Inherit The Wind

Last saturday I had the pleasure of seeing Inherit The Wind for the Cleveland Playhouse College program. The play was very interesting. It dealt with the issues of the place of evolution and the bible in education. At that time, the bible was a much a staple in the south as cotton is to plantations. So here comes evloution, which religous leaders believed, was against the scriptures of the holy bible. A law was passed outlawing the text from being taught in schools. Scopes went against the law and continued to teach evoulution. Well he was snitched on, and a trial ensued. The scopes monkey trial. It was one of the biggest trials in decades because of the content of the trial. The play is based of off the true story, but fictionlizes it a bit with a slight romance, different names for characters, and a bibilical fanatic by the name of William Henry Harrison, who had almost been elected president 3 times.
The story is as relevent today as it was back in the 1920's when the scope monkey trial occured. Today we are still debating: science or religion? But why should we say or? Perhaps we should say AND. Science AND religion must be held hand in hand because science explains the world one way and religion the next. Science can never hope to acheive the spiritual, nor can religion hope to acheive the concrete and rational.
In a reccent study that was done (I saw the results in Parade a while back) spirituality is the new norm in America. Instead of a strict religion dominating our lives, more people are opting to choose their own spirtual path, a leap forward considering the legacy of religion in America. However, strict religion still dominates the lives of most Americans. Although, Religion will perhaps always be commonplace in America. Perhaps that is because of our freedom of religion, or the various ethnic groups that make up America. Or it holds us together, keeps us in one paridgm, the American paridgm. America is the anomly in the industrilized world. Many european countries don't have as religious a country as we do, although on the other hand they do have religions that have had a long existance in those countries. Like french catholics for instance. Catholicism dominates france because the ruling family who had power long ago was Catholic. England is mostly protestant. Ireland is mostly catholic. So is Italy and Spain. Overall, religion holds humans together, for whatever reason, in order to survive.
Back to the theatre.
Theater can demonstrate many social issues effectively. In Inherit the Wind the debate between the religious realm and the scientific realm was clearly exhibited. By using the theater to convey these social issues, the audience gains a more real life experience to these social issues up front. However, the theater can be more experiential. Mostly older audiences are commonplace in theaters. When the Cleveland Playhouse College came to watch it, we took up 2-3 rows. The stage manager had to ANNOUNCE TO THE OLDER AUDIENCE WHAT THESE 'YOUTH' WERE DOING THERE! This is sad because it shows that not many young people come to the theater often enough to make a significant presence.
I encourage families to take their children to the theater. Weather it be local theater, regional theater (like the playhouse), festivals (like Great Lake), or uber professional theater (playhouse square), the theater is an essential social catalyst and media form and needs to be perserved.