This fall, the theater department at BVW curated and perfected a play, titled “Inherit the Wind.” “Inherit the Wind” is a courtroom drama, lightly based upon the real life Scopes Monkey Trial that took place in the early 20s,” said senior Jake Barton.
The Scopes Monkey Trial that took place in 1925, involves a case about the controversy of teaching evolution to students. The relationship between the characters make this play both noteworthy, and relatable for the audience. “…There’s a lot of dynamics between two lawyers who you know they respect each other but this is something that they strongly oppose within their own opinions,” said Barton. It’s one of the most noticeable dynamics that can be observed throughout the scenes. And while the character personalities within the actual play present themselves to be unique themselves, being able to act out these characteristics was no easy task for the cast members here at West.
“The first thing I tried to figure out was my character voice. It took a while to figure out what to do with it. Because at first, I had this really low voice that didn’t sound real, so I had to work on it. And once I finally figured out the character voice, then I dove deeper into what the meaning of all my lines were and the themes for all my characters and stuff,” said Senior Mihir Apte. He goes on to describe what the process was like, trying to get into character, and representing all the unique aspects and characteristics of each role within the play. Apte isn’t the only cast member paying special attention to his role. In fact, each individual appearing in the play prepared their roles in a unique way to touch the full potential of the part. A big help in making the cast feel more comfortable and confident perfecting their roles, were each other.
“I was, you know, on stage playing a best friend with two of my best friends. So it was really easy and it felt very natural. But this was a character I’d never really played before. And I definitely liked playing more lines than I did last year,” said Senior Ellen Kryer. She discusses the unique relationship that the entire cast shares, especially during the production process. The bonds within the cast were crucial as stepping into the roles of seniors was important because mentoring and building relationships with underclassmen on cast were essential in creating the show, and Ellen especially, was a member and friend that was especially easy to relate to.
“My favorite part probably was acting with Ellen because she’s a very great actress and it just elevates me to become better,” said Senior Tyler Masterson. Members felt excitement in working with those around them as they felt connected to each other. Cast members expressed feeling comfortable within their roles while having the excitement of being cast with bigger parts within the program compared to last year as well.
“I’ve never been like the main character before and it was just cool too cuz a lot of stuff Jonathan says I like to connect personally with what he likes, embodies and believes in. So since our beliefs versus playing a character and getting to like, speaking about these things through a different way was just nice,” said Apte. Members in every scene deep dived into connecting their characters to themselves as they developed from rehearsals to showtime.“So even just like characters big and small, we had to develop a lot of chemistry and dynamics between them all in order to create a very alive kind of scene. and that kind of gives that impression to the audience that these are people, not just characters,” said Barton.
So as the production process finally began coming to a close, emotions on the final pieces of the fall play, have understandably led to a variety of different emotions, especially for the seniors involved. “I could go back and I could change this. But in the long run, you look back and you’re like, I did a pretty good job for what it was,” said Senior Will Prehn. The overwhelming majority of the cast felt positive about their performances following opening night.
The cast and production crew put hours upon hours of work into the production of the fall play, “Inherit the Wind ”, and their phenomenal performance has done enough to say what a fantastic outcome and impact they had on all of their viewers. It is undeniably clear the ambience, and relationships formed within the cast has contributed to outstanding results.