Reclusive author Harper Lee attends Ala. student performance of ‘Mockingbird’
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A high school play based on Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill a Mockingbird†brought together black and white high school students to tell the classic story of racial injustice – and even drew out the novel’s reclusive author.
Wednesday night’s invitation-only performance was organized to celebrate diversity and arts education in Alabama, the home state of the novel’s author, whose book and the movie made from it won immediate acclaim at a time when Alabama was still rigidly segregated.
What a treat for those kids!
1.
Thanks for the link. Amazing. I passed the story on to Mary, a big Harper Lee fan.
Comment by Eric Mayer — January 11, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
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That’s really exciting. I hope it was a very good performance.
Cas
Comment by cassie-b — January 12, 2007 @ 8:06 am
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How very cool! That book is one of my all-time faves. It must have been very exciting for those present.
Comment by violetismycolor — January 15, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
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I was saving a comment until I attended the event Sewanee. It’s late and I’m tired, but dear friend that you are, you have already read my post. xoxo
Comment by Reenie — January 15, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
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I came across that news story completely by accident, searching the keyword “reclusive”. I’m glad you all enjoyed it.
I don’t remember when I read To Kill a Mockingbird. Junior high school maybe. I saw the movie a few times on TV first.
The rabid dog incident stood out for me in the movie, because my mom told us a story about her dad killing one during the same era. What a horror that disease was before vaccines. I understand a modern-day cardiologist who’s studied Edgar Allan Poe’s death thinks he died of rabies.
I didn’t like the movie as much as the book. For some reason the role of racism was murky for me in the movie, but made clear in the writing, and I felt that I finally “got” the story. Maybe I was too young to get the movie, earlier, and I was a pretty naive kid.
Time for a reread perhaps. Surely our little county library branch has that one. (I long to move near a college again, like Reenie did, so I have a good library available. This one just doesn’t cut it—or my reading tastes are too varied and weird for this little town.)
Comment by Barbara — January 16, 2007 @ 12:04 pm