scary puppets (ooo, what’s that about?)
- An original score from Puffs composer Brian Metolius
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, helping us pay all of our amazing performers, designers, and crew a living wage so they can work on the show and be paid what they deserve - as there is quite literally no show without them.
- And more! So much more! All the surprises which are bound to pop up.
What about AFTER the production in March?
With an answer to that, a word from Matt Cox:
Many of you may have found your way from this page because you have been a part of a production of Puffs, somewhere in the world. There are so many of you now, it absolutely delights and baffles me. (Over 650 productions in 2023?!) Just as that play began as a small project made by a bunch of friends and slowly grew far beyond - my hopes for Witches!? are much the same. My hope is this script can soon exist as 1) a fun show to be in and put on wherever you are, 2) perhaps a companion or alternative to That-Salem-Play-You-Read-In-English-Class, 3) a fascinating challenge of a show for your casts and crews, and 4) all of the above.
As a writer, I always feel I do my best work in the rehearsal room leading up to a production. Your contribution will give us the opportunity to give that process to this play - to make it truly fun and affecting in all the best ways for both the audience and the performers on our stage - and eventually, maybe SOON, stages across the country.
I’m already in talks with a company prepared to license the performance rights to the play, and we are putting plans in place to create a script appropriate for younger performers as well. We can’t get there confidently without this first production, so from the bottom of my heart - thank you for considering helping us bring this play to HERE this March.
How Else Can I Help!?
Even if you can't donate to our campaign here, you can still help us out in so many ways!
- Share this campaign! Let people know why YOU are excited about it!
- Follow us on instagram at @WitchesInSalemPlay - Share our posts there!
- Go find that buried treasure you've always been saying is out there but no one believes you. Dig it up, and maybe give us a percentage?
Any More Information About The Play Itself? Yes.
Many words from writer Matt Cox, and a few words from director Rachel Dart:
I’ve been working on Witches!? In Salem?! (the punctuation order is important) off-and-on since 2016. The idea for the original concept of the play originated after seeing a production of That-One-Salem-Witch Play-You-Were-Probably-In which seemed to imply that maybe there was some real magic going on. That lead to the first iteration of the piece, a Mel Brooks/ Monty Python meets Odd Couple like story about two very real magic-users living in Salem and dealing with the events of history as they piled up. It was comedy forward, overall very silly, and was purposefully ignorant of the real life tragedy of it all. We did a few readings of this back in the day, and a high school even performed a version of this at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
However, as time marched on, something about this version didn’t quite sit right. As the witch trials became referenced often in the news, and more and more parallels added up - I shelved the play for a year or so and decided to do some earnest research before continuing on with the process. I devoured several books and documentaries on the subject (my favorite book being A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Frances Hill ) and was fascinated by so many avenues of this true story I’d never heard of back in school during the brief blip of a lesson. I was also horrified as all the lessons we probably should have learned from this have never really been heeded. So much of this history involves speculation (the many culprits of the trials didn’t exactly write out their evil plans) but looking back at the full picture, the perfect storm of machinations from power-hungry, money-loving, ignorant, callous humans who all pointed their focus to this one event to rile people up gave life to a new spark of the whole idea. Then add in the various bits and bobs of just interesting history - the state of Massachusetts laws (or lack there of), the long standings feuds of Salem between families, the pick-a-side war between the two halves of the Town / Village. It all became even more interesting! And finally, the oft represented culprits/victims of it all - a group of local children, girls, who appear to simply be responding to how their society has treated them, taking an opportunity to live life a little different for once (with lots of pressure from those aforementioned adults with agendas…)
It’s all drama, in the purest form! Drama all around. And frankly - comedy. Just how obvious it all seems, and how oblivious (likely by choice) many were to what were happening as it was happening, there’s something horribly funny about it all when taken . As a bonus, there was still room for my odd-couple witch and wizard, only in a different role.
“Witches!? In Salem?! is the most exciting kind of comedy: sharp, hilarious, and appallingly timely.” Says director Rachel Dart. “I could not be more delighted to work with this phenomenal cast and creative team on what is probably the funniest play there is about the brutal consequences of religious fanaticism!”
A major influence of the comedy of Witches!? In Salem?! Comes from Armando Iannucci’s 2018 film The Death of Stalin. Very similar to that, we focus on those people callously navigating these real events with little to no care who they hurt along the way. It’s in theory both very sad, and very funny. I also attempt to garner some amount of laughs from some transparency on the act of adapting this real thing that actually happened to real people into entertainment. Here, just like in most other popular plays I’ve seen on the subject, people are merged with other people, events are simplified, and lots of facts are seemingly lifted from that-one-Salem-play-you-had-to-read, who’s playwright once admitted he couldn’t remember what was research and what he had made up. It’s the only way to squeeze this down into a tiny morsel of the actual events. And I’ll admit it - after eight years working on this thing, I don’t fully remember what was all research and what I’ve made up. I think there’s something interesting to how we showcase our history - and the play tries to tackle that on top of showcasing this history.
Here, a quick note that I know some may be thinking of. This is an event in which innocent people died. And, while it happened a long time ago - that doesn’t seem very funny. I agree! And while, the play is very much trying to tackle all of this in what I would maybe consider my zippy, bit heavy comedy style - I’ve attempted to take great care in representing the victims of this history as who they actually were*. What they had to deal with. The genuine horror of what people can do to one another to get what they want. This stretches to the young girls at the center of the story too. Much like Puffs before this - the goal here is to go beyond what one might expect from my silly Salem play. There’s some real stuff here to contend with - working in tandem with the dark dark humor of it all.
After a long long journey, many many script iterations, and several public readings along the way - I’m so excited to finally be bringing this play to life on the stage.
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