Auditions are now open for 'The Crucible,' this year's summer production from GRAPA

The play tells a story of Salem, as it's torn to pieces by paranoia and a witch hunt. The story, touching on themes of mob mentality and corruption of justice, is frequently taught in high schools for it's timelessness, which added to the appeal for director James Walsh.

Mr Walsh has featured in an impressive number of shows from musicals to traditional Shakespeare, but this is his first time in the director's chair.

Mr Walsh said that he had wanted to do the story for a long time, and felt the themes were especially poignant after the pandemic saw division and paranoia among Australians and the wider world.

"I'm really excited. It's a challenging text about a challenging time and events, but it is still relevant and a lot can be gained from being part of it and from people coming to see it," he said.

"The whole mob justice bit, neighbour against neighbour really came out in the pandemic," added Oumi Karenga-Hewitt, who'll be producing the show.

"We asked our members and the community to pitch a production they wanted to see this year ... James sent through a great pitch, our members reviewed all the pitches and it was by far one of the favourite ones."

Ms Karenga-Hewitt and Mr Walsh were both keen to see some new members take the stage, but are keen for some GRAPA mainstays as well.

"We've got extremes in characters - there's the young accusers and there's a great group of younger people who are keen to be involved but there's still characters in that young-to-medium adult range," said Mr Walsh.

"There's some good ensemble characters as well, which aren't age specific."

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Ms Karenga-Hewitt said she was keen to produce The Crucible due to the nature of the story and watching it naturally escalate.

"It's a really exciting story. The Salem Witch Trials and everything that happened around that, whether fiction or historical, is really fascinating. The way something can turn from a small white lie to a fully-fledged community panic is really interesting."

"We've done Shakespeare every year for about fifteen years, so it's exciting to do something different."

The auditions are coming up soon, taking place on Saturday, June 4 at the Griffith Regional Theatre. Auditions are open to anyone over 16 years old, but registrations are required - more information is available at GRAPA's website.

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