High Street to Stage 'Inherit the Wind'

The High Street Arts Center's next productoin for the 2013 season is Inherit the Wind, which will take the stage beginning April 12.

The play is a fictional recount of the real-life 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a case where teacher John Thomas Scopes was on trial for teaching evolution in Dayton, TN. Prosecuting on behalf of the state was orator, prohibitionist and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, and counsel for the defense was Clarence Darrow.

Though some dialog comes directly from trial transcripts, playwrights Jerome Lawrence, who penned the play with Robert Edwin Lee, has said the true purpose of the play was to speak up against McCarthyism, prevelant when the play debuted in 1955, and to defend intellectual freedom.

The production, directed by High Street General Manager Ken Rayzor, will run April 12 through May 12, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets, except for opening night, are $20 for adults, $16 for students, teachers, military personnel and seniors and $12 for children 12 and younger and are available on the HSAC website.

Opening night tickets, which includes a champagne reception with the cast following the show, are three dollars more.

The High Street Arts Center is located at 45 E. High St.