Phantom Projects Theatre Group to Present TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at La Mirada Theatre, 2/18

As part of its mission to use theatre as a discussion starter among teen audiences, La Mirada-based Phantom Projects Theatre Group will stage a new production of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird on February 18 at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Performances are at 10am (SOLD OUT), 1pm (SOLD OUT) and 7pm. Tickets are $25 (student and group discounts available) and are now available by calling the La Mirada Theatre Box Office at (562) 944 9801 or (714) 994 6310, or by going online to www.LaMiradaTheatre.com/PhantomProjects

Timothy P. Thorn directs this adaptation by Christopher Sergel. The cast features Sammy Gayer (McCoy Rigby Entertainment's Billy Elliot and Les Miserable, Musical Theatre West's Music Man) as Scout, Lane Wray as Atticus, Jacob Brewer as Jem, Jason Brewer as Dill, Carla E. Mitchell as Calpurnia, Jill Czarnowski as Miss Maudie, Stephanie Schulz as Miss Stephanie, Sue Rausch as Mrs. Dubose, Adam Chacon as Heck Tate, John Lunsford as Judge Taylor, Donald Amerson as Rev. Sykes, Tim Bob Halpin as Bob Ewell, Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal as Mayella Ewell, Mike Tracy as Walter Cunningham, James Duffy as Mr. Gilmer, Joshua Warren Bush as Tom Robinson, DJ Perkins as Boo Radley, Jack Stroud as Nathan Radley, Michael L. Felder as Ensemble.

The Play

Coming at the dawn of a decade of change, the impact of Harper Lee's novel on America cannot be overstated. Published in July 1960, it was chosen by three book clubs, received 14 printings and sold two and a half million copies in its first year. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and by its second anniversary had spent 100 weeks on the bestseller list and sold five million copies in 13 countries.

Its unflinching depiction of racism in America was concealed in the innocence of its narrator, Scout Finch (Gayer), a precocious 8-year-old. Set in a small town in Depression-era Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Scout and her brother Jem (Jacob Brewer) are being raised by their widowed father, Atticus (Wray), a lawyer determined to represent the unjustly accused, regardless of race. The result, in the play as in the novel, is a timeless and meaningful work of art.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the second production in Phantom Projects' 2015-16 season. The annual season of three plays, and the annual Young Artist Project, is directed at the audiences of tomorrow, their parents, educators, and others who want to re-live the classic books they grew up reading. By providing a combination of classic texts from High School curricula and original message-based plays about issues of immediate relevance to young people, Phantom Projects uses the theatre experience to inspire the community's teens.

"We want to be a positive force," said Cisneros, Phantom's co-founder and Producing Artistic Director, "and give teens ways to connect with their world through art. During our shows they discover this incredible relevance in the same literature they might have dismissed in the classroom. It helps open their eyes to a whole world of urgency, intelligence and beauty they may have completely tuned out."

In 1997, a then 17-year-old Cisneros was inspired after his High School English teacher, Bruce Gevirtzman, staged a play he had written for his students. The young drama student had suggestions about how the story about teen pregnancy might have more impact. When Gevirtzman agreed to let him tinker with the script and then direct a second production, Phantom Projects was born.

For more information on Phantom Projects Theatre Group visit phantomprojects.com or call 714-690-2900.

To Kill a Mockingbird contains mature language relevant to the play's setting.

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