Latest news with #DanBuck
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tired of put-downs, Tennessee town corrects the record with play about the Scopes trial it hosted
DAYTON, Tenn. (AP) — A small town in eastern Tennessee courted national publicity and attention a century ago when local leaders planned a test trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. What they got from the eight-day Scopes trial was more than they bargained for. The trial of the century — and the first to be broadcast over the radio — inspired articles, books, plays and movies, including the popular 'Inherit the Wind.' It also characterized Dayton as an uneducated town of strident Christian fundamentalists, a narrative locals have spent decades trying to rewrite. For over 30 years, people in Rhea County have put on a play every July using the trial transcript, aiming to correct the record. In their own words, the actors and director of 'Destiny in Dayton' explain the complexities of the town captured by history. The director Dan Buck was a theater professor at a nearby private university when he got an email seeking a director for the play about the Scopes trial. Buck knew about the trial, but didn't know Dayton had its own play. 'The legacy of little towns telling their own story through theater is rich history, right?' Buck said, noting the tradition was playfully lampooned in the mockumentary, 'Waiting for Guffman.' Locals have put on the play to counter the stereotypes and creative liberties from 'Inherit the Wind,' as well as columnist H.L. Mencken's harsh critique of residents at the time. 'I quickly learned that the people of the town here are not real fond of the play or the movie,' Buck said. 'They call it the 'Scottish play,' which is a reference to Macbeth, the thing you're not supposed to say: the cursed play.' In truth, the story of the trial was more complicated and nuanced than most people think. John T. Scopes, the local teacher, was a willing participant in testing the anti-evolution law, and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan didn't die after the trial because he was defeated by defense attorney Clarence Darrow's arguments. In directing the play on the trial's 100th anniversary, Buck says he is working toward the same mission Dayton leaders had a century ago. 'I am building up the buzz about this town, getting people here to get them excited, putting Dayton on the map,' Buck said. 'Maybe we are trying to use this story and this trial to get a little attention to this specific place.' The descendant Jacob Smith, 23, didn't realize his connection to the most famous trial until he started studying history. His great-great-great-grandmother's brother was Walter White, the county superintendent of schools and one of the key figures who brought the trial to Dayton. Smith plays Dudley Field Malone, a defense attorney for Scopes who gave speeches as equally impassioned and memorable during the trial as Bryan and Darrow. One of Smith's favorite lines to deliver is a reference to the so-called battle between the two sides in court. 'He basically says, 'There is never a duel with the truth,'' Smith said. 'He said, 'It always wins. It is no coward. It does not need the law, the forces of government, or,' and he pauses, 'Mr. Bryan.'' Smith is currently the county archivist, and he delights in seeing people visit Dayton's original courthouse with its squeaky and shiny wood floors, tall windows and impressive stairs that lead up to the wide courtroom on the second floor. 'You can hold the handrails going up to that circuit courtroom, just like those lawyers would have done and all those spectators would have done back in 1925,' Smith said. The 'Great Commoner' Larry Jones has acted in community and local theater since childhood, so he thought he knew the story of the Scopes trial after performing in a production of 'Inherit the Wind.' He later realized the famous play was taking creative liberties to make the trial a metaphor for something else captivating the nation's attention at the time: McCarthyism. Jones plays the role of Bryan, a famous Christian orator and populist politician whose speeches earned him the nickname of 'the Great Commoner.' He says the hardest part was not learning the lengthy speeches Bryan gives during the trial, but rather the sparring he must do when Darrow unexpectedly puts Bryan on the stand to defend the literal truth of the Bible. 'I'm just having to respond spontaneously, and it feels spontaneous every time,' Jones said. 'So part of my mind is going, 'Oh my gosh, is that the right cue? Am I going to say the right thing?'' Jones said audiences still connect to the retelling of the trial a century later because these are issues they continue to deal with. 'People are still arguing the same case,' Jones said. 'What is the role of the federal government or the state government in public school systems? What should be allowed? What shouldn't be allowed? What can parents exert influence over for their children's sake? Whether it's evolution or whether it's literature or any of the political issues that are abundant today, it still is the same argument.' No conclusion The outcome of the trial was no great surprise. The jury found Scopes guilty after a few minutes of deliberation. The defense attorneys' goal all along, however, was to take the legal argument to a higher court. Today, Dayton embraces its place in history with the annual celebration of the trial. Businesses advertise and promote the 'Monkey trial.' And locals have adopted the phrase: 'Dayton has evolved.' 'We're dusting off a very old story, but it's very new,' said Buck. 'It's very, very right now.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Tired of put-downs, Tennessee town corrects the record with play about the Scopes trial it hosted
