{"id":912,"date":"2009-02-21T07:47:19","date_gmt":"2009-02-21T12:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=912"},"modified":"2009-03-28T18:13:09","modified_gmt":"2009-03-28T22:13:09","slug":"bobby-and-the-chimps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=912","title":{"rendered":"Bobby and the Chimps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dang, I wished I lived closer to the Tampa area. It looks an interesting little play is going to cause a big stir there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TAMPA – What are the two subjects you don’t discuss at the dinner table in America?<\/p>\n

Religion and politics, of course.<\/p>\n

And that’s just what playwright-director James Phillips delves into in his new play, “Bobby and the Chimps,” opening next week at the University of South Florida. The story, set in 2008 in Bethlehem, Pa., revolves around a man running for the school board. There’s a lot of infighting within his campaign team over the debate about whether to teach evolution or creationism in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Why would Phillips attempt such potential folly? Because Phillips is from England, where the meshing of these two combustible subjects rarely causes a stir.<\/p>\n

“It just wouldn’t be an issue back home,” he acknowledges. “This is really an American story.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If anyone is in the area and attends this play, please consider reporting back here to us about how it went. Heck, just the signs advertising the play are drawing fire!<\/p>\n

It’s already caused a bit of a stir on campus. A display at the entrance of the campus library promoting the upcoming play and its controversial theme has triggered a few complaints. Richards’ phone number is now posted nearby, so he can assure the offended callers that both sides of the issue are represented in the production.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dang, I wished I lived closer to the Tampa area. It looks an interesting little play is going to cause a big stir there. TAMPA – What are the two subjects you don’t discuss at the dinner table in America? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-eI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":251,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=251","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":0},"title":"How can evolutionary cousins be so different?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a good little essay on the relationship between humans and chimps in the Naples Daily News. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been known for more than 30 years that human beings and chimpanzees have more than 98 percent of their genes in common. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right. As far as our genes are concerned,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1521,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1521","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":1},"title":"Dueling letters","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been an interesting series of letters in the Naples Daily News these past few weeks about evolution and creationism. It started with Dr. Malnak's letter April 11 in which he promotes evolution and dismisses creationism. Mr. Dudley then attacks Malnak's arguments by claiming that DNA studies show how impossible\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 15 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 15 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1521#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1157,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1157","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":2},"title":"Sen. Storms faces challenge","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"State Senator Ronda Storms, who we know quite well from her attempts to water down evolution education, is being challenged in the Republican primary. What odds do you give her new opponent? An attorney from Valrico is challenging state Sen. Ronda Storms in the Republican primary contest for her District\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=776","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":3},"title":"Charley and Emma in Tampa","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an interesting event going on in Tampa: CHARLEY AND EMMA by William Leavengood, Monday November 17, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. The Gorilla Reading Series presents Charley and Emma, a new play by William Leavengood, in a staged reading directed by James Rayfield. CHARLEY AND EMMA is about the tumultuous\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1709,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1709","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":4},"title":"10.13.12 This & That","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"-- UCF receives $1.8 million for new program to encourage students to study math, science: \"The UCF\u00c2\u00a0program aims to recruit students\u00c2\u00a0partly by offering some freshmen a\u00c2\u00a0course\u00c2\u00a0that will introduce them to a variety of STEM-related careers.\u00c2\u00a0Students who take the class, which will be offered for free to those who have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1518,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1518","url_meta":{"origin":912,"position":5},"title":"Can the science FCAT be defended?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tampa Bay Times education blog, The Gradebook, published an e-mail exchange that was sparked by Robert Krampf's (the Happy Scientist) critique of the science FCAT. The Department of Education tries to defend the test and not very well, I think. Krampf's points are definitely still valid. Also, NPR's StateImpact\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}