Intelligently designed

THE debate was the same, but the discussions that evolved from performances of “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” differed from audience to audience across the country.

The show, L.A. Theatre Works’ first radio play on tour, is a docudrama based on actual transcripts from the 1925 Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes trial, in which a science teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Today, the topic is being debated again by proponents of the science of evolution and advocates of intelligent design in several state legislatures and state school boards.

“Eighteen months before going on the road, we decided we couldn’t just tour it,” says Susan Loewenberg, founder and producing director of L.A. Theatre Works.

“So we put together panel discussions, symposiums and talk-backs with the audience. We offered local NPR stations the opportunity to record it and play it once in their community to extend the discussion.”

Next week, the discussion comes home to the Skirball Cultural Center, where the play, written by Peter Goodchild, will end its 24-city tour with performances March 1-5, featuring Edward Asner, Mike Farrell and Sharon Gless.

Loewenberg’s choice of the Scopes radio play for the company’s tour stemmed from the play’s popularity among teachers who have used audio recordings of it through L.A. Theatre Works’ educational outreach program, which makes recordings and study guides available to public schools nationwide.

Next out is “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” on tour now to the end of March, followed by “The Caine Mutiny Court Marshall” in the fall, and “Private Lives” by Noel Coward in the spring of 2007.

Next year, “The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial” will hit the road again in April. The play, which was originally commissioned by L.A. Theatre Works in partnership with the BBC, premiered in 1992. Since then, Loewenberg says, the play has been updated to reflect the intelligent design movement, and a few sentences have been added about the Dover, Pa., trial last year in which a federal judge ruled against the teaching of intelligent design in Dover schools.

“We worked through the narration to make it extremely evenhanded because we didn’t want to appear as a liberal group from Hollywood telling people what to think,” Loewenberg says. “Our hope was that people would ask better questions and learn something from seeing it.”

Throughout the run, a revolving cast of actors has re-enacted the first U.S. trial to be broadcast live on radio, stepping in and out of their characters as schedules permitted. The show has featured lead performances by Asner, Farrell, Gless, James Cromwell, John de Lancie, Michael Learned and Tom Bosley.

Asner, who originated the role of prosecutor William Jennings Bryan in the 1992 recording, is an unabashed liberal who greatly admires his character, an orator and champion of progressive causes who happened to be a steadfast fundamentalist.

“This man had a set of phenomenal standards,” Asner says of Bryan, who was a great supporter of peace and resigned as secretary of State under President Wilson in protest over World War I. “With his concern about morality, I can see why he went over the line to try to restrict science.”

But Asner makes no bones about where he stands on the issue.

“You can proclaim what you believe and be proud of it, but don’t tell people they have to believe the same,” Asner says. “People need religion and worship.

“Science should be allowed to pursue its research. Our Constitution should be enforced mightily.”

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Food for thought

IN Asner’s view, the play resonated most with audiences who oppose the teaching of intelligent design in schools, but he says, “To my amazement, we found there were also plenty of people who believe in divine creation who enjoyed the show, or came to ponder.”

Farrell, who plays defense attorney Clarence Darrow, says there is tremendous unease about the economy, social relationships and personal safety around the country, leading many people to look for something that makes them feel less vulnerable.

“One thing that can provide that is a circumscribed religious view that tells you what’s right and wrong, and what you can and can’t do,” says Farrell, a political activist who supports a number of human-rights organizations. “I’ve found it hard to get people to understand that we don’t have a quarrel with the idea that God is responsible for creation. It doesn’t have a place in science class, but perhaps it should be in a literature or religion class.”

Farrell -- who rotated into the show after its run began, left and returned to finish the tour -- says transitions were fairly seamless as various actors moved in and out of the roles.

“The company was very supportive and congenial,” he says. “A different actor playing a key role brings a different tone to the play. I have to respond to what happens, and found it very challenging and exciting.”

He noted that the show is presented as a radio play but is also a staged and costumed production, with actors playing to a radio microphone and reacting to live sound effects and to the audience members, who are asked to cheer and boo as they wish in response to the dialogue.

Though many who saw the play seemed to hold definite opinions on either side of the issue, Farrell notes, the point of theater is to present, discuss and inspire thinking and reactions among audience members.

“There were discussions about the issues and differences of perspective among the cast members too,” he says, “but nobody asked if we were Republicans or Democrats. It was just actors doing an interesting play in an interesting time.”

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‘The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial’

Where: L.A. Theatre Works at Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday

Ends: 2:30 p.m. next Sunday

Price: $25-$45

Contact: (310) 827-0889