Gary L. Anderson's NAKED DARROW to Play Drilling Company, 6/5-30

"Naked Darrow," written and performed by Gary L. Anderson, looks at America's most hated and revered attorney, Clarence Darrow, as his great mind slips away. The play, based on the most current and intimate details of Darrow's private life, is a new and revelatory portrait of the man, not the legend. It presents an end-of-life scenario that will bring a shock of recognition to audiences who have, or may have imagined, their own struggle to face aging and to leave a legacy that may endure. River District Theatre presents the play's first full production June 5 to 30 at The Drilling Company Theatre, 236 West 78th Street, 3 fl.

Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) confounded titles: he was a freethinker, hedonist, anarchist, infidel, cynic, and master storyteller. He was best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb (1924) and for defending John T. Scopes, a Tennesee schoolteacher who taught evolution, in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial (1925). In the latter, he opposed William Jennings Bryan, the devout Christian orator and enemy of the gold standard, who had been three times a presidential candidate on the Populist ticket. Called a "sophisticated country lawyer," Darrow was notorious for his wit and agnosticism, which marked him among America's most famous lawyers and civil libertarians. He took on racism, social injustice and the death penalty, all the while haunted and scarred by personal demons.

While other plays on Clarence Darrow have portrayed him at earlier points in his career, this portrait is of an older, struggling Darrow at 79. In an end-of-life scenario, Darrow is being kept in seclusion by his family, who are concerned with his health and his legacy as he is moved from one experimental clinic to another. Darrow, however, fiercely refuses to submit to the trappings of old age and death, all the while knowing the odds are once more against him. He remains, to the end, loyal to his motto, "Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for."

Slipping into either dementia or Alzheimer's disease, he talks candidly--and at times unawares--about his cases, addressing the audience directly as if addressing a jury. He recalls clients he saved from execution, including the bombers of the Los Angeles Times building who killed 21 men; his fight against racism, his resistance to attacks on unions and his celebrity child murder trials--cases that reflect issues that are still eerily current in today's headlines. He revisits episodes of professional fearlessness and personal recklessness, his bouts of drinking, his beloved mistress and his jury tampering charges, even as his memories elude him. With his mind racing between the decades of his past, he recalls his mother, father, and childhood sweetheart, reliving episodes from his childhood, recalling episodes from his life at various ages from 16 to 79.

The play is performed to a basson score composed by Rich McKinney.

Darrow was the early 20th Century's greatest legal warrior for social justice. Wherever he went, an electric charisma seemed to cling to him. His eloquent courtroom speeches swayed jurors, attracted women and brought judges to tears. He defended murderers, child killers, the reviled and the abominable. The press called him "Attorney for the Damned" and the "Lion of the Courtroom" while religious fundamentalists called him "The Great Infidel." His clients, often poor and defenseless, were vilified in the press and hated by the vast majority of Americans, but he saved 102 men, women and children from death and never lost a client to the executioner. He was their voice when no other voices dare rise in their defense. He made each case important by tying the fate of one lonely persecuted outcast into the entire notion of America and its humanity and freedom, that we might challenge our fears and actually try to live the dreams of equality by realizing that we are all brothers.

Gary L. Anderson is a much-lauded national portrayer of the legendary attorney and folk hero. His performance as Darrow has been compared to Holbrook's Mark Twain in newspapers across the country. He starred as Clarence Darrow in Idaho Public Television's documentary, "Assassination: Idaho's Trial of the Century," now airing nationally on PBS. An award-winning actor, he has also appeared in several television series including "Raven," "Marker," "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries."

Anderson is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of River District Theatre in Wausau, WI (www.riverdistricttheatre.org), which is devoted to works dealing with issues of racism and social justice. His last drama, "Convict Race: Lucasville," focuses on our country's longest prison uprising in Ohio in 1993. Mr. Anderson visits the five men on Death Row as a result of their murder convictions stemming from it. An earlier version of that play was produced in NYC in the New York International Fringe Festival in 2008. It has toured 17 cities since 2007.

Anderson is also the playwright of "Lovers and Patriots: The Love Story of John and AbiGail Adams" and "I, Whistler: His Life, Art and Women." He has recently started the outline for a new play, "Trial by a Jury of Our Fears," based on his having been wrongfully accused of crimes almost two decades ago. He is CEO of The Clarence Darrow Foundation, a 36-year old nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of public service law, pro bono work, equal justice for all and the ideals of Clarence Darrow. Mr. Anderson authors Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs for attorneys, public defenders, judicial colleges, judges associations, criminal defense lawyers, trial lawyers associations, and tours law schools.

This production was originally directed by Richard Cook, Artistic Director of Park Square Theater, St. Paul Minnesota. Dramaturg for the New York production is Maggie Lally. Set design is by Daniel Ettinger. Lighting design is by Eric Nightengale. Sound designis by Michael Keck.

Rich McKinney (composer) has worked with playwright/actor Gary Anderson on numerous productions over many years. He grew up in Granite City, Illinois, where he majored in voice and minored in piano, earning a Bachelor of Music degree and later earning a Master of Arts degree in music education with a concentration in composition. His choral works have been published by five different publishing houses. His music has been performed In the United States and in Great Britain, notably at Waltham Abbey, as well as Cambridge and Oxford Universities. He was a music critic for six seasons during the Symphony and Opera seasons in Honolulu for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin while serving as director of music for the First United Methodist Church of Honolulu. Mr. McKinney currently resides in Kirksville, Missouri, where he directs various musical groups and continues to write and arrange music.

The show will run June 5 to 30, 2013 at The Drilling Company Theatre, 236 West 78th Street, 3 fl., Presented by River District Theatre. Schedule: Wed 6/5 at 8:00 PM, Fri 6/7 at 8:00 PM, Sat 6/8 at 2:00 PM, Sun 6/9 at 7:00 PM, Wed 6/12 at 3:00 PM, Th 6/13 at 8:00 PM, Sat 6/15 at 2:00 PM, Sun 6/16 at 7:00 PM, Mon 6/17 at 8:00 PM, Tu 6/18 at 8:00 PM, Wed 6/19 at 3:00 PM, Sat 6/22 at 2:00 PM & 8, Sun 6/23 at 7:00 PM, Mon 6/24 at 8:00 PM, Wed 6/26 at 3:00 PM, Th 6/27 at 8:00 PM, Sat 6/29 at 2:00 PM, Sun 6/30 at 7:00 PM.

Tickets $25 gen. adm., $15 seniors & Students. Box office: Smarttix (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com. Running time: 90 minutes. Critics are invited on or after June 7.

Pictured: Gary L. Anderson as Clarence Darrow. Photo Credit: Petronella J. Ytsma.

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