Inherit the Wind

Staff
Producer Beth Dewey
Director K. Davette See
Assistant Director Robin Harris
Stage Manager Jed Metzger
Set Design Rob See
Master Carpenter Rich Kaiser
Props Lori Foster
Costumer Kae Jenny-Spencer
Lighting Designer Mark Gaetano
Sound Designer Ray Trimble
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Cast
Henry Drummond James (Dan) Pearson
Matthew Harrison Brady Allen Siversen
E. K. Hornbeck Doug Doughty
Rachel Brown Charity Berg
Bert (Bertram) Cates Robert Hamilton
Rev. Jeremiah Brown Scott Lynch
Mrs. Sarah Brady Sandra Aranda
Mr. Meeker Mark Gaetano
understudy Peter Mandel
Mayor Joseph Biafore
understudy Mike Perry
Tom Davenport Leslie Lamcke
Howard Blair Zach Gollar
Calvin Nuttall
understudy Luke Hamilton
Judge Jon Szczepaniak
Mr. Dunlap William Rumold
Elijah John Brewer
Mr. Sillers Wayne Dewey
Harry Y. Esterbrook John Brewer
Mrs. Blair Nanci Brand
understudy Glynis Crab
Mrs. Goodfellow Terri Fauss
Mrs. Krebs Trudy Parks
Mr.Bannister Peder Eriksson
Melinda Mckena McElroy
Samantha Quijano
understudies Colette Bowen
Kaitlin Rooney
Mrs. Loomis Melissa Cachopo
Hot Dog Man Howard Barnes
Mrs. McLain Haylee Merrill
understudy Glynis Crab
Hurdy Gurdy Man John Soto
Timmy  Luke Hamilton
understudies Zach Gollar
Calvin Nuttall
Katie Colette Bowen
Kaitlin Rooney
Eskimo Pie Hawker John Soto
Reuters Man John Brewer
Phil John Soto
Photographer Weilan Lui
understudy Glynis Crab
Reporter Howard Barnes
Court Stenographer Stephanie Marquez

The national debate over science and faith in the classroom comes to a head as a schoolteacher is accused in 1925 of disobeying the law against teaching evolution.

Playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee wrote this drama, (not a docu-drama or a political treatise), about the right to think in the McCarthy era and based it on the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in which Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in violation of state law. Scopes deliberately courted arrest to challenge what he and his supporters saw as an unjust law, and the trial became a national cause when The Baltimore Sun, represented by the famed (and atheistic) journalist H. L. Mencken, hired attorney Clarence Darrow to defend Scopes. The prosecuting attorney was crusading politician William Jennings Bryan, once a serious contender for the Presidency, now a relic of a past era. In both the play and film versions of  Inherit the Wind, the names and places are changed, but the basic chronology was retained, along with most of the original court transcripts. John Scopes becomes Bertram Cates; Clarence Darrow is Henry Drummond; William Jennings Bryan is Matthew Harrison Brady; and H. L. Mencken is E. K. Hornbeck. Dayton, Tennessee is transformed into Hillsboro — or, as the relentlessly cynical Hornbeck characterizes it, “Heavenly Hillsboro.”

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The play is known for having the best witness-stand confrontations ever on stage.

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Photos by Morgan Hill Times and Rob See