“Chiara Aurelia Is Not Here to Be Saved—She’s Here to Burn It Down” - AmNews Curtain Raiser

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Friday, July 18, 2025

“Chiara Aurelia Is Not Here to Be Saved—She’s Here to Burn It Down”


 

“Chiara Aurelia Is Not Here to Be Saved—She’s Here to Burn It Down”


Inside the Broadway blaze of John Proctor is the Villain


Chiara Aurelia walks into the Booth Theatre like she owns the moment—because, frankly, she does. On July 15, the “it-girl blazing her own trail” (Who What Wear) officially made her Broadway debut in John Proctor is the Villain as Shelby Holcomb, the fiery Southern teen at the center of the season’s most talked-about new play.


“This isn’t just another high school drama,” Aurelia says with a grin. “It’s a reckoning.”


Written by Kimberly Belflower and directed by Tony Award® winner Danya Taymor, John Proctor is the Villain is, in the words of The New York Times, “vital and thrilling.” It pulses with pop music, generational angst, and a fury that refuses to be quieted. The play centers on a group of young women in rural Georgia whose English class is deep into Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. But as they deconstruct the so-called classics, they begin to dismantle something even bigger: the lies they’ve been taught to swallow.


Set against the backdrop of a school system and a town unwilling to evolve, the story is an unflinching look at the way we elevate certain voices and silence others. “It’s about who gets to be the hero,” says Aurelia. “And who we’ve let be the villain for far too long.”


The company is electric: Nihar Duvvuri (Romeo + Juliet) brings complexity to ‘Mason Adams’; Tony Award winner Gabriel Ebert (Matilda) is equal parts charming and chilling as ‘Carter Smith’; Molly Griggs (Hello, Dolly!) gives fire to ‘Bailey Gallagher’; Maggie Kuntz (The Outsiders) and Hagan Oliveras (Our Town) shine as ‘Ivy’ and ‘Lee,’ while Morgan Scott (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), Fina Strazza (Matilda), and Amalia Yoo (No Hard Feelings) round out the fierce ensemble.


“I feel like we’re all on the edge of something,” says Scott backstage. “Like we’re tapping into a version of truth that doesn’t often get stage time.”


Behind the scenes, it’s a dream team. Tony Award-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz, costume designer Sarah Laux, and sound designer Palmer Hefferan (a Tony nominee) form part of a powerhouse creative group. Scenic design comes from AMP and Teresa L. Williams, with projection design by Hannah Wasileski, hair and makeup by J. Jared Janas, and movement direction from Tilly Evans-Krueger. The intimacy of the staging—choreographed with care by Ann James (intimacy coordinator) and supported by vocal and dialect coaching from Gigi Buffington—lends the show both rawness and polish.


“Danya [Taymor] gave us permission to go all in,” says Aurelia. “There’s no hiding in this piece.”


And no one hides. Not the characters, not the audience. It’s a play that dares you to feel uncomfortable—and then demands you do something with it.


John Proctor is the Villain runs at the Booth Theatre (222 W 45th St) through August 31. 


Tickets are available at johnproctoristhevillain.com and telecharge.com, or by calling 212-239-6200.


Chiara Aurelia may be new to Broadway, but if John Proctor is the Villain proves anything, it’s this: she’s not here to be saved. 


She’s here to burn it down—and rebuild something better in its place.

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