USM Student, Graduates Appear in Witch Hunt Documentary
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| Scene from Witch Hunt on the History Channel. |
A number of actors and actresses, who gained their training through the USM Theatre and Music departments, appear in the documentary Witch Hunt, which aired on the History Channel on Halloween.
The documentary, produced by Lone Wolf Documentary Group in South Portland, presents various historians' theories about what may have led to the Salem Witch Trials, in which 19 people were tortured and hanged in 1692. Period transcripts, diaries, and letters help bring to life the infamous trials and executions.
USM theatre student Sean Demers plays the role of the narrator, Cotton Mather, whose writings frame the production. In 1688, Mather investigated the strange behavior of four children of Boston mason John Goodwin. Mather presented his findings that witchcraft was responsible for the children's problems in one of his best-known works, Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions (1689), which historians say helped fuel the hysteria that led to the Witch trials.
Sean, who will graduate in May 2005, had never seen himself on film before the airing of Witch Hunt. He says the experience in that production, in which he did primarily voiceover work, helped prepare him for a new production, also to be filmed by Lone Wolf Documentary Group. The Conquest of America is set to shoot in April and Sean has been cast in a larger on-screen role as French explorer Renee Laudonniere.
Other USM-trained performers involved in Witch Hunt, filmed last fall on historical sites in Salem and Danvers, Mass., were Shannon Campbell '03, Burke Brimmer '99, Elizabeth Chambers, a theatre major, and Jennifer McLeod, a music performance major.
McLeod, who portrays Mary Wolcott in the production, said she learned of the Portland audition for the documentary through the agency that represents her, Talent Management Associates in Wells. She auditioned and gained a part that required about three days of work in Massachusetts.
The character McLeod portrays is one of the girls who had fits and seizures that religious leaders suggested could have only been caused by witchcraft. McLeod learned about her character and the period by reading literature on the subject before filming.
“It's pretty interesting stuff,” she said. “The historians in the show go through various hypotheses about how this could have occurred. Was it mass hysteria or was it due to fermentation of oats and wheat that these people ate that led to hallucinations?”
McLeod works at PortTix in Portland and performs with The Good Theater Company, the professional company in residence at St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center on Munjoy Hill in Portland. McLeod performed in the theater company's season opener, Master Class. She has also worked with Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin, the Maine moviemakers who won the Project Greenlight 2 directing prize. She appeared in Potelle and Rankin's short 2001 sci-fi film, They Came to Attack Us, among other independent movies.
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