A small town in eastern Tennessee courted national publicity and attention a century ago when local leaders planned a test trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. What they got from the eight-day Scopes trial was more than they bargained for. The trial of the century — and the first to be broadcast over the radio — inspired articles, books, plays and movies, including the popular 'Inherit the Wind.' It also characterized Dayton as an uneducated town of strident Christian fundamentalists, a narrative locals have spent decades trying to rewrite. For over 30 years, people in Rhea County have put on a play every July using the trial transcript, aiming to correct the record. In their own words, the actors and director of 'Destiny in Dayton' explain the complexities of the town captured by history. The director Dan Buck was a theater professor at a nearby private university when he got an email seeking a director for the play about the Scopes trial. Buck knew about the trial, but didn't know Dayton had its own play. 'The legacy of little towns telling their own story through theater is rich history, right?' Buck said, noting the tradition was playfully lampooned in the mockumentary, 'Waiting for Guffman.' Locals have put on the play to counter the stereotypes and creative liberties from 'Inherit the Wind,' as well as columnist H.L. Mencken's harsh critique of residents at the time. 'I quickly learned that the people of the town here are not real fond of the play or the movie,' Buck said. 'They call it the 'Scottish play,' which is a reference to Macbeth, the thing you're not supposed to say: the cursed play.' In truth, the story of the trial was more complicated and nuanced than most people think. John T. Scopes, the local teacher, was a willing participant in testing the anti-evolution law, and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan didn't die after the trial because he was defeated by defense attorney Clarence Darrow's arguments. In directing the play on the trial's 100th anniversary, Buck says he is working toward the same mission Dayton leaders had a century ago. 'I am building up the buzz about this town, getting people here to get them excited, putting Dayton on the map,' Buck said. 'Maybe we are trying to use this story and this trial to get a little attention to this specific place.' The descendant Jacob Smith, 23, didn't realize his connection to the most famous trial until he started studying history. His great-great-great-grandmother's brother was Walter White, the county superintendent of schools and one of the key figures who brought the trial to Dayton. Smith plays Dudley Field Malone, a defense attorney for Scopes who gave speeches as equally impassioned and memorable during the trial as Bryan and Darrow. One of Smith's favorite lines to deliver is a reference to the so-called battle between the two sides in court. 'He basically says, 'There is never a duel with the truth,'' Smith said. 'He said, 'It always wins. It is no coward. It does not need the law, the forces of government, or,' and he pauses, 'Mr. Bryan.'' Smith is currently the county archivist, and he delights in seeing people visit Dayton's original courthouse with its squeaky and shiny wood floors, tall windows and impressive stairs that lead up to the wide courtroom on the second floor. 'You can hold the handrails going up to that circuit courtroom, just like those lawyers would have done and all those spectators would have done back in 1925,' Smith said. The 'Great Commoner' Larry Jones has acted in community and local theater since childhood, so he thought he knew the story of the Scopes trial after performing in a production of 'Inherit the Wind.' He later realized the famous play was taking creative liberties to make the trial a metaphor for something else captivating the nation's attention at the time: McCarthyism. Jones plays the role of Bryan, a famous Christian orator and populist politician whose speeches earned him the nickname of 'the Great Commoner.' He says the hardest part was not learning the lengthy speeches Bryan gives during the trial, but rather the sparring he must do when Darrow unexpectedly puts Bryan on the stand to defend the literal truth of the Bible. 'I'm just having to respond spontaneously, and it feels spontaneous every time,' Jones said. 'So part of my mind is going, 'Oh my gosh, is that the right cue? Am I going to say the right thing?'' Jones said audiences still connect to the retelling of the trial a century later because these are issues they continue to deal with. ' People are still arguing the same case,' Jones said. 