L.A. Theatre Works and
The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

Starring a cast drawn from the ranks of L.A. Theatre Works Radio Theater, the characters at the center of one of the great debates of American society come to life in this magnificent semi-staged production from America’s foremost radio theater company. Scopes, a high school science teacher challenged the state law in Tennessee by teaching evolution instead of creationism. The trial quickly became a national battleground and drew the attention of religious fundamentalists and the ACLU.

Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, H.L. Mencken, John Scopes—these unlikely heroic figures of this 20th century drama participated in a trial that set the stage for an ongoing national debate over the freedom of inquiry and the separation of Church and State. This was a national conflict of social and intellectual values played out in a small courthouse in rural Tennessee eighty years ago, yet these issues remain unresolved even today and the speeches and oratory from the trial still ring familiar.

For over two decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States. Broadcast in America on NPR and internationally on the BBC, CBC, and Voice of America, LATW has single-handedly brought live theater into the homes of millions. The company also performs a hugely successful series of live radio theater presentations each season in Los Angeles. Works by Eugene O’Neill, Athol Fugard, Wendy Wasserstein, Neil Simon, Arthur Miller, and others have been performed and recorded by LATW with casts of the most critically acclaimed film and stage actors. On the road, LATW has given live radio theater performances in Chicago, Washington, Boston, and New York. An L.A. Theatre Works performance is immediate, spontaneous, and features a first-rate cast, live sound effects, and a connection to the audience rarely felt in a traditional theater setting.

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