To Kill a Mockingbird

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

adapted by CHRISTOPHER SERGEL

from the novel by HARPER LEE

directed by JANELLE COOPER

ABOUT THE SHOW

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird opens in a sleepy Alabama town in the midst of the Great Depression, where Scout and her brother, Jem, live with their widowed father, Atticus Finch. Reminiscent of a bygone era, the play immerses us in a simpler time as the children play outside in the summer, act out stories and muse about their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. The facade of the seemingly peaceful town begins to crack when a young black man is accused of a terrible crime. Driven by an unshakeable moral conviction, local lawyer Atticus defends the man in a trial that sends violent waves through the community. Timeless and lingering, this hard-hitting work explores prejudice, compassion and the courage to do what is right.

A title known the world over, To Kill a Mockingbird features one of literature’s towering symbols of integrity and righteousness in the character of Atticus Finch, based on Harper Lee’s own father. The character of Scout, based on Lee herself, has come to define youthful innocence—and its inevitable loss—for generation after generation of readers around the world. In a Library of Congress survey on books that have most affected people’s lives, To Kill a Mockingbird was second only to the Bible. In 1999, American librarians named it the “Best Novel of the Twentieth Century.” Harper Lee’s open-hearted dissection of justice and tolerance in the American South will be brought vividly to life on the StoryBook stage.book by THOMAS MEEHAN