Few things are more contentious in modern American society than faith: specifically, conservative Christianity and the way it has shaped our lives and our politics. But how did we get to where we are today? How have people in other times and places responded to issues like those we face today? And what does the Bible actually say?
Enter The Foundation Project.
Over each of the next four years, The Foundation Project will produce
No matter your beliefs or background, our hope is that you will find these productions to be educational, revealing, and thought-provoking.
a staged reading commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Scopes Trial
written by Peter Goodchild
directed by Erin Vago
CLICK HERE for audition info!
Auditions: May 24, 2025 @ 11AM-1PM
Performance: July 18, 2025 @ 6PM
Performance to be held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster, PA
Exactly 100 years ago, John Scopes went on trial in Dayton, Tennessee for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school classroom. A media circus erupted when three-time presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, who had not practiced law in decades, volunteered his services as the prosecuting attorney. To the shock of everyone present, defense attorney Clarence Darrow called Bryan himself up to the witness stand on the last day of the trial...to testify as an expert witness on the Bible. The resulting debacle has often been viewed by historians as a setback that lasted nearly half-a-century for the nascent American Christian fundamentalist movement. Famously dramatized (and fictionalized) in Inherit the Wind, Peter Goodchild's The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial does something different: it uses the actual trial transcripts to tell the story.
March 22, 2025 @ 3PM & 7PM -- St. John's Episcopal Church, Lancaster PA
conceived and performed by Benjamin Wesley
co-produced by Joanna Becker
featuring choreography by Alysha Argot
In my first self-produced show, I licensed the Common English Bible translation of Ecclesiastes to perform as a circus-themed one-man show, titled Wind-Chasing.
An ancient work of "wisdom literature," Ecclesiastes contrasts wisdom and foolishness, but it can also be very critical of "wisdom" itself and cynical towards the world and God. To emphasize these themes, I dressed up as a jester being exhibited as a sideshow: THE WISEST MAN IN THE WORLD.