3rd Fridays brings award-winning Scopes Trial radio play to stage
On September 21, 2012, “Third Fridays…in the Gallery,” will be transformed into 1925 Dayton, Tenn., as actors perform in a radio play that literally reenacts all the drama of the famous Scopes trial that pitted creationists against evolutionists.
“And on the Eighth Day,” (Radio Play version) was penned by local playwrights Steven Brown, Michael Ullstrup, with Nita Hunter in 2005, to air on the WGTD Radio Theatre, and has since gone on to win several Wisconsin Broadcasting and Wisconsin State Bar Awards for WGTD, 91.1, Public Radio in Kenosha.
Since its performance in 2005, Brown and Ullstrup have gone on to create The Brown Ullstrup Performing Arts Foundation, whose mission is to promote historical theatre from multiple perspectives. They last brought a production to the Third Fridays series in March 2011 with a preview of “A Fireside Chat: A Conversation with FDR.”
“And on the Eighth Day” (Radio Play version) is an accurate re-telling of the trial that gripped the nation almost a century ago, yet still has relevance today. “Each time we perform this realistic and intelligent story, audience members are reminded that almost 90 years later, our great country still struggles with this question today,” says Nita Hunter. “That being where to draw the line in our classrooms regarding the teachings of science and religion.” Hunter knows the struggle well, she's a sixth grade social studies teacher at Barrington Middle School with a World History curriculum!
The radio play will be performed Friday, September 21 at 7 p.m. at the Barrington Cultural Arts Center Gallery in the Ice House Mall, 200 Applebee St., Barrington. Third Fridays is an evening to promote local theatre and is sponsored by BCAC and TesserAct Theatre Ensemble.
According to Hunter, this performance is special because many of the actors are reprising their roles from TesserAct's highly successful summer 2012 run of the musical “Summer Storm,” an original musical written by Wayne Richards about the Scopes Trial. “As soon as I heard another local author had written about the same topic, I knew it would be a nice tie-in with our radio play version!” The play stars all local actors, including Marty Galeij as William Jennings Bryan and Rick Hollander as Clarence Darrow. Ensemble members are: Sharon Carson, Zach Carson, Sheryll Crider, Laura Gallagher, Margaret Jackson, Mike LaTone, John McLaughlin, and Jil Robinson. Vocalist is Tamara Kist.
Tickets for “Third Fridays…in the Gallery,” are $5 and may be purchased at the door. For more information, call Nita Hunter (847) 710-2027 or visit the group on Facebook: Third Fridays in the Gallery.