MONKEY BUSINESS SERIOUS STUFF AT GCTC

News Release: Ottawa, ON - Monday, April 28, 2008

The Great Canadian Theatre Company and the County of Carleton Law Society co-produce an annual play as a fundraiser in support of GCTC and its co-charity, the Ottawa Rotary Home (www.rotaryhome.on.ca).  On Thursday to Saturday, May 1 – 3, 8 p.m. gala performances of Inherit the Wind, the 1955 British play based on the Scopes Monkey Trial of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution versus Creationism as taught in USA schools, are presented. Although the May 2 & 3 shows are sold out, a limited number of $100 per person tickets to the Thursday, May 1 show are available, and include the play and a post-show reception catered by Ottawa’s Thyme & Again and Juniper Restaurant (http://gctc.ca/support/fundraising.html). To purchase tickets, call the GCTC Box Office at (613) 236-5196 or visit in person at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre at 1233 Wellington Street West, Ottawa.

The 9th Annual Lawyer Play brings together 44 Ottawa judges, magistrates and lawyers to tread the new boards of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, Great Canadian Theatre Company’s new home. Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is directed by Janet Irwin, an Ottawa-based freelance theatre director, dramaturge, and writer. This is her third year directing GCTC’s Lawyer Play. She has directed productions for, among others, National Arts Centre English Theatre, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Easy Street Productions, Upper Canada Playhouse, Third Wall Theatre Company, CanPlay Productions, the Manitoba Popular Theatre Alliance, and Opera Lyra Ottawa. She considers it a privilege to work with the dedicated and talented group from the Ottawa-Carleton Bar Association on a play about the right to think unpopular thoughts: “Today, for citizens generally, time to think is rare. The ability to think is challenged by a noisy world. So, how wonderful to take a trip back to a time when the possibilities of thinking, and the dangers of thinking, in the small town of our play’s action, were issues deemed worthy of the scrutiny of a nation and beyond.”

Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, pitted science against faith, and remains a most influential and talked about scientific paper. It introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection, a theory that became the backbone of modern biology (http://darwin-online.org.uk/). “The central issue of this play is still with us,” says Irwin, “and not just in some remote pocket of America or in too many repressive regimes. Here at home, today,  we are in just as much danger of losing a taken-for-granted right and defaulting on an important responsibility--the need to think soundly--through inaction, neglect or just plain ‘too much to do.’ Inherit the Wind is based on an American legal case, often called the "Scopes Monkey Trial," that tested a law which forbade the teaching, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, of any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals. John Scopes, a high school teacher, was charged on May 5, 1925 with teaching evolution from a chapter in a textbook which showed ideas developed from those set out in Charles’s Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species. Debate between Evolutionists and Creationists still rages on today, throughout North America.

Inherit the Wind demanded the recruitment of the largest Lawyer Play cast in its history: 32 cast and 12 cameos, explains Event Committee Chair Meg Steele: “Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into making this event such a success.”  The volunteer acting/singing ensemble stars Justice Colin McKinnon as Drummond and Master Robert Beaudoin as Brady with Douglas Rutherford, Andrew Lister, Ann Scholberg, Barb McIsaac, Carol Cochrane, Christina Harrison, Ian Stauffer, J.P. McAvoy, Jason Gilbert, Judith Allen, Ken Hall, Lisa Sharp, Louisa Garib, Marisa Victor, Mark Mossey, Mitch Charness, Nancy Hellyer, Patricia Stirbys, Paul Taylor, Peter Doody, Sarah Coristine, Sean Bawden, Siobhan Doody, Stephen Acker, Susan Arlitt, Tara Berish, Ted Mann, Tim Sullivan, Tony Keenleyside and Zoe Sharp. Cameos on Thursday, May 1, include H.E. Mr. William Fisher (High Commissioner for Australia), Madam Justice Jennifer Blishen, Madam Justice Jennifer Mackinnon, Brian Crane, and Heather Williams.  On Friday, May 2, audience members will see the acting prowess of H.E. Mr. Anthony Cary (High Commissioner for Britain), Justice Peter Griffiths, Janice Payne and Justice Charles Hackland. On Saturday, May 3, special guests include Janet Yale, Richard Moore and Tom Conway. Inherit the Wind’s stage manager is Kevin Waghorn, and the assistant director is Jen Vallance. The lighting design is by Mark Rieger, with set and costume design by Sarah Waghorn.

This year’s sponsorship goal of $35,000 was met and surpassed by $20,000, with GCTC recognizing three giving levels: Gold – Welch & Co. CA; Silver – Dr. David Jordan; Homestead Land Holdings; Gillespie Reporting Services; Local Bar - Bird McCuaig Russell; BLG Borden Ladner Gervais; Soloway Wright; Mann & Partners LLP; Ridout & Maybee LLP; Nelligan O'Brien Payne; Bronze - Heenan Blaikie; HSBC; Kelly Santini, LLP; Tierney Stauffer; TK Group; Howard Yegendorf & Associates LLP; McKeller Structured Settlements Inc.; McCay, Duff & Company LLP Chartered Accountants; Fasken Martineau; Rasmussen Starr Ruddy, LLP; John Jussup; Perley-Robertson, Hill & MacDougall LLP; Torys LLP; Kelly Funeral Homes and Chapels; McCarthy Tétrault; Robert Half Legal; Scotiabank Group; Low, Murchison; Ottawa Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice; AIM; Lexis Nexis, McCay Duff, and, ODRG.

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Media Call:
Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 2:30 p.m. – 3 p.m., Irving Greenberg Theatre (mainstage), 1233 Wellington Street West, Ottawa, Ontario. Call 613 236 5192 ext 229 to confirm attendance and interviews.

Media Contact:
Laurie Murphy
GCTC Marketing & Communications Director
613 236 5192 ext 229; cell: 613 816 0660; publicity@gctc.ca