NSU takes on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

You could say fate led Dr. Stanley Coleman to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The Nicholls State University speech and theatre assistant professor found himself in Lee’s hometownnMonroeville, Ala.nlast year on a road trip.

Coleman was traveling to Montgomery for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival when he stopped near the town that influenced Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

“I heard that Harper Lee, who is now in her 80s, and her sister were still living together in Monroeville and had to go there,” he said. “I’m told she’s still practicing law there, something her father did.”

Although Coleman didn’t get to stay long enough to see the town reenact the play, he did tour the courthousena near exact replica of which is featured in the movie production featuring Gregory Peck.

It wasn’t long after his return that Coleman read of a joint production of the play by two South Alabama high schoolsnone predominantly white, the other predominantly black.

“That makes a very broad statement given the big themes of this play,” the professor said, “especially in the South.”

Lee’s work tackles complex themes that continue to plague the South today.

“I don’t think any of this gets old,” Coleman said. “It speaks of race, justice, tolerance, even sexual preferences.”

With that in mind, Coleman’s Nicholls Players will present “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the NSU Tablot Theater March 15-17 and March 18.

Tickets are on sale at NSU Mass Communications Office. General admission is $10 or $5 for students.

Surprisingly, Coleman discovered many of the students trying out for the play were unfamiliar with Lee’s novel or the film. The play, which was dramatized by Christopher Sergel, is relatively new, having reached Broadway in the 1990s.

“I was shocked that most of them had never read the book,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that students growing up in the South aren’t familiar with this work.”

But that’s quickly changing.

From the outset, students have found the work “challenging, eye-opening and intriguing.”

The play, like the book, is told from the point of view of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the young daughter of Atticus Finch. Set in the fictional small town of Maycomb, Ala., the coming of age story traces Scout, her brother Jem, and a mutual friend Charles Baker “Dill” Harris.

Dill comes to live in the neighborhood for the summer, and the trio begins acting out stories together. It doesn’t take long for Dill to become captivated by a spooky house on their street called the Radley House. One of the home’s residents, Arthur “Boo” Radley never ventures out in the daylight and rumors fly as a result of his reclusiveness.

Maycomb finds itself embroiled in the trial of a young black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping a white woman.

Atticus Finch is appointed to defend Tom, for whom a guilty verdict from an all-white jury is a foregone conclusion.

The children’s hit and run relationship with Boo Radley counters the preconceived views of race relations played out in the courtroom.

And as Atticus reminds his daughter, “You never know someone until you step inside their skin and walk around a little.”

“To Kill a Mockingbird” forces young Scout and Jem to eventually confront an evil born of ignorance and blind hatred on their way home from a Halloween party. It is Boo who comes to their aid when the truth about the “rape” comes to light and the real suspect encounters the children.

Ultimately, Scout embraces her father’s advice. With the realization that Boo, too, is human, she adopts Atticus’ views, practicing sympathy and understanding and not letting her experiences with hatred and prejudice sully her faith in human goodness.

On the NSU stage, Coleman said most of the action will play out on the courthouse lawn and inside the courtroom.

The story is recounted by the adult Scout, played by Laura Templet. Thibodaux fourth grader Tessa LaFleur plays young Scout. She is joined by Thibodaux sixth grader Tatum Gehbauer as Dill and Houma eighth grader Bryant Scott as Jem.

The cast also includes Joe Pierce as Atticus Finch; Tristan Robert as Boo Radley; Irvin Williams as Tom Robinson; and Toni Lynn Guidry as Mayella Ewell, the woman who was allegedly raped. And Tyrone Van Buren, Kristin Adolf and Dominique Clark are called upon to sing show-stopping black spirituals.

To purchase tickets or for more information, call (985) 448-4586.