Based on the novel by Harper Lee
Adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel
Directed by Wendy Dann
BY the NUMB#RS
The Stage
BDO USA, LLP • Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP
Jackson Walker L.L.P. • Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
DallasTheaterCenter.org
19 Actors in the cast;
13 male, 6 female,
6 under the age of 12
Over 200 hours of rehearsal
71 sound cues
38 costumeS and
32 costume changes
Scoutinnocence
tolerance
lynch mob
Robinson
Jem prejudice
trash
white
entailments
Finch
Boo
trial
justice
ignorance
poor
courage
Atticus
fear
theStudyguide
The Show
4 LoCATIONS: 1 court house,
2 homes, 1 street (Main Street)
60 SHeetS of Lauan Plywood to
create of 90 planks
4000+ linear feet of planking
4 types of painted wood
to cover the planks
100 sHeETS of plywood to create
6 levels on stage
poverty
racism
Dill
cowards Radley
1 co-production Two or more
theater companies working
together.
2 Theater Companies Dallas
Theater Center and Casa Mañana
2 Opening Nights September
23rd and October 28th
36 miles on I-30 to get to
Casa Mañana from
Dallas Theater Center
Over 50 trips made from theater
to theater by DTC staff
discrimination
Good Neighbors
AT&T Performing Arts Center • Wyly Theatre
A co-production with Casa Mañana Theatre
Tom
To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in the
tiny fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama.
The story is told from Scout Finch’s perspective, a six-year-old girl who
lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a
middle-aged lawyer. The children are terrified of (and fascinated by)
their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley, and they dream
about how to get him to come out of his house.
Meanwhile, much to the disapproval of their neighbors, Atticus is
appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has
been accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella Ewell.
As Scout and Jem witness their father’s struggle to defend a helpless
man, ignorance and fear threaten to destroy the moral foundation on
which Atticus Finch has built his life; simple human kindness.
In a place and time where family and neighbors are
divided by racism, classism and hate, Scout and Jem
learn about the power of compassion and what it truly
is to be courageous... from the unlikeliest of teachers.
Dallas Theater Center would like to recognize the generosity of our major corporate partners.
Alon USA • Chase • Southwest Securities • Target • t howard + associates • Well Fargo
FOLLOW
US ON:
Celebrating 25 years of Project Discovery
Scout
Atticus
Boo
Name: Jean-Louise Finch, a.k.a. Scout
Age: 6
Hometown: Maycomb, AL Identifying Traits: Scruffy
tom-boy; wears overalls; quicktempered; always asking
questions; brave.
Hobbies: Reading; following her
big brother Jem around; avoiding
their crabby next door neighbor, Mrs.
Dubose; investigating Boo Radley. Dislikes: Dresses, being called
names, disappointing Atticus
Name: Atticus Finch
Age: Mid 40s
Hometown: Maycomb, AL
Identifying Traits: Tall;
dark hair; glasses; single parent;
serious; kind and just.
Hobbies: Reading; legal work
for welfare families; raising his
children.
Name: Arthur Radley,
a.k.a Boo
Age: 30-something
Hometown:
Maycomb, AL Identifying
Traits: 6’6”; long,
jagged scar across his face;
bloodstained hands.
Hobbies: Cutting newspaper;
staying indoors during the
day; eating squirrels and cats (!);
wandering the streets of Maycomb at
night; drooling.
Dislikes: People; sunlight*.
As narrator of this story, the
innocence, curiosity and smarts of
Jean-Louise Finch create a perfect
lens through which to see the
world of Maycomb.
Although To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography, author Harper
Lee and her young heroine, Jean-Louise Finch, have much in common.
✔ Both were born in a small Alabama town during The Great Depression.
If Scout is the character with
whom the audience travels,
Atticus serves as the guide,
traversing the changing
culture of their small town
with a focus on integrity that
his children can believe in.
