Auditions for “Inherit The Wind”

Ramona Hillside Players in Hemet, CA will hold open auditions for “Inherit the Wind”.
Written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Directed By Frank Siebke

Auditions December 3 – 4, 2018
All auditions begin at 7:00 PM

Performance dates are January 25th, 26th, 27th, February 1st, 2nd, & 3rd, 2019 @ RHP in Hemet

The audition will consist of cold readings from the script. Please come prepared with a resume, headshot, pen/pencil, and a list of conflicts.

PLOT:
Inherit the Wind is a fictional version of the 1925 Scopes Trial. Scopes was convicted for teaching evolution to a high school class. In Tennessee, state law prohibited teaching evolution. The play is meant to criticize the anti-Communist investigations that took place in the U.S. The authors used the Scope’s trial as a platform to explore threats to learning and intellectual freedom. One of the most outstanding dramas of our time.

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

*** All Ages are Relative. Also, because this is such a large cast, certain roles won’t be filled. There may be other roles that are combined, removed, or only appear as an off-stage voice. ***

Bertram Cates – 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 – (Role has already been cast)

Henry Drummond – (Role has already been cast)

E. K. Hornbeck – (Role has already been cast)

Rev. Jeremiah Brown – 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 – The daughter of Reverend Brown. Twenty-two-year-old Rachel teaches the second grade at the school where Cates also taught. Rachel is a 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 – 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 – 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 – (Role has already been cast)

Melinda Loomis – A twelve-year-old girl. [Role could be played older] Melinda believes in the Bible and fears the idea of evolution.

Howard Blair – 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 – An outspoken Hillsboro woman. On behalf of the Hillsboro Ladies’ Aid, Mrs. Krebs serves lunch to Brady on his arrival in town.

Mr. Bannister – A member of the jury. Bannister has read neither Darwin nor the Bible because he is illiterate.

Elijah – A mountain man. The illiterate Elijah sells Bibles to the townspeople and preaches his beliefs to the crowd.

Mayor – 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 – 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 – 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 – A farmer and cabinetmaker. Dunlap stands as a potential juror, but Drummond dismisses him because of his enthusiastic support of Brady.

Sillers – An employee at the local feed store and a member of the jury. Drummond accepts Sillers as a juror after Sillers tells him that he focuses on making a living while his wife takes care of religious matters for both of them.

Storekeeper – The owner of a store across the square from the courthouse. The storekeeper professes not to have convictions about creation because they are not good for business.

The script can be viewed by clicking the following link…
https://ramonahillsideplayers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Inherit-the-Wind-PDF.pdf

27402 Ramona Bowl Road
Hemet, CA 92544