“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” ― Harper Lee
Starting September 29th, the theatre departments of Ouachita and Henderson will premiere a production that hasn’t been done in years. A joint production of To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Dr. Claudia Beach, Director of Theatre and Professor of Theatre Arts at Henderson.
“I have been in love with play since I was a little girl. Scout was my idol. I was Scout. I was a tomboy,” Beach said. “The story really has always meant something to me. It had been pushed back in my memory.”
The memory came back after taking a road trip vacation to Key West and stopping in Monroeville, Alabama, the home of Harper Lee. Each year the town puts on To Kill a Mockingbird with the first half being outside on the courthouse lawn and the second half inside.
“We discovered it and thought, ‘oh, it would be so cool to see it there,’ but it had been sold out for months.” Beach said. “Apparently you have to get tickets in January if you want to see it in August. That’s how it came back to remind me that I really loved it.”
Two of the main characters are Scout and Jem, played by OBU freshman BFA Musical Theatre major, Emma Pitts and freshman Theatre Education major, Graham Garrison.
“My character is an older brother of Scout. He’s very protective and very loving. He’s a child, so he will be childish at times, but he’s still that older brother figure so he has to act like the grown up at some points,” Garrison said.
“Scout is a spunky young girl who is surrounded by very adult ideas, and because of this she has an interesting understanding of the world around her,” Pitts said. “I think the most interesting part about Scout is her relationship with her father, Atticus.”
As freshmen, the production will mark the first Garrison and Pitts first time performing, not only at Ouachita, but also at a college level.
“I’m definitely looking forward to the audience and their reactions. This is my first college performance and I’m used to small private school little audiences. “ Garrison said. “I am very excited to see how different it’s going to be, the opportunities that can come from this, what I can get from this in the future and what I can learn.”
For Dr. Beach the most difficult part was the technical side. Directing a play that will take place on two different stages, at two different schools takes lots of planning to make the switch as easy as possible.
“The whole time I was plotting out the movement of the actors and how the scenery would work, in the back of my mind I’ve been thinking okay that entrance will have to come from here at Henderson,” Beach said. “Luckily, I have an incredible cast that are doing a marvelous job. I haven’t needed to work as much with them as I might, so when dealing with those technical things I’ve had time to think about them.”
While the literary classic is known worldwide, the play offers viewers a different look on an old-time favorite.
“For people who have read the book or watched the movie this show will have many similarities because the characters are still the characters that we all know and love,” Pitts said.
“The book has a lot that the stage version can’t have just because it’s practically impossible to put it in there. Like we can’t have a burning house on stage,” Garrison said. “It condenses it into a shorter amount of time than the book because the book spans a few months where as the play is like a few days, but other than that it is pretty true to the book.”
So why should you come see To Kill a Mockingbird?
“Even though it’s based off 1930s, it still applies to today. There are a lot of social issues that still run rampant,” Garrison said. “It shows how that just because a person is different or does things differently than we find normal, that doesn’t mean they are any less human than the rest of us.”
“It’s this classic story, that with everything that has been happening lately, just hearing the wisdom of Atticus Finch as he teaches his children. I think we need to hear,” Beach said.
To Kill a Mockingbird will be Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. and October 2 at 2:30 p.m. at OBU’s Verser Theatre and at HSU Oct. 6-8 and Oct.10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Arkansas Hall Studio Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased from the OBU or HSU box offices or online at www.obu.edu/boxoffice.
For more information, call the OBU Box Office at (870) 245-5555 or the HSU Box Office at (870) 230-5291 during business hours.
By Riley Madlock, Student Writer
