Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial
    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial
    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

    Written by Peter Goodchild

    Narrated by Ed Asner, John de Lancie and Full Cast

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Scopes Trial, over the right to teach evolution in public schools, reaffirmed the importance of intellectual freedom as codified in the Bill of Rights. The trial, in a small-town Tennessee courtroom in 1925, set the stage for ongoing debates over the separation of Church and State in a democratic society - debates that continue to this day.

    An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Edward Asner, Bill Brochtrup, Kyle Colerider-Krugh, Matthew Patrick Davis, John de Lancie, James Gleason, Harry Groener, Jerry Hardin, Geoffrey Lower, Marnie Mosiman and Kenneth Alan Williams.

    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherL.A. Theatre Works
    Release dateAug 1, 2006
    ISBN9781580815581
    The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial
    Author

    Peter Goodchild

    Peter Goodchild is a long-time English teacher. His career has led him to many parts of the world, including Japan and Oman, the last of which became the inspiration for this present book. He is also the author of Tumbling Tide: Population, Petroleum, and Systemic Collapse, as well as several books on the Native American traditions of North America and a resource book for English teaching as a second language.

    More audiobooks from Peter Goodchild

    Related to The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

    Related audiobooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      They Really Did It

      Jun 24, 2022

      They Really Did It
      3 min read

    • Article

      Will Election Become A New ‘Lost Cause’ For Evangelical Conservatives?

      Dec 16, 2020

      A “lost cause” narrative around the 2020 election is arising among religious conservatives that is reminiscent of the South after the Civil War.

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Rocket Full Of Posie

      Apr 9, 2023

      Man, people are cranky. And shouty. And downright silly. Particularly politicians. And, generally speaking, the whole damn world. There has been a lot of loose trolling going on. You could have written the script for the carry-on about British anti-t

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Last Temptation

      Mar 11, 2018

      The Last Temptation
      24 min read

    • Article

      Repairing The Story Of Race In The South

      Apr 2, 2018

      I BELIEVE THAT THE FOUR CONFEDERATE monuments in New Orleans that became a dominating presence in my life for well more than two years never reflected what the true society of New Orleans, generations ago, actually felt when they were built. The str

      3 min read

    • Article

      Leonard Pitts Jr.: Trump’s Order Discourages Discussion Of Race And Gender

      Oct 11, 2020

      “I didn’t know.” Those were the first words my friend, a white guy named Dave, spoke to me the day after the first episode of “Roots,” which depicted the capture and enslavement of an African boy named Kunta Kinte. This was 43 years ago. So you can p

      2 min read

    • Article

      Leonard Pitts Jr.: Trump’s Order Discourages Discussion Of Race And Gender

      Oct 11, 2020

      “I didn’t know.” Those were the first words my friend, a white guy named Dave, spoke to me the day after the first episode of “Roots,” which depicted the capture and enslavement of an African boy named Kunta Kinte. This was 43 years ago. So you can p

      2 min read

    • Article

      Barrier Breaking

      Mar 7, 2021

      Barrier Breaking
      4 min read

    • Article

      Charlatans, False Prophets, And Flimflammers

      Jun 27, 2023

      My late father-in-law, an Episcopal priest, had a cartoon taped to his kitchen wall in Sherman that skewers an obnoxious feature of American religion. In the cartoon, a grinning devil, sitting on a throne surrounded by flames, instructs a horned appr

      5 min read

    • Article

      Mary Sanchez: In His Final Earthly Act, Pat Robertson Once Again Tests America’s Morality

      Jun 29, 2023

      By every possible measure the late televangelist Pat Robertson was a gifted and charismatic businessman. He died June 8 at the age of 93. He was ahead of his time, one might argue. And yet, he was far behind his own era. He made a career of inspiring

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mary Sanchez: In His Final Earthly Act, Pat Robertson Once Again Tests America’s Morality

      Jun 10, 2023

      By every possible measure the late televangelist Pat Robertson was a gifted and charismatic businessman. He died June 8 at the age of 93. He was ahead of his time, one might argue. And yet, he was far behind his own era. He made a career of inspiring

      3 min read

    • Article

      What I Told Congress Today About Anti-Semitism

      Jun 22, 2023

      Today, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress held a subcommittee hearing about “responding to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.” Given that this is politics and that the gathering was called by congressional Republicans, it naturally h

      5 min read

    • Article

      THE Meditations OF St.JACK

      Sep 28, 2021

      THE Meditations OF St.JACK
      32 min read

    • Article

      Will the Kavanaugh Saga Leave Bruises That Heal Or Permanent Scars?

