Inherit the Wind – Jack Williams
I truly enjoyed Inherit the Wind, because it brought to life an extremely hot issue of the time through both technical and creative ways using just a stage, lights, actors, and a few desks. Inherit the Wind, which obviously recounts the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial confronting the issue of teaching the theories of Darwin in high school science classrooms, was a very well executed fictionalized account of an extremely confrontational and heated debate that changed the way society viewed the long-lasting friction of science against religion.
Personally, I really liked how much thought the DL put into highlighting the themes of the script through the use of lighting. For example, the severely contrasting opinions were reflected on stage by severely contrasting foreground (bright courtroom) and background (dim, spooky Main Street). Moreover, the heat of the July summer day reflected the heat of the issue at hand. I loved it! It is no surprise that the Lighting Director won a Tony for the play during its early 2000’s return to Broadway!