John Proctor Is the Villain begins its West Coast premiere at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on November 12, the first of three stops for a rolling co-production that continues at Seattle Rep and at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
The San Francisco run is November 12–December 6, with opening night on November 18. The production then moves to Seattle Rep for January 21–February 21, 2027, and to Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum for March 17–April 25, 2027. Jess McLeod directs all three engagements.
Kimberly Belflower’s play is set in a high-school AP English class in a Georgia town with a single stoplight, where five teenage girls start to question the stories, and the heroes, they have been taught to admire. It reached Broadway at the Booth Theatre in 2025 and earned seven Tony Award nominations, Best Play among them. Belflower said she was “over the moon to now bring my play to the West Coast.”
The company is Ameer Ali as Mason Adams, Stevie Allen as Ivy Watkins, Lilla Crawford as Shelby Holcomb, Varinique “V” Davis as Nell Shaw, Olivia Finkelstein as Beth Powell, Kyle Harris as Carter Smith, Mario Houle as Lee Turner, Kaylee Kaneshiro as Raelynn Nix and Erika Vetter as Bailey Gallagher. The understudies are Emma Gardner, Adam Magill, Allie Pratt, Nicholas René Rodriguez and Sharon Shao.
The creative team includes Kate Noll (scenic), Eunice Jera Lee (costumes), Robert J. Aguilar (lighting) and Jeff Gardner (sound), with Leigh Rondon-Davis as associate director and Joy Meads as dramaturg.
