‘Inherit the Wind’ Will Return to the Courtroom

Most people have seen more fictional courtrooms than real ones. Here’s a chance to combine the two--the courtroom drama “Inherit the Wind” will be staged in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

Producer Leonard Grant will present the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee drama, suggested by the 1925 Scopes trial, in Dept. 2 of Los Angeles Superior Court, just east of the Music Center, opening Nov. 27. The occasion will mark the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, as well as the 35th anniversary of “Inherit the Wind.”

Seating capacity in the spectator section is 258, and there also will be 10 seats for audience members in the jury box. Grant said he hopes to fill those jury box seats with white males, in order to sustain the illusion of a real Tennessee courtroom in 1925.

Jason Miller, the actor and “That Championship Season” playwright, will play Henry Drummond, loosely based on Clarence Darrow. Other casting is not set, but Grant expects “some very prestigious actors” not only in this production, but in what he projects as future “Inherit the Wind” stagings in courtrooms throughout the United States.

With a cast of 20 and only 250 seats, he contended it won’t be possible for him to make a profit. He estimated the total production costs, including a handbook for use in other cities, as $250,000. The actors will work under Actors’ Equity’s Hollywood Area Theatre contract.

Evening performances, at $35 a ticket, will run Wednesdays through Sundays, with $30 matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Grant also hopes to do discounted student performances.

Los Angeles County will be paid for the use of the hall and the Music Center parking garage, and the Music Center Operating Company will be paid for the use of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Grant said the exact costs for the facilities will be determined today.

The judge’s chambers and other offices behind the courtroom will serve as dressing rooms. “Essentially, (the court employes) won’t be able to keep a messy desk,” said Grant, but he added that they already customarily lock confidential documents in cabinets before leaving for the night. Costumes will be brought out of a storage room for each show.

Grant heard about a courtroom production of the play in Scranton, Pa., and approached author Lawrence about the possibility of adapting the idea to Los Angeles and other cities. “It is environmental theater in the purest sense of the word,” he said.

MAGIC LOOKS SOUTH: Coming soon to Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood: “a comedy about incestuous twins who re-enact the Kennedy assassination as part of their foreplay.”

That’s how Harvey Seister, general director of the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, describes “The House of Yes,” scheduled to open at the 385-seat Las Palmas Oct. 23.

Wendy MacLeod’s play will be the 24-year-old Magic Theatre’s first venture into Los Angeles. Cast, director and designer will be those who did it at the Magic, where it opened for a scheduled nine performances on April 4 and wound up playing 130 performances. “It was the best-selling new play in our history,” said Seister.

The play is set in the Virginia suburbs of Washington during a hurricane. It’s “a wild satire” that makes “powerful statements about public violence and private relationships and the cult of hero worship,” said Seister.

RIBMAN IN PASADENA: The Pasadena Playhouse has won a $37,500 grant to stage Ronald Ribman’s “Rug Merchants of Chaos” next March. The Fund for New American Plays also awarded $10,000 to Ribman for the project. The new play will appear in the Playhouse’s Balcony Theatre, said artistic director Susan Dietz.

GROVE WATCH: The Grove Shakespeare Festival didn’t fare as well as LATC before its own civic authorities Monday. The Garden Grove City Council took no action on the Grove’s request for $25,700 in emergency funds. But a special council meeting has been scheduled for Monday to reconsider the matter.

It was decided Tuesday to continue rehearsals for “The Importance of Being Earnest,” scheduled to open Oct. 4, despite a deadline of Oct. 5 for the raising of a total of $32,157. Grove officials have said the theater will have to close if the money isn’t raised by then.

Never fear, though--the City Council did approve a proclamation designating October as “pride in our cultural activities month.”

Times staff writer Jan Herman contributed to this column.