The latest production by Open Window Theatre in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, deals with “a lot of hot button political, moral issues of our times,” said the theater’s executive artistic director Jeremy Stanbary.
“The Originalist” focuses on late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whose character is represented “very faithfully and forthrightly in the show,” Stanbary said.
Jeremy Stanbary
“The premise of the play is he hires what he calls a ‘counter clerk,’ … a self-described flaming liberal law clerk,” Stanbary said. “And the play is a lot about their … sparring on the issues.”
Stanbary recently spoke with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley about Open Window Theatre’s new season and performance of “The Originalist,” which runs Sept. 30-Oct. 30.
Scalia was known for hiring liberal law clerks on occasion, Stanbary said. “He really valued passionate debate from all angles,” he said. “He wanted his ideas to be challenged because he was so confident in his beliefs, his ideas. And he saw passionate debate as a way to continually sharpen his sword.”
All things being equal, Scalia sometimes chose a liberal law clerk to help the person learn how to rule on the text versus the emotion, Stanbary said.
Scalia had a great sense of humor, so the play, released in 2015, is hard hitting and substantive but also funny, Stanbary said. “You see his deep religious faith come out in the play and how that affects his law clerk at a moment of crisis in her life,” he said.
The beauty of the show is demonstrating that people can have passionate disagreement and debate on issues while still respecting one another’s inherent human dignity — and even befriending one’s opponent in the process, Stanbary said. He believes part of the play’s inspiration was the close friendship between Scalia and the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, considered a leader of the high court’s liberal wing.
Ginsberg and Scalia loved and respected each other, Stanbary said, providing an example of loving one’s enemy. “And we’re never going to convince anyone by the louder we yell at them,” he said. “We’re going to help convince people of truth through reasoned debate, but also showing concern for them, love for them as a person, as a child of God.”
The theater’s season will end with performances of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which Stanbary said is “perhaps the greatest play from the American stage.” “We have a fantastic cast lined up for that show,” he said.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Fathers Robert Kennedy and Tony O’Neill, who discuss the seven fundamental themes of Catholic social teaching; and Father David Blume, director of the Office for Vocations for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who describes upcoming events for young men considering religious life.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired at:
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