Orcas Center has recently announced that auditions will be held for the play To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; the play will be produced February 2012, directed by Director Robert Hall.
The Orcas Center production is scheduled to perform February 10 – 18th, 2012 for Black History Month. It is another play in the series of Great Classics in Literature performed on the OffCenter Stage.
Those interested in performing in the play are asked to contact Director, Robert Hall directly for an individual audition by email at ocmockingbird@gmail.com
The Characters –
Jean Louis Finch – Scout as a grown up
Scout – young tom boy about 12 yrs.
Jem – her brother – around 12 yrs.
Atticus – their father, an attorney
Calpurnia – the housekeeper
Maudie Atkinson –
Stephanie Crawford –
Mrs. Dubose – a neighbor
Nathon Radley – Boo’s father
Arthur Radley – Boo
Dill – a young boy and friend to the kids – around 12 yrs.
Heck Tate – the sheriff
Reverend Sykes
Mayella Ewell – a young woman – the accuser
Bob Ewell – her father
Walter Cunningham – a father
Mr. Gilmer – the prosecutor
Tom Robinson – the accused
Helen Robinson – his wife
Pulitzer Prize winner Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, is loosely based on Lee’s family, Truman Capote, whom she remained friends with till his death, neighbors and an event that occurred in her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.
One critic explains the novel’s impact by writing, “In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism.”
The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in the fictional “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama. Jean Louise Finch, the narrator of the story takes back in time when she was called “Scout” as a child. Scout lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt for the summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive “Boo” Radley.
Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb’s citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability.
The primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird are racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in English-speaking countries with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice.
In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one “every adult should read before they die”. It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, the play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
What a profound book, play, movie and story this is. Gregory Peck told many tales of Harper Lee — see his Conversations with Gregory Peck video to get a sense of this great man — why not book the film as a complement to the play event? I’m excited to see Orcas Center produce this play.