Auditions – “To Kill A Mockingbird”

PRODUCTION DESCRIPTION

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.

To Kill A Mockingbird is set in the Depression Era South. This play contains racially-charged language and adult content, including several references to rape and sexual assault

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is produced by special arrangement with Dramatic Publishing, Woodstock, Illinois.

CHARACTER LISTING

Children:

• Jean Louise Finch (Scout) – Female 9-12. A young girl about to experience the events that will shape the rest of her life. She should, ideally, seem as young as nine. Scout is courageous and forthright. If a question occurs to her, she’ll ask it. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Jeremy Finch (Jem) – Male 13-15. He is a few years older than his sister Scout, and like his sister – perhaps even more than his sister – he’s reaching out to understand their unusual and thus not conventionally admirable father. Probably the strongest undercurrent in Jem is his desire to communicate with his father. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Charles Baker Harris (Dill) – Male 13-14. Small, blond and wise beyond his years, he is about the same age as Jem. Dill is neater and better dressed than his friends. There’s an undercurrent of sophistication to him, but his laugh is sudden and happy. Obviously, there is something missing in his own home life, and he senses something in Atticus that’s missing from his own family relationship. Ethnicity: Any

Adults:

• Jean Louise French – Female. The grownup version of “Scout” and the play’s narrator. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Atticus Finch – Male 40-55. Tall, quietly impressive, reserved, civilized and nearly fifty. He wears glasses and, because of the poor sight in his left eye, looks with his right eye when he wants to see something well. It’s typical of Atticus that, when he found out he was an extraordinary shot with a rifle, he gave up shooting – because he considered it gave him an unfair advantage over the animals. He’s quietly courageous and without heroics, he does what he considers just. As someone comments about him, “we trust him to do right.” Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Calpurnia – Female 30+. Proud and capable, she has raised the motherless Scout and Jem. She’s a self-educated woman and she’s made quite a good job of it. Her standards are high and her discipline as applied to Scout and Jem is uncompromising. Ethnicity: African American
• Maudie Atkinson – Female 35-50. Younger than Atticus, but of his generation. She’s a lovely sensitive woman. Though belonging to the time and place of this play, she has a wisdom and compassion that suggests the best instincts of the South and that period. Ethnicity: Any
• Stephanie Crawford – Female 35-40. A neighborhood gossip, she enjoys it to the hilt. There’s an enthusiasm in her talking about the people of her town that makes it almost humorous. Sometimes she says things that are petty, but partly because she simply can’t keep herself from stirring things up. Ethnicity: Any
• Mrs. Dubose – Female 60+. An elderly woman – ill, walking with difficulty, her pain making her biting, bitter and angry. However, she’s fighting a secret battle within herself, a battle about which few people are aware and her existence carries importance for Jem and Scout. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Nathan Radley / Boo Radley – Nathan Radley is Boo’s stern, secretive older brother who fiercely guards the family’s privacy. Boo Radley, in contrast, is a shy, reclusive man long hidden from the town whose quiet kindness reveals a gentle heart beneath the rumors. Ethnicity: Any (one actor will play both characters)
• Tom Robinson – Male 25-30. Handsome and vital, but with a left hand crippled by a childhood accident and held against his chest. He’s married to Helen and they have young children. He faces up to a false charge with quiet dignity. There’s an undercurrent of kindness, sensitivity and consideration. Ethnicity: African American
• Helen Robinson – Tom Robinson’s wife and a devoted mother trying to hold her family together during an unjust trial. Quiet, resilient, and dignified despite the hardship and prejudice she faces in Maycomb. Ethnicity: African American
• Heck Tate – Male 40-60. The town sheriff and a complex man. He does his duty as he sees it and enforces the law without favor. The key to this man’s actual feelings is revealed in his final speeches to Atticus, and this attitude should be an undercurrent to his earlier actions. Ethnicity: Any
• Judge Taylor – Male 50+. A wintry man of the South, who does what he can within the context of the time to see justice done in his court. While he tried to run his court impartially, his sympathy is with Tom. Ethnicity: Any
• Reverend Sykes – Male 40-45. The minister of the First Purchase Church, called that because it was paid for with the first money earned by freed slaves. He’s an imposing man with a strong stage presence. He should have a strong “minister’s” voice. Ethnicity: African American
• Mayella Ewell – Female 18-21. A desperately lonely and overworked young woman whose need for companionship has overwhelmed every other emotion. However, when her effort to reach out explodes in her face, she fights just as desperately for what she thinks is survival. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Bob Ewell – Male 35-50. Father of Mayella, a little bantam-cock of a man who lives with his large family by the town dump. As Harper Lee describes their situation – “The town gave them Christmas baskets, welfare money and the back of their hand”. Bob thinks this trial will make him an important man, and when Atticus destroys his credibility, Bob’s rage and frustration border on paranoia. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Walter Cunningham – Male 40. A hard-up farmer who shares the prejudices of this time and place but who is nevertheless a man who can be reached as a human being. He also has the potential to be a leader, for when his attitude is changed during the confrontation with Atticus, he brings the others with him. Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Mr. Gilmer – Male any age. A public prosecutor who is doing his job in trying to convict Tom. In many ways his manner is cruel and hurtful, and yet under all this, he too has unexpressed doubts as to Tom’s guilt, and his heart isn’t really in this conviction. Ethnicity: Any
• Court Clerk – Male/Female any age. Ethnicity: Any