Trinity Rep to Present TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and BLUES FOR MISTER CHARLIE

Trinity Rep continues its 52nd season Rebels, Renegades and Pioneers with To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the novel by Harper Lee, adapted by Christopher Sergel and a special limited run presentation of companion piece Blues for Mister Charlie, by James Baldwin. Both productions are directed by Brian McEleney and feature the same cast. The productions will be performed in limited rotating repertory. Performances for To Kill a Mockingbird run March 3-April 3, 2016. Blues for Mister Charlie will be performed three nights only on March 18, 27 and April 1, 2016 at 7:30pm. All tickets for Blues for Mister Charlie are $25. Tickets for both shows are on sale now by phone at (401) 351-4242, online at www.trinityrep.com, or in person at the theater's box office at 201 Washington Street, Providence.

One of the most enduring stories of all times, To Kill a Mockingbird grapples with issues of equality, race, differences and justice-the very same issues that continue to plague our society today. Scout is a six-year-old white girl growing up during the Depression in Alabama. When her father, Atticus, is appointed to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman, Scout embarks on an evolutionary journey revealing the vast differences between people.

Blues for Mister Charlie is about the murder of a young black man, and how his death affects a small Southern town. The play wrestles with the issues of race and prejudice in America through the prism of a courtroom trial, told from a black perspective.

"As theater artists, our contribution to the conversation is through storytelling," says director Brian McEleney. "We're inviting the audience to experience two incredible narratives driven by issues we continue to struggle with in our communities every day. To Kill a Mockingbird is filled with idealism, while Blues For Mister Charlie presents a dark, grim perspective. Both of these plays ask us to confront ideas of justice, community, race and family from two very different and important points of view."

The cast features Trinity Rep resident acting company members Angela Brazil, Mia Ellis, Rebecca Gibel, Mauro Hantman, Fred Sullivan, Jr., Stephen Thorne and Rachael Warren, Brown/Trinity Rep actors Sinan Eczacibasi, Alexis Green, Ashley Mitchell, David Samuel and Will Turner with Jude Sandy.

The design team includes Michael McGarty (set design), Toni Spadafora (costume design), Byron Winn (lighting design), Peter Sasha Hurowitz (sound design) and stage manager Kristen Gibbs.

Director Brian McEleney is in his thirty-second season as a Trinity Rep company member. As an actor, his favorite roles include King Lear, Richard II, Richard III, Malvolio, George (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ), Dr. Larch (The Cider House Rules ), Prior Walter ( Angels in America) and his first Trinity appearance as Mozart in Amadeus. As Trinity Rep's Resident Associate Director he has directed over 20 productions, including The Grapes of Wrath, House and Garden, Absurd Person Singular, The Crucible, Twelfth Night, All the King's Men, Our Town and Hamlet. McEleney is a graduate of Trinity College and the Yale School of Drama. He is Head of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. Acting Program.

Harper Lee (née Nelle Harper Lee) is an American author most notably known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on her observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel deals with the irrationality of adult attitudes towards race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s, as seen through the eyes of two children. The novel was inspired by the racist attitudes she observed as a child in her hometown in Alabama. Though Lee published only this single book for half a century, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature and has received numerous honorary degrees. Lee was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama and was the youngest of four children.

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987) was an African American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and social critic. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if un-nameable tensions. Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks, but also of gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, written well before gay rights were widely espoused in America: Giovanni's Room (1956). Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, is said to be his best-known work.

Events for To Kill a Mockingbird and Blues for Mister Charlie

Trinity Rep invites the public to several free events related to the production:

• A youth panel will be held following the 2:00pm matinee performance of To Kill a Mockingbird on Sunday, March 6, featuring Trinity Rep's youth ambassadors discussing the show from their point of view.
• The staff and production team will host a Lunch & Learn on Friday, March 11 at 12:00pm in the Chace Theater, where they reveal the theater magic that brings the shows to life.
• The Great Writers series continues with an event on Monday, March 14 at 7:00pm exploring the life and work of both Harper Lee and James Baldwin. The event is free and will feature a conversation with the artists and brief performances.

This project is sponsored by Taco/The White Family Foundation and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

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