Inherit the Wind performance extended through Oct. 20 at The Goodman Theatre
It’s Opening Night and the verdict from Chicago audience is in: Inherit the Wind extended through Oct. 20
The jury of its peers finds Inherit the Wind at Goodman Theatre worthy of a one-week extension, adding six more performances of Henry Godinez’s major revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s 1955 classic courtroom drama.
With Harry Lennix (as defending attorney Henry Drummond), Alexander Gemignani (fundamentalist attorney Matthew Harrison Brady), Mi Kang(wisecracking reporter E.K. Hornbeck), Christopher Llewyn Ramirez (small-town educator on trial) and more, the play covers the Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925, which became a national sensation when a schoolteacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution to his students.
Chicago’s own WGN Radio aired the proceedings, making it the first live-broadcast trial in American history.
While the trial took place nearly 100 years ago, the timeliness of its recreation in the play remains, as the theory of evolution remains a contested topic to date.
Inherit the Wind appears in the 856-seat Albert Theatre, now extended through October 20. Extension week performances include Thursday, October 17 at 2pm and 7:30pm; Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm; Saturday, October 19 at 2pm and 7:30pm; and Sunday, October 20 at 2pm (closing).
Tickets ($25 – $95; subject to change) are available at GoodmanTheatre.org/Inherit or by phone at 312-443-3800. Goodman Theatre is grateful for the support of JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Winston & Strawn.
“What Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee wrote nearly 70 years ago was nothing less than a treatise on the American values of free thought and free speech. But rather than a dusty polemic that engaged the brain but left the heart untouched, they wrote about us—people discovering what they had in common, where they diverged, and how they might contend with that divergence,” said Artistic Director Susan V. Booth.
“What they also wrote was one of the great passages of courtroom drama, with two great minds in passionate, yet civil, disagreement—and two great thinkers actually listening to one another’s points of view. This simple proposition, that we gather with the express purpose of listening deeply to views unlike our own, feels like an essential lifeline.”
Goodman Resident Director Henry Godinez, whose first professional theater experience was seeing Inherit the Wind at Dallas Theater Center when he was a freshman in high school, has a vision for this production that’s rooted in the nostalgia and comfort of small-town living.
“What really interested Susan and me about doing Inherit the Wind right now is how it deals with questioning facts, censoring knowledge and the infusion of religion into the justice system. It feels like it was written yesterday,” said Godinez.
“I grew up around small towns in Texas, so naturally I feel at home in rural communities. I’m looking to make our production nostalgic and beautiful so that audiences can understand how these people might want to stay rooted in the past, choosing to believe what they believe. If we ever want to come together and combat divisiveness, we have try to understand why people have the values they do. It wasn’t until I started directing when I realized that theater is a way to reconsider the world in which we live—how we treat one another and how we can all strive to better.”
For the first time in the Goodman’s proscenium Albert Theatre, Godinez and Set Designer Collette Pollardestablish a stage entrance via a bridge from the house—underscoring the sense of two worlds—“one which has chosen to remain in the past, and includes the audience,” notes Godinez—and where the city, looming in the background, is as much on trial as the defendant.
To create the sonic environment, Godinez tapped Sound Designer Richard Woodbury, whose transitional music for the production draws on the sentimental elements of classic Americana and sources hymns from the play for inspiration.
FULL COMPANY OF Inherit the Wind (in alphabetical order)
In the Albert Theatre
By Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Directed by Henry Godinez
Charín Álvarez…Mrs. Brady
Terry Bell…Sillers
Hamid Dehghani…Storekeeper
William Dick…Mayor
Alexander Gemignani… Matthew Harrison Brady
Meighan Gerachis…Elijah
Lawrence Grimm…Dunlap
Kevin Gudahl…Judge
Presley Rose Jones…Melinda
Christopher Kale Jones…Tom Davenport
Mi Kang…E.K. Hornbeck
Ryan Kitley…Reverend Jeremiah Brown
Harry Lennix…Henry Drummond
Tyler Meredith…Rachel Brown
Thomas Murphy Molony…Howard
Christopher Llewyn Ramirez…Bertram Cates
Robert Schleifer…Meeker
Eric Slater…Mr. Bannister
Penelope Walker…Mrs. Krebs
Understudies for this production include Chase Clevenger, Theo Gyra, Hannah Kato, John Lister, Michael Milligan, Kailey Danielle Morand, Aila Peck, Alex Benito Rodriguez, Eric Slater and Cedric Young.
Creative Team
Set Designer…Collette Pollard
Costume Designer…Jessica Pabst
Lighting Designer…Jason Lynch
Sound Designer and Composer….Richard Woodbury
Casting is by Lauren Port, CSA. Neena Arndt is the Dramaturg. Nikki Blue is the Production Stage Manager and Krista Kanderski and Beth Koehler are the Stage Managers.
ABOUT GOODMAN THEATRE
Chicago’s theater since 1925, Goodman Theatre is a not-for-profit arts and community organization in the heart of the Loop, distinguished by the excellence and scope of its artistic programming and community engagement. Led by Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Executive Director John Collins, the theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics. Artists and productions have earner two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards and nearly 200 Joseph Jefferson Awards, among other accolades.
The Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Its longtime annual holiday tradition A Christmas Carol, now in its fifth decade, has created a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago. The Goodman also frequently serves as a production and program partner with national and international companies and Chicago’s Off-Loop theaters.
Using the tools of theatrical practice, the Goodman’s Education and Engagement programs aim to develop generations of citizens who understand and empathize with cultures and stories of diverse voices. The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement is the home of these programs, which are offered for Chicago youth—85% of whom come from underserved communities—schools and life-long learners.
Goodman Theatre was built on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi Nations. We recognize that many other Nations consider the area we now call Chicago as their traditional homeland—including the Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Kickapoo and Mascouten—and remains home to many Native peoples today. While we believe that our city’s vast diversity should be reflected on the stages of its largest theater, we acknowledge that our efforts have largely overlooked the voices of our Native peoples. This omission has added to the isolation, erasure and harm that Indigenous communities have faced for hundreds of years. We have begun a more deliberate journey towards celebrating Native American stories and welcoming Indigenous communities.
Goodman Theatre was founded by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth, an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s. The Goodman family’s legacy lives on through the continued work and dedication of Kenneth’s family, including Albert Ivar Goodman, who with his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton, contributed the necessary funds for the creation on the new Goodman center in 2000.
Julie Danis is Chair of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Lorrayne Weiss is Women’s Board President and Kelli Garcia is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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