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Our View: Congrats to Citizens’ Voice on its 40th, though union ties seem weakened

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Peters set to start opener for WBS Penguins as Jarry arrives from Pittsburgh

<p>HAZLETON &#8212; &#8220;Give me that old time religion,&#8221; the townspeople of little Hillsboro sing as they wait for the train. &#8220;It&#8217;s good enough for me.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s also &#8220;good enough for Brady,&#8221; one man in the crowd shouts, just as the famous politician Matthew Harrison Brady arrives to champion their cause.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s their hero who comes in on a white horse,&#8221; said Walter Mitchell, of Bear Creek Village, who will portray Brady when Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts presents &#8220;Inherit the Wind,&#8221; Oct. 12 through 21 at the J.J. Ferrara Center. &#8220;And, the way they welcome him is like a hypodermic needle of excitement in his veins.&#8221;</p><p>The townspeople seem ecstatic to see Brady, an eloquent orator and three-time presidential candidate, who has come to Hillsboro to prosecute a science teacher named Bertram Cates for the crime &#8212; or sin, as they see it &#8212; of teaching evolution.</p><p>Cates is &#8220;an arrogant youth who has spoken out against the Revealed Word,&#8221; Brady thundered during a recent rehearsal, castigating non-believers as &#8220;these idolaters, these priests of &#8216;evil-ution.&#8217; &#8220;</p><p>The character of Matthew Harrison Brady is based on William Jennings Bryan, who was the real-life prosecutor of real-life teacher John Thomas Scopes in the 1925 case that became known as &#8220;The Scopes Monkey Trial.&#8221;</p><p>Defending Scopes was the famous attorney Clarence Darrow, who is represented in the play by the character Henry Drummond.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a clash of titans,&#8221; said John Sherrick, of Nanticoke, who portrays Drummond. &#8220;It (The Scopes Monkey Trial) was one of the most important trials of the 20th century, along with Leopold and Loeb and the Nuremberg Trials.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People think of the 1920s as the &#8216;Roaring 20s,&#8217; with the Great Gatsby and flappers, but there was a fundamentalist response to all that,&#8221; director Adam Randis said. &#8220;William Jennings Bryan believed evolution was a danger to America, that it would cause a breakdown in Christian morality.&#8221;</p><p>Despite his prosecution of a well-meaning teacher, audiences may well feel sympathy for Brady, the character based on Bryan.</p><p>&#8220;No character in the play is a villain,&#8221; Randis said. &#8220;The enemy is ignorance and nihilism.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People should learn to understand gray areas and listen to what the other side has to say,&#8221; said Tyler Kuchar, of Sugarloaf, who portrays Cates and, coincidentally, teaches science in the Hazleton Area School District.</p><p>&#8220;You could consider that maybe God created evolution,&#8221; Kuchar suggested.</p><p>But compromise seems hard to come by for many people in fictional, 1920s Hillsboro, which might remind audiences of today&#8217;s political divide.</p><p>&#8220;Without a question it seems prescient,&#8221; said Randis, the director. &#8220;There are parallels to today.&#8221;</p><p>Early in the play, as Brady and his wife accept the town&#8217;s welcome, they learn the Baltimore Herald has sent a reporter, who arrives spouting such terms as &#8220;Hillsboro Heretic&#8221; and &#8220;Buckle on the Bible Belt.&#8221; The newspaper has also arranged a champion defense attorney for Bertram Cates.</p><p>Mrs. Brady gasps at hearing that Drummond is on his way, and a local preacher, Jeremiah Brown, frightens some children by suggesting the agnostic attorney is &#8220;a creature of the devil.&#8221;</p><p>As for Brady, he is aware of but not dismayed by Drummond&#8217;s prowess in the courtroom.</p><p>&#8220;If the enemy sends its Goliath into battle, it magnifies our cause,&#8221; he tells the crowd, apparently envisioning himself as the young David who defeated the Philistine champion Goliath.</p><p>&#8220;The whole world will be watching our victory over Drummond,&#8221; he added, pausing before comparing himself to another hero who is said to have killed a dragon.</p><p>&#8220;If St. George had slain a dragonFLY,&#8221; he said dramatically, &#8220;who would remember him?&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">John Sherrick, of Nanticoke, left, and Walter Mitchell, of Bear Creek Township, portray the prosecuter and defense attorney in &#8216;Inherit the Wind,&#8217; which the Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts will present Oct. 12 through 21. &#8216;They&#8217;re both doing a great job,&#8217; said director Adam Randis, who arranged for a photo session at the Luzerne County Courthouse. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/web1_inherit.wind_.jpg</photo0><caption0>John Sherrick, of Nanticoke, left, and Walter Mitchell, of Bear Creek Township, portray the prosecuter and defense attorney in &#8216;Inherit the Wind,&#8217; which the Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts will present Oct. 12 through 21. &#8216;They&#8217;re both doing a great job,&#8217; said director Adam Randis, who arranged for a photo session at the Luzerne County Courthouse. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Drama to open Oct. 12 at Ferrara Center</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> &#8216;Inherit the Wind&#8217;</p><p><strong>Who: </strong>Presented by Pennsylvania Theatre of Performing Arts</p><p><strong>When: </strong>7 p.m. Oct. 12, 13, 19 and 20 and at 3 p.m. Oct. 14 and 21</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>J.J. Ferrara Center, 212 West Broad St., Hazleton</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> 570-454-5451 or ptpashows.org.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘Inherit the Wind’ to open Oct. 12 at Ferrara Center in Hazleton