For director Tom Huston Orr, staging “To Kill a Mockingbird” presented a number of challenges. The biggest — a six-letter word that starts with “n.”
“[I thought],’ We have to deal with this word for the next five weeks — how do we do this?” Orr said.
University Theatre’s production of the play adapted from the novel by Harper Lee opens tonight in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre, with an adaptation by Christopher Sergel that is grittier than the film version, Orr said.
Despite some misconceptions, “this is not a children’s story,” he said.
To prepare for the play’s themes of racial injustice, Orr brought in several civil rights speakers and tried to broaden the concept of equality to its aboriginal foundations.
“You forget that the civil rights movement began a long time ago,” he said.
All that led up to the hurdle of that electrified word — a hurdle that theater gets to transcend, Orr said.
“In the theater, we have the privilege of not being afraid of words,” he said. “In the beginning, the word was strange and unfamiliar, [but] now the word doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s just another word.”
The intent behind words can transform them into something else, but“Mockingbird” is a reminder that rights are not a given, Orr said.
At the center of the struggle for rights are altruistic lawyer Atticus Finch and the accused, Tom Robinson, played by drama seniors Paul Stuart and Jonathan Hooks, respectively.
The two didn’t know each other that well until recently, when both participated in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., but the ensuing friendship segued nicely into their performances, Stuart said.
“There’s this connection between us that is really fitting for this play,” he said. “This relationship doesn’t take up much of the story, but there is an intimacy between them.”
For Hooks, who grew up in an interracial family, the character of Atticus Finch is a reminder of his own grandfather, who raised his children to always respect people, he said. “Mockingbird” tells a story that is undeniably personal.
“For the first time since I’ve been here, it’s just cool to see stories being told that your body already tells,” Hooks said.
In addition to Stuart and Hooks — who have a rapport that makes it “like watching surgery,” Orr said — the play stars 13-year-old Alyssa Danley from Edmond in a guest role as Scout, Atticus Finch’s daughter.
In staging the production, it had to stay very freeform, as the thrust stage featured in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre is not the kind of stage this play is usually performed on, Orr said. Simply trying things and seeing if they worked became a necessity, but ultimately Orr wanted a show free from artifice that let the message stand out, he said.
“There is such a reverence for this material and this particular book,” Orr said. “It’s moving [just] to listen to the words. In many ways, the play [itself] carries it. The message makes you rise.”
“To Kill a Mockingbird” opens at 8 tonight in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre and runs through Feb. 21.
Ticket information
What: “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Where: Weitzenhoffer Theatre
563 Elm Ave. in Norman
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
3 p.m. Sundays
Tonight through Feb. 21
Tickets: $22 for adults
$18 for seniors/staff
$14 for students
Call 325-4101
All shows sold out — added performance Feb 20 at 3 p.m. on sale now.
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mustafa 2 years, 3 months ago
I don’t understand the Left's infatuation with this story.
In order to cover her shame, a woman falsely accuses a man of rape, (something the Left assures us is impossible). Aticus Finch responds by putting the rape victim on trial.
Later Finch demonstrates the incorrect thinking on capital punishment; mad dogs need to be put to death not rehabilitated.
TheTroll 2 years, 3 months ago
Trolling's an art.
TheTroll 2 years, 3 months ago
You are so ridiculous mustafa.
mustafa 2 years, 3 months ago
Oh.. a typical non-answer from The Troll ( I thought that is what I am?)
So this performance is going to be edgy by insinuating a homosexual attraction between Atticus and Tom? Why not be really edgy and have the rape accusation made by a guy?