By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
This weekend Lake Orion high school students will be debating creationism versus evolution with the performance of Inherit the Wind, a play that debuted in 1955 fictionalizing the 1925 Scopes ‘Monkey? Trial.
The Lake Orion High School production will premier Thursday night at 7 p.m., will offer a matinee for Lake Orion students Friday morning, and will perform again Friday night at 7 p.m., Saturday night at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the door or by will-call.
Then students will sit tight for a week and perform the play again at the Michigan International Thespian Society Festival at Saginaw Valley State University, the first time in Theatre/Drama teacher and director Scott Finn’s career at LOHS the high school has performed outside of its own auditorium.
‘It’s an in depth piece. It’s neat because it’s not so much about religion vs. evolution as it is about the individual’s right to think,? Finn said.
The story is based on a 1925 incident of a teacher, in this case Bertram Cates played by Josh Stewart, who violated a state law by introducing Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species to his biology class, and the social ramifications afterwards during a time period where religion, and the Bible Belt, was top priority.
During the actual 1925 trial, presidential candidate Williams Jennings Bryan (renamed Matthew Harrison Brady and played by Anthony Mandalari) was brought in to prosecute, and Clarence Darrow, a controversial lawyer from the Chicago area, represented the defense. Darrow is represented by the fictional character Henry Drummond and played by Dominick Todero.
The play, cowritten by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, takes place in a matter of three days from trial to verdict. About 35 students are in the production, with about 30 students working behind the scenes.
A subplot to the play, which did not take place in the real life incident, is the relationship between the teacher and the minister’s daughter Rachel Brown, played by Hannah Gutelius.
‘The whole premise to the play is the trial, and whether or not man has the right to think and speak his mind or whether he should be silenced because his ideas don’t? conform to societal standards of the time,? Finn said, a concept students have learned in American History. ‘It’s a challenging script because it’s a little higher-level in terms of characters and motivation. It’s not light and funny like our previous productions Barefoot in the Park and Legally Blonde.?
Senior Kara Calvert designed all the costumes for the 1950s characters with minimal direction from Finn, ‘I just tell her what I’m thinking and she makes it happen.? Calvert is creating a costume piece to be adjudicated and given feedback at the Michigan Thespian Festival at Saginaw Valley State University, and can potentially earn scholarships put towards a theatre degree in costuming.
Last year she earned a superior rating which qualifies her for nationals, Finn said, after designing all the costumes for Legally Blonde and now this production.
Reservations for seating can be made via email by emailing’locsboxoffice@lakeorion.k12.mi.us.