All actors must be fully vaccinated at the time of audition. Everyone must wear a mask while on Allegheny College’s property.
Inherit the Wind
by: Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Directed by: Katie Wickert
This is a special performance with only two shows, Saturday, July 9th evening and Sunday, July 10th matinee. Both performances will take place in the former Courtroom 1 in the Crawford County Courthouse.
Audition Dates:
Open Call:
6 – 8 p.m. Friday, April 15th
2 – 4 p.m. Saturday, April 16th
6:30 – 8 p.m. Friday, April 22nd
Audition Location: Meadville Community Theatre, 400 N. Main St. Meadville, PA. Please enter through the front door (under the MCT sign) and wait in the lobby to your left.
Rehearsals: A read-through is scheduled for Thursday, May 5th, with rehearsals beginning the following week at Meadville Community Theatre.
Audition Details: Auditioners will be asked to read a short passage from the script, which will be provided for you at your audition. All are encouraged to audition regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identification or sexual orientation.
Show Synopsis: This fictionalized account of the Scopes “Monkey” trial in Tennessee addresses basic issues which are still controversial today. Thinly disguised characters portraying William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow oppose each other in this dramatic re-creation of the trial of a teacher for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to a high school science class. It’s faith versus science in a play that reflects conflicts that still trouble our society.
Casting the following roles:
(Cast includes 28 roles. There are a total of 22 male roles, including 1 pre-teen boy, and 1 teen boy. There are roles for a total of 7 females including 1 pre-teen, 1 younger adult, and 5 other adult women. There are additional, non-speaking roles for townsfolk- adults and children. Doubling of roles may occur, particularly with the men.)
Bertram Cates (M) A twenty-four-year-old science teacher and the defendant in the trial. A soft-spoken and humble man, Cates has been arrested for teaching his students the theory of evolution from a biology textbook. His outlook on human knowledge is skeptical, and he wonders about the nature of the universe.
Matthew Harrison Brady (M) A national political figure and a three-time loser in presidential campaigns who arrives in Hillsboro to lead the prosecution in Cates’s trial. A Christian fundamentalist and Nebraska native, Brady defends the literal truth of the Bible against what he labels Cates’s big-city agnosticism. Drummond, however, exposes the obvious contradictions of this viewpoint, much to Brady’s embarrassment.
Henry Drummond (M) A famous lawyer from Chicago whom the Baltimore Herald sends to defend Cates. Drummond, a believer in human progress, argues for freedom of thought.
K. Hornbeck (M) A cynical, wisecracking journalist and critic who speaks in colorful phrases. Hornbeck travels to Hillsboro to cover the trial for the Baltimore Herald. He despises Brady’s religious fundamentalism and the townspeople’s simple-minded acceptance of Brady’s views. In his column, Hornbeck portrays Cates as a hero.
Rev. Jeremiah Brown (M) The figure of religious authority in Hillsboro. Reverend Brown preaches a creed based on the fear of God and the punishment of sinners.
Rachel Brown (F) The daughter of Reverend Brown. Rachel teaches the second grade at the school where Cates also taught. Rachel is close friend of Cates, and their relationship has a romantic element. Rachel fears her father’s disapproval and becomes upset when Brady calls on her to testify about her personal conversations with Cates.
The Judge (M) The judge presiding over Cates’s trial. The judge conducts the trial impartially, although his personal views about the Bible’s legitimacy are in line with those of the rest of the townspeople of Hillsboro. At the mayor’s prompting, the judge gives Cates a lenient sentence after the jury’s guilty verdict.
Meeker (M) The bailiff at the Hillsboro courthouse. Meeker lets Cates in and out of his jail cell and jokes that Cates is a threat to the community.
Mrs. Brady (F) Matthew Harrison Brady’s wife. Mrs. Brady monitors her husband and nags him not to overeat. Brady calls her “Mother.”
Melinda Loomis (F to play 12) A twelve-year-old girl. Melinda believes in the Bible and fears the idea of evolution.
Mrs. Loomis (F) Melinda’s mother.
Howard Blair (M) A student in Cates’s science class. Howard grasps the idea of evolution in only a rudimentary way, as we see when he asks a worm in the play’s opening scene what it wants to be when it grows up. At the trial, Howard gives testimony that is used against Cates.
Mrs. Krebs (F) An outspoken Hillsboro woman. On behalf of the Hillsboro Ladies’ Aid, Mrs. Krebs serves lunch to Brady on his arrival in town.
Mr. Bannister (M) A member of the jury. Bannister has read neither Darwin nor the Bible because he is illiterate.
Elijah (M) A mountain man. The illiterate Elijah sells Bibles to the townspeople and preaches his beliefs to the crowd.
Mayor (M) The mayor of Hillsboro. The mayor supports Brady and welcomes him to town by naming him an honorary colonel in the state militia. Under pressure from the state capitol, he instructs the judge to pass a lenient sentence at the trial’s conclusion.
Tom Davenport (M) The local district attorney. Davenport assists Brady during the trial. He attempts to stop Drummond’s humiliation of Brady at the end of the trial, but by the time he objects, Brady has already made a fool of himself.
Harry Y. Esterbrook (M) A radio host from WGN in Chicago. Esterbrook broadcasts the announcement of the verdict and Cates’s sentencing and cuts off Brady in the middle of his victory speech.
Jesse H. Dunlap (M) A farmer and cabinetmaker. Dunlap stands as a potential juror, but Drummond dismisses him because of his enthusiastic support of Brady.
INHERIT THE WIND is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection. (www.dramatists.com)