'What is the role of the federal government or the state government in public school systems? What should be allowed? What shouldn't be allowed? What can parents exert influence over for their children's sake? Whether it's evolution or whether it's literature or any of the political issues that are abundant today, it still is the same argument.' No conclusion The outcome of the trial was no great surprise. The jury found Scopes guilty after a few minutes of deliberation. The defense attorneys' goal all along, however, was to take the legal argument to a higher court. Today, Dayton embraces its place in history with the annual celebration of the trial. Businesses advertise and promote the 'Monkey trial.' And locals have adopted the phrase: 'Dayton has evolved.' 'We're dusting off a very old story, but it's very new,' said Buck. 'It's very, very right now.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Three Frederick County private schools form collaborative
Three private schools in Frederick County have joined forces to share resources and promote awareness of and collaboration between independent schools. The Banner School, Friends Meeting School and Lucy School collectively make up the Frederick Independent School Alliance (FISA), the schools announced on March 12. The schools are also scheduled to host an admissions fair to provide prospective students and parents with information about several private school options in Frederick County and beyond. St. John's Catholic Prep near Buckeystown, New Life Christian School near Frederick and Barnesville School of Arts and Sciences in Montgomery County are also scheduled to attend and provide information about their programming. Some of the ways the schools intend to collaborate through FISA include having teachers from one school visit the others to broaden the education perspective, and sharing resources for academic programming like foreign languages. The three schools that make up FISA prioritize different types of learning and offer a variety of programs. The Banner School in Frederick, which is one of the first independent schools in the county at over 40 years old, serves students in pre-K through 8th grade and provides a global perspective through studying various cultures. Friends Meeting School in Ijamsville was founded in 1997 and serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The school is focused on project-based learning to enhance education, and carries Quaker values. Lucy School near Middletown is an arts-based school serving students in pre-K through eighth grade, and the school integrates discovery and the outdoors into its academic programs. Dan Buck, head of school for Lucy School, said in an interview on Monday that administrators from the three institutions get together about every two months to catch up with each other. He said from those discussions, the schools talked about holding a joint admissions fair. 'It was like, 'We could do that. Why don't we do that?'' Buck said. Chris Kimberly, head of school for Friends Meeting School, said that as an educator, he has 'benefited so much from collaboration.' 'Whether that's a co-teacher in the classroom, or visiting other schools, or as an administrator teaming up with schools, even those with whom we have some competition, because I think ultimately, we're all drawn to this for the right reason,' he said. Ann Wagner, head of school for The Banner School, added that FISA discussed holding a joint service learning project with each other's students. She said combined service learning projects, as well as sharing resources between the schools, 'are some of the ways we can see connecting and having a bigger impact with our schools collectively.' Wagner, who additionally teaches a sixth grade math class at The Banner School, said one of the benefits of an independent school is that students are known individually because of smaller class sizes. 'We really do get a lot of time just to be out and about and see what's going on,' she said. Buck added that public schools have 'a lot more bureaucracy' with district leadership. 'Sometimes, people have to do things and you don't even necessarily know why because it's just written down,' he said. Buck said the independent schools have 'a lot more flexibility' and can adjust rules or regulations more quickly and easily. Kimberly said the COVID pandemic threw off young students' naturally emerging ability to connect with each other and 'I'm not sure we've fully restored our balance since then.' 'I think you'll find in all of our schools a little bit more intentionality on the part of programs and teaching,' he said. 'But part of me is also wondering, how do we get back to that moment where it won't be necessary to be so intentional about cultivating that?' Buck said the admissions fair, scheduled for April 28 at the C. Burr Artz Public Library in Frederick, will be a chance for prospective students and parents to meet administrators of private schools and 'to say what we have that maybe they don't have in the public schools.' Kimberly said the fair was an opportunity 'to help people learn that there's some great non-public options for families in Frederick County that are accessible — both geographically but also financially.'
