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October 17, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
Christian Brother Mel Anderson
turns actor in ‘Inherit the Wind’
Christian
Brother Mel Anderson, retired president of Saint Mary’s College
in Moraga, is taking on a new role these days: thespian. He’ll play
the judge in the school’s upcoming production of “Inherit
the Wind,” Oct. 27-29 and Nov. 4-6, at the LeFevre Theater on the
Moraga campus.
Director Dan Cawthon tapped Brother Mel for the cameo role. “I already
know my lines,” he said earlier this month. The Jerome Lawrence/Robert
E. Lee drama is the first play Brother Mel has acted in since his own
college days. “That was a long time ago,” he quipped.
But the affable Christian Brother said that he directed numerous plays
when he taught at his community’s high schools in Pasadena, Fresno,
San Francisco and Berkeley. While at Sacred Heart Preparatory School in
San Francisco, Brother Mel even wrote a play in the late ‘60’s.
“It was a musical with a social justice message about a fellow who
ran a sweatshop, and how the employees emerged and grew out of their bad
conditions,” he explained, adding that “it was nothing very
earth shaking.”
Of course, “Inherit the Wind” is also a play with a controversial
theme – Darwinian evolution versus a literal seven-day view of creation.
It is based on the Scopes “monkey trial” which took place
in Dayton, Tennessee, 1925, with two famous lawyers of the day —
William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow —duking it out on opposite
sides. The plot centers upon a teacher who has been accused of the crime
of teaching evolution in his classroom.
Eighty years later, their battle is still relevant, with present day religious
fundamentalists pushing the concept of “Intelligent Design”
over evolution, Brother Mel pointed out. Off-stage, he sides with Darrow’s
scientific view. “Let science alone. Let it do its thing,”
unless it is championing something immoral, maintains Brother Mel.
“My problem with religious fundamentalists is, they take a literal
view of the Bible. They are an embarrassment to people who know Scripture
as being filled with myths and allegory. It needs to be read very carefully.”
Brother Mel said that the Catholic Church has never found any problems
with Darwin’s theory that the universe has emerged over a 14-billion-year
period.
The production of “Inherit the Wind” is part of a campus-wide
symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the play. To celebrate the event,
several departments at Saint Mary’s will host a weeklong series
of lectures and discussions of the play’s major theme.
Bay Area actors John Hetzler and Tom Flynn have been cast in the leading
roles of the two attorneys. Curtain time for all performances is 8 p.m.
except for Nov. 6, when there will be a 2 p.m. matinee.
Ticket prices are $15 for general admission and $8 for Saint Mary’s
College faculty, staff and students. For tickets, contact the performing
arts department at (925) 631-4670.
Brother Mel Anderson as the Judge listens to Attorney
Drummond (Tom Flynn), right, and Attorney Brady (John Hetzler) during
Saint Mary’s College production of “Inherit the Wind.”
Michael Cook is the play’s technical director.
SAINT MARY’S COLLEGE PHOTO
