By Joe Pinchot
SHENANGO VALLEY — Joseph Scarvell has directed plays with Sam Perry in the cast since Perry was a student at Farrell Area High School more than 40 years ago.
They don’t always see eye to eye, but they respect each others’ abilities and have no qualms about working together.
With the tables turned in “Inherit the Wind,” which Perry is directing for the Youngstown Playhouse, Perry has learned things about his mentor.
“I’m learning some things about Joe as far as his technique in the way he does things, which are totally opposite in the way I do things, to construct a character,” Perry said.
Scarvell, of Hubbard Township, works out the character in his head before he utters a word. Perry likes to work things out in rehearsal, trying different approaches until he settles on what he wants.
“I just open my mouth and go,” Perry said. “Joe works a hell of a lot harder than I do.”
As a director, Perry is charged with making the big decisions about how the play is presented, and he and Scarvell haven’t agreed on all of his decisions about Scarvell’s character.
“We have definitely butted heads, but we butt heads when the roles are reversed,” said Perry, 61, of Farrell.
Scarvell has been an actor, director and crew member of Youngstown Playhouse productions since 1959, and asked Perry to direct “Inherit the Wind,” which runs this weekend and next.
However, Scarvell had to audition to get his role.
“He’s doing a real nice job,” Perry said.
Perry cast other actors with local ties, including Chris Ferencik of Farrell, Larry Latsko of Sharon, Mason Stuard, a Kennedy Catholic High School student, and Scarvell’s grandson, Brandon Studer.
Although Perry has experienced and noted actors in the cast, he did not have enough actors to fill all 27 roles.
He cut some roles, had actors double up on others, and he is even acting in a small part.
While the size of the cast likely is a factor in the difficulty of attracting enough actors, Perry said the state of the Youngstown Playhouse probably has caused some actors to shy away.
Although the Playhouse has been around for more than 85 years and has played a role in the development of professional entertainment careers — Ed O’Neil of television’s “Modern Family” and “Married With Children” acted at the Playhouse — it has struggled of late.
The Playhouse shut down for a good part of last year because of financial problems, sold off many of its props and lost a lot of its technical staff. A new artistic director has been hired, and Playhouse officials are trying to rebuild.
“It’s seat-of-the-pants theater right now,” Perry said.
That adds to the pressure on the director. The last actor to accept a role did so two weeks ago, the weather wiped out a week of rehearsals — Perry hosted rehearsals with key cast members at his Sharon art studio during the worst of the storms — and the entire cast could not make a rehearsal until last week.
“When you’re doing a community theater thing, you have to let people live their lives,” he said.
Perry bemoaned that he could not spend as much time with individual actors as he would have liked, because he has so many to deal with.
He also stripped down the set, cut back on the number of props, and limited set changes.
“It’s not going to be your standard ‘Inherit the Wind,’” he said, noting the play appeared on Broadway. “I don’t like big, fancy shows with all the hoopla.”
The non-standard “Inherit the Wind” suits Perry’s aesthetic as an actor, but it also focuses attention on the performers.
“I’m trying to make it an actor’s show,” he said.
The play was written in 1955 by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and is based on the Scopes monkey trial of 1926, where a Tennessee teacher was prosecuted for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The playwrights refashioned the story as a metaphor for a debate over mind control in the era of the McCarthy witch hunts and anti-Communist fervor.
Perry, who loves controversial, edgy and thought-provoking theater productions, said the play resonates in our modern political climate of red states and blue states.
“The debate’s still going on,” he said. “It will go on long after we’re gone.”
“Inherit the Wind” will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and March 19 and 20, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and March 21. Patrons who bring two nonperishable food items will be admitted at a discounted ticket price. The food will be donated to the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, Youngstown. Reservations and information: 330-788-8739.
