You might think presiding over a courtroom prepares a judge for any kind of public speaking.

Two Gwinnett judges who've temporarily traded formal robes for actor's threads in the Lionheart Theatre Company's "Inherit the Wind" aren't so sure -- even though the 1955 play, based loosely on the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial," takes place in a courtroom.

In the real trial, high school teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching the theory of evolution in Tennessee, where that was against the law. He was defended by legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, who faced off against the equally legendary William Jennings Bryan in a fiery trial that lasted 11 days.

Onstage, State Court Judge John Doran Jr., who did theater in high school, plays Matthew Harrison Brady -- the character based on Bryan; Superior Court Judge Michael Clark makes his theatrical debut as ... the judge.

"The play is high drama throughout," Doran said. "In a real trial setting, the process is generally hours of boredom punctuated by moments of high drama.”

The two judicial stars talked recently with director Joe McLaughlin, Clark's former law partner, and Lionheart producing artistic director Tanya Carroll about the curious mix of theater and law in this play, which runs through Sunday at the Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center.

Although both judges are used to delivering persuasive oratory for their day jobs, pretending to do those things in front of a paying crowd isn't quite the same.

"It's harder to play a judge than be a judge," Clark said, because you're really selling someone else's words, not speaking your own mind. "I had to slip out of my character to play this character, who wears his feelings on his shoulder."

McLaughlin jumps in: "Mike never shows his feelings."

Is that why he wanted him for the job?

Clark laughs.

"What he said," Clark remembered, "was he didn't think I'd mess up that much. I thought, 'Hell -- judge? How hard can that be?' "

Famous last words.

With a theater coach, Clark said, he was able to learn how to let go of who he is and assume the mantle of who he's not. Then it became fun.

"John is the actor," Clark said. "I'm the marketing ploy.

"Doran got the acting bug in high school, in plays like Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," in which he played the lead.

The last time he took the stage was in 1996, when he shaved his head to play Daddy Warbucks in a production of "Annie" at Dacula High School.

"I hadn't thought much of doing community theater," Doran said. "But the opportunity to do 'Inherit the Wind' was just irresistible."

It gave him a chance to reconnect with Clarence Darrow, a lifelong hero on whom his stage opponent -- named Henry Drummond -- is modeled. And some 50 years after it came out, Doran said, the play is as timely as ever. The playwrights reconfigured the facts of the trial to suit their ends, he said, which were to protest the McCarthy witch hunts of the '50s.

"The eternal message," McLaughlin said, "is you can't just limit yourself to one idea; you have to entertain all ideas.

"For McLaughlin, his old partner's willingness to make his stage debut was an "act of faith" that has paid off. Many performances have been sold out, including this Saturday's and last Saturday's -- in which the Georgia Bar Association bought most of the 70 seats.

"I'm surprised at how hard this is and how much time it takes," Clark said. "But I'd probably do it again."