Pre-production for The Crucible included a trip to Salem Village in Massachusetts, where the play is set and where the witch hunts took place in 1692. Producer Jenny King and photographer Andy Philips had trouble finding the village since it was quite far from Salem Town and neither signposted nor advertised. Eventually, they followed a long, grassy track that led to the village, and started to get a feel for the isolation of the place. Andy took pictures inside the home of Rebecca Nurse, a 71 year-old woman who was accused of practising witchcraft. What was most striking about the house were the thin, wooden walls that could not have offered much protection against the cold winters. Jenny and Andy got a real sense of the physical hardship and psychological isolation of the Salem community.