      Oct 5, 2018

      The fight over the nomination rises from the emotional cauldron that boiled through the 2016 campaign and has simmered ever since.

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial

    4.5/5

    13 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This piece is from the LA Theatre Works, Alive and Aloud, which is “radio plays for learning in the classroom.” This piece, therefore, is audio.This audio selection presents an overview of the Scopes Monkey Trial that took place in the summer of 2015. The state of Tennessee had passed the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of anything other than Creation as the beginning of the Earth and life. Two famous people, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, argued the different sides. The author Peter Goodchild takes the lines from the original transcript with a narrator setting up the scenes and filling in gaps in order to shorten the presentation. The entire listening experience is less than two hours.In 1925, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) needed a way to challenge the law, so the leaders of Dayton, Tennessee, asked John Scopes, a local teacher to say that he taught evolution because they wanted the publicity to bring money and notoriety to the town. This step was merely the first. The ACLU knew the law would be upheld by a lower court, so they needed an appeal to send it to federal court. As desired, this case became hot. Many people had never heard of evolution; in fact, many couldn’t read. When Darrow and Bryan clash, the Creationists felt ridiculed. In the end, the trial becomes a struggle between social convention and science.If you’ve never heard of the Scopes Monkey Trial, you need to listen to this work by Mr. Goodchild. Even today, this argument still causes problems in education and with legislatures as they adopt textbooks. There is not opinion given, for the performance is straight from the transcripts. It’s performed by several famous actors, so you’re essentially listening to a play. This play, however, is true. I highly recommend listening and learning about this famous time in American history that continues to resonate to this day.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I have to admit I was not looking forward to finding a play to read for my book challenges. This audiobook came up through Sync this summer and I couldn't be more pleased.

      I would not have chosen this, but I enjoyed it. It was a full cast recording of a performance of the play. It lasted just long enough for 1 days' round trip commute.
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly acted and (for a Non-American, anyway) extremely educational. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      I’m not really sure how I feel about this play, to be quite honest. It’s an interesting subject, and full cast audios are the best, especially when they’re by LA Theatre Works and the actors are actually performing. However, simply based on the fact that it’s supposed to represent a historical event, I just didn’t like that I wasn’t sure which parts were dramatized and which were truly taken from the court records, especially when it came to dialogue. There were some parts that I feel like might have been added simply for entertainment/humor value, but if they weren’t, then that would have interested me in a completely different way, but I was never sure if any/all of it was true or made up.Besides that, it’s an interesting case that’s worth further study and thought. Since Andrew’s a teacher, and I studied education for my Master’s, the way law and social norms influence how and what we teach is incredibly interesting to me, so that helped a lot for pulling me into the story in general. This case also foreshadows a lot of the textbook wars we have present-day, so it’s fascinating to hear some of these first arguments for/against teaching evolution/religion. Very cool.However, I think it’d be better to actually see the play or read the book. It was hard for me to keep all the characters straight, and within the trial, I think it’s important to know who is speaking and who is making what argument (even though after a while, you can figure it out). Admittedly, I’m not the best when it comes to remembering details when I’m only getting information through audio, so if audio is your strong suit, then it might not be a problem for you.Overall, however, I think it was a good dramatization of the trial and it presented a lot of interesting factors that (like the description says) we’re still debating today, especially within education. I just think that I would have much preferred to read this than to listen to it, even with the full cast.Originally posted on Going on to the Next.
    • 4/5
      The more factual version of Inherit the Wind and just as powerful.
    • 4/5
      I love the film Inherit the Wind (the 1960 version with Spencer Tracy) so I was pleased to find this play about the Scopes trial as one of the 2016 SYNC audiobook offerings. While I enjoyed this audiobook, it didn't come across as a play but more as a full cast recording of a book due to the exposition of a "narrator" (used in the literature sense rather than the audiobook sense). I have difficulty imagining how it would work on stage.Still, I am glad to have learned a bit more about the case and the cast was terrific (especially Ed Asner and Jerry Hardin).Here is the full cast:Edward Asner as William Jennings BryanBill Brochtrup as EnsembleKyle Colerider-Krugh as EnsembleMatthew Patrick Davis as John Thomas ScopesJohn de Lancie as Clarence DarrowJames Gleason as H.L. MenckenHarry Groener as Dudley Field MaloneJerry Hardin as Judge John RaulstonGeoffrey Lower as Attorney General StewartMarnie Mosiman as the NarratorKenneth Alan Williams as Arthur Garfield Hays