Fifty years after its first production and 80 years after the Scopes-Monkey Trial, “Inherit the Wind” took the stage last night in the Thurber Theater of the Drake Union.

The play was written in 1955 by Ohio-native playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Director Alan Woods said the play is being performed in memory of Lawrence, an Ohio State alum, who passed away last February.

The play is a fictionalized dramatization of the 1925 Scopes-Monkey Trial, which involved a teacher being tried for going against anti-evolution laws by illegally teaching evolution in a Tennessee classroom.

“They were not interested in doing a documentary,” Woods, a professor of theater, said about why the play is fictionalized.

Though very much an issue in contemporary America, when the play premiered fifty years ago the audience was never truly intended to be presented a play about evolution and creation, Woods said. Because in the 1950s the choice between teaching evolutionism and creationism had already been made, emphasizing one or the other was not up for debate.

“They wrote it in response to the early 1950s McCarthy witch hunt,” Woods said. “It’s a parable about the rights of free speech.”

During the seven weeks of rehearsal, Woods said he took some creative liberty in deviating from the original script. For example, he incorporated audience participation into the performance, something much different from what has been done in the past.

“It’s one of the greatest choices Dr. Woods did,” said cast member Dominique Paramore, a sophomore in theater.

Paramore plays the prosecuting attorney and spends a lot of her stage time addressing the jury.

“He put the jury in the audience and all of our pleading is with the jury,” she said. “It’s so powerful.”

Another difference Woods made was with his casting. He casted gender-opposite roles such as the role of the attorney, in which Paramore, a 19-year-old black woman, is playing the part of an older, white male.

“All theater is fictional anyway,” Woods said. “It’s not a stretch to ask the audience to accept some difference past the script.”

Paramore said although there was some initial shock, she is happy with her role.

“It’s not hard to switch back and forth,” Paramore said about changing from herself into her character. “Certain things are transgender like passion and outspokenness. The mind-set doesn’t take me out of gender as much as the superficiality does.”

Josh Andrews, a junior in business, plays Burt Cates, the accused teacher on trial. Andrew said working with gender-opposite actors is not difficult at all.

“They are doing a good job. They’re so powerful at it,” he said. “They’re pretty convincing and the costumes help. It’s not the first thing on your mind.”

Andrews said this will be his 40th show, having done a variety of other performances in community theater and in high school. He said this production has a lot of emotional tension and a deeper point.

“It’s a mixture of realistic and surrealistic,” he said. “It’s supposed to show the meaning of the show transcends time.”

“Inherit the Wind’ opened last night and runs through the May 21st.