#beth powell

the first time beth stands up because of mr smith, it's in submission. automatic. no one notices it, but it makes her feel dumb and weird.

theyre both very bright, they both enjoy the crucible, they both have a lot of thoughts that they don't always articulate right.

in scene 5, mr. smith stands while talking to miss gallagher. he has control of the situation. he stays standing when shelby enters (perhaps he’s slightly uncertain about whether she’s going to tell miss gallagher what he did to her) but sits after she tells miss gallagher she’s nervous but not “for any like particular reason.” he’s not worried anymore. he stands up again when he starts talking with shelby about reading the crucible - he’s once again establishing dominance over her, reminding her that he’s in power here. notably, miss gallagher remains seated. even tho she’s also an authority figure, he also wants to make her feel like she doesn’t really have any authority here.

in scene 9, mr. smith remains seated at his desk as he talks to beth about “green light” and gatsby. he wants her to think that they’re equals, that he’s her friend. he remains seated when shelby walks in, but stands up after they quote joan didion. he then quickly inserts himself (literally, he stands in between them) into the conversation, only looking at shelby when beth tells him she’s the one who introduced her to didion.

in scene 10, when shelby confronts him in front of the class, he’s standing on the opposite side of the stage from her. i think he can sense where this is heading, and again wants to get ahead of it by intimidating her into silence. but this time it doesn’t work. shelby stands, too, while the rest of the class remains seated. she is taking some of mr. smith’s power away.

in scene 15, he and beth are standing in almost the exact same spot as where he and shelby stood in scene 10. it’s a mirror image of each other—but where scene 10 had shelby taking some power away from mr. smith, this scene shows him trying to still use his influence to convince beth that he’s innocent.

Rewatching this I really got the sense that Ivy was Carter’s backup plan if Beth didn’t work out, which is just absolutely horrifying.

On that note, at the very beginning, while the class is reading the definitions, Carter goes over and looks down at Beth and Ivy’s desks. You could assume that he’s looking at their textbooks, but he has the textbook, and knowing what we know about him…I get the sense that he may have been looking at something else.

From what I remembered Lee was just like miming jerking off or something WHY WAS BRO FULLY HUMPING THE DESK.

This rewatch gave me so much more appreciation for Scene 1. When I was writing my crossover fic I saw it as a hurdle that I had to get over to start writing the interesting stuff, but it does so much to establish all of the characters and the world that I am now a Scene 1 lover.

On that note early scenes Carter is so much more disgusting when you go in knowing, like he is just blatantly creepy to Beth from the first line when you know.

I am SO OBSESSED with the staging and lighting it’s all absolutely perfect Danya Taymor I love you.

Also I forgot how badly Lee sucks. I knew he was annoying of course but the whole time I was watching I was just like “wow, he is just AWFUL.”

When I watched Scene 5 for the first time, it was directly after I had figured out the reveal, but I was confused because Shelby seemed to be interacting with him way too normally. On rewatch, where the camera got close on her face several times? Nope, she’s uncomfortable, and their interaction…there’s a few moments where she starts speaking to him a little too casually, seems to realize, and then pulls back. Also he’s talking to her weirdly but I haven’t quite put my finger on exactly what it was, other than the obvious.

My heart was pounding so hard during Scene 10 that I lost feeling in my extremities. I’m not exaggerating. That line never fails to be an absolute punch to the gut.

Nell and Mason are really so adorable no matter what.

Raelynn being Carter’s #1 hater is my favorite thing in the world. I just know she’s going to spend the rest of the school year bullying him.

“I could see that she had a crush on me, and I should have put a stop to it, that’s on me,” is quite possibly the single line that inspires the most rage in me in this whole play.

Shelby and Carter making eye contact one final time before he backs off and she fully stands up on his desk and how it parallels Beth making eye contact with him one last time before stepping forward…THAT’S FUCKING THEATER RIGHT THERE.