Atticus: I’m simply defending a Negro, Tom Robinson. Now, Scout, there are some
things that you’re not old enough to understand just yet. There’s been high talk
around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man.
Scout: Atticus, do you think Boo Radley ever comes and
looks in my window? Jem says he does. This afternoon
when we were over by their house –
Atticus: For a number of reasons. The main one is that, if I didn’t, I couldn’t hold
my head up in town. I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.
Scout: You mean Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you any more?
✔ Each befriended a mischievous, eccentric boy from the neighborhood.
Scout’s pal Dill has much in common with Lee’s lifelong friend and
fellow author Truman Capote, who was sent to live with relatives in
Monroeville at a young age.
Scout: Why?
✔ T
hey both developed a passion for reading at a young age. In an essay
Lee wrote in 2007 she explains, “My mother read me a story every
day, usually a children’s classic, and my father read from the four
newspapers he got through every evening.”
At the outset of the story, Boo represents the
unknown, the mysteries of childhood, an element
of difference, set wholly apart from the rest of the
community.
Scout: If you shouldn’t be defending him, then why are you doing it?
✔ Like Scout, Lee was a tomboy who spent much of her childhood playing
with her older brother.
✔ Harper Lee grew up watching her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, defend
others as a lawyer in the courts, much like Scout cheers on her father
Atticus during the trial of Tom Robinson. Lee’s father was unsuccessful
in defending a black man and his son who were accused of murder in
the 1930s.
*Based on speculation and stories from neighborhood children.
Atticus: Scout. I told you and Jem to leave those poor
people alone. I want you to stay away from their house
and stop tormenting them.
Atticus: That’s about right.
Atticus: Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the
nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him
personally. This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk this summer. But
do one thing for me if you will: No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let ‘em
get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change… it’s a good one.
Atticus’ defense of Tom Robsinson is similar to many real-life trials that took
place in the South during Harper Lee’s childhood. The Scottsboro Boys Trial
was the most famous at that time, and involved nine young African-American
men who were convicted and sentenced to death after two white women
falsely accused them of rape. Four of the boys were released from prison six
years later when one of the women withdrew her testimony.
Scout, and her brother, Jem, fear Boo Radley, but
cannot stay away from him—despite their father’s
disapproval. They are fascinated with this man,
who they have never met or even seen, imagining
his entire history based on local gossip. What is the
mystery behind the Radley's door? And what will be
discovered when Boo finally opens it?
As the story progresses, the children's changing
attitude towards Boo measures their growth from
innocence towards a mature, moral perspective.
A BIRD in TIME 1949
1957
her editor, Tay Hohoff of J.B.
Lippincott Company, who orders
her to retrieve the materials
immediately.
1961
1999
1955
1958
1960
1962
2006
A chronology of
HARPER LEE and
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
1926
Nelle Harper Lee is born in
Monroeville, Alabama.
1931
The Scottsboro Boys go to trial.
Lee quits law school and
moves to New York City to
become a writer.
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old
African-American boy is
murdered by a gang of white men
for whistling at a white woman.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her
seat on a Montgomery bus.
Lee submits her manuscript of
To Kill a Mockingbird, but is
asked to rewrite it.
Frustrated and furious with
her novel’s lack of progress,
Lee opens a window in her New
York City apartment and hurls
the draft of her manuscript
out into the snow. She calls
To Kill a Mockingbird is
published. The book is an
instant success!
At the age of 35, Lee is
awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for To Kill a Mockingbird.
Gregory Peck visits Monroeville
to research his upcoming film
role as Atticus Finch.
Library Journal votes To Kill a
Mockingbird the “best novel of
the twentieth century.”
For the first time in years Lee
publishes a piece in O Magazine
entitled “A Letter to Oprah from
Harper Lee” where she defends
the value of books and reading.
2010
50th Anniversary of Publication:
President Barack Obama awards
Harper Lee for her outstanding
contribution to American
literature.