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On Saturday, October 16 at 8 p.m., the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown will host a one-man show starring Dr. James Ivey that depicts the life of Clarence Darrow, the noted attorney in the State v. John Scopes “Monkey Trial.”
Ivey teaches theatre at SUNY Fredonia. His colleague Tom Loughlin, theatre department chairperson, will direct him in the performance.
Ivey, who is portraying Darrow in the play, calls him “a fierce litigator, but someone who had a great sense of humor too. He enjoyed a good story and could laugh at himself while poking fun at his profession.”
Tickets are available for sale ($15/adult & $10/student) by calling the Jackson Center at 716-483-6646.
The SUNY Fredonia Alumni Office is planning a reunion at the event for alumni in the area. The reunion starts with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the play. Reunion website>>
Writer David W. Rintels based “Clarence Darrow: A One-Man Play” on the Irving Stone novel entitled, “Clarence Darrow for the Defense.” The two-act play centers around the major trials of Darrow’s life, including the Leopold-Loeb murder trial in Chicago, the Ossian Sweet trial involving a racially-driven mob attack in Detroit, the Scopes evolution trial, and labor union strike trials including the Pullman Strike of 1894 and the Pennsylvania Coal Miners’ Strike of 1902.
Clarence Darrow was born in 1857 and attended Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. He went on to build a somewhat sensationalized career as a verbose and controversial attorney. A leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Darrow took on many cases which involved Labor Movement issues, and he was ahead of his time in many respects when it came to his humanitarian interests and beliefs on racial equality and the unprejudiced rule of law.
Ivey has performed in over a hundred plays and musicals with roles as diverse as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, File in The Rainmaker, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Cheswick in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and King Arthur in Camelot. The former head of the theatre department at Hardin-Simmons University, Dr. Ivey is currently a member of the faculty of theatre and dance department at SUNY Fredonia. He has continued his life-long studies of the theatrical arts—most recently in 2006 at the Scuola Internazionale dell’Attore Comico in Reggio-Emilia, Italy—and has a vibrant career as a teacher, actor, and director.
The Robert H. Jackson Center’s mission is to advance the legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson through education and exhibits, and by pursuing the relevance of his ideas for our generation. The Center is located at 305 East Fourth Street, Jamestown, NY. Tours are available from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday – Friday and from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
For more information, send an email to info@roberthjackson.org or visit the website at www.roberthjackson.org. The Center can also be found on Facebook (“Robert H. Jackson Center” fan page) & Twitter (follow “RHJCenter”).
