The KC Rep is among the first group of regional theaters to produce one of 2025’s biggest Broadway plays.
“John Proctor is the Villain,” which was among Tony Award nominees for “Best Play” in 2025, follows a group of high schoolers as they navigate gender and power dynamics during the height of the #MeToo movement. As the students study Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” in English class, they explore the ways it resonates in their own lives.
The play was written and takes place during the late 2010s, but the story feels just as timely today, says Laura Alcalá Baker, who directs the KC Rep’s production.
“When you’re looking at plays, they take on the context of when they were written, when they take place and when they’re being produced,” she told KCUR’s Up To Date. “You can draw a direct line from what we saw with the #MeToo movement to the whiplash that is the manosphere and what we’re seeing inside of the news each and every day.”
And despite the serious subject matter, the play conveys its message through comedic and “unexpected” dialogue, Alcalá Baker says.
“I know that if I could get an audience to laugh, then we can disarm them and offer them to listen to what they're hearing on that stage,” she said.
“John Proctor is the Villain” runs through Oct. 25 at the KC Rep.
- Laura Alcalá Baker, director of “John Proctor is the Villain”
