The scream begins as a ripple, starting with the most unlikely character first, and then crescendos from one teenage girl to the next, propelling them across the stage through sheer force of lung. Four voices rising and bodies contorting: aaaahAAAAAAHHHHH!
It’s a standout scene in “John Proctor Is the Villain,” the hit Broadway dramedy that revisits “The Crucible” through the eyes of burgeoning feminist high school students. At some point, these girls have had enough: of social pressures, family dramas and especially of questionable male authority figures. The only thing left to do is vent at top volume.
“They scream so loud and for so long,” the stage directions read, “it’s a lifetime of screams. It’s awesome.”
Audience members laugh and applaud that moment — and they also start to cry, said Kimberly Belflower, who wrote the play. She gets it.
“Teenage girls are so monitored and observed and objectified and are expected to be a certain thing,” Belflower, 38, said. “It’s a lose-lose in a lot of ways. So just having the opportunity to let go of that, and be, like, ugly and loud — it opens something up.”
The “John Proctor” shriekathon is the latest in a wave of young women and girls letting their pipes loose, on stages and in rock clubs, across arenas and on screens — and exhorting anyone to join in. “Right now, I want you to think about something or someone that just really pisses you off,” Olivia Rodrigo directed the cheering crowds during her Guts World Tour. “And when the lights go down, you’re gonna scream as loud as you can, and let it all out.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nytimes.com ’
