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INHERIT THE WINDThursday, Friday & Saturday
November 16, 17, 18 at 7pm in the BHS Black Box Plus a special 2:40pm show Friday, Nov 17 for BHS Students & Staff TICKET INFO: ADULTS: $12, CHILDREN: $7 BHS STUDENTS/STAFF: $5 all performances Tickets are on sale online (click the link below). Advance purchase recommended. BHS Students/Staff can get tickets in school during lunch mods Nov 13-17. Friday at 7pm, and Saturday at 7pm shows are SOLD OUT.
Use this link to put your name on the wait list. If you are on the wait list, arrive at the theater by 6:45 and check in at the ticket desk. If you are not present when we start releasing wait list tickets, we will go to the next name on the list. |
ABOUT THE SHOW |
The PAC Fall Play is the classic drama, Inherit the Wind, based on the real-life story of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. When a High School science teacher is arrested for teaching evolution in violation of a new state law, the entire town is gripped in the ensuing debate about science, religion, free speech and the law.
NOTES ABOUT THE SHOW FROM PRODUCTION DRAMATURG LUCAS HOLMAN: A dramaturg serves as a literary expert for a theatrical production, providing historical research, analysis and interpretation of a play to the cast, crew and audience. For Inherit the Wind, Junior Lucas Holman conducted research about the history of the play which was presented to the cast/crew throughout the rehearsal process and participated with the cast in conversations about the present-day relevance of the show. He also wrote an essay for the program, part of which is excerpted here: Inherit the Wind is a timeless work of historical fiction, based on the “Scopes Monkey Trial” of 1925, in which a high school biology teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution, which had been banned months prior. The play was written in the 1950’s as a response to the McCarthy trials and a critique to the kangaroo courts of the Red Scare. In March of 1925, the Tennessee legislature prohibited the teaching of evolution. The strike against Darwin sparked outrage across scientific America. Local authority figures in Dayton, Tennessee quickly came to an agreement: they wanted to use the new law as a way to bring money and fame to their otherwise unknown town. They convinced John T. Scopes, on whom the character of Bert Cates is based, to stand trial. The ACLU put together a defense team led by Clarence Darrow, the most famed defense attorney in the nation in his time. Darrow is fictionalized in the play as Henry Drummond, facing off against prosecuting attorney Matthew Harrison Brady, a disgruntled thrice-failed presidential candidate who sees the defense of God as his last mission. Matthew Harrison Brady is modeled after William Jennings Bryan, the real life presidential candidate and novel politician, whose influence derived from his populist ideals. Inherit the Wind takes the historical figures and blends them into a dramatization of the courtroom. On one hand, Inherit the Wind is a time capsule, not just of the Scopes Trial from which it borrows its story, but from the McCarthy era which it aimed to critique. Similar to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Inherit the Wind utilizes the American past to touch on its American present by interweaving the themes and conflicts of the past with what they needed to hear then. However, the play is both timely as well as timeless, as many of the critiques it directs towards the unchecked dogma of Bryanism still ring true today in the climate of a divided America. |
