Previews: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Straz Center

Coming to the Straz Center on April 11-16 is To Kill a Mockingbird, a play by Aaron Sorkin based on the novel by Harper Lee.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic American novel that tells the story of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a young girl growing up in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Scout's father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. The play follows Scout and her brother, Jem, as they witness the trial and the prejudice and injustice surrounding it.

Directed by Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher and praised for its sensitive and powerful portrayal of a difficult time in American history, To Kill a Mockingbird has won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.

"I play Tom Robinson, a black man charged with rape, a crime he could not have possibly committed. Unfortunately or fortunately, I have the privilege of being a black man in America and have experienced certain injustices that have happened. I've had my own awakening to America - how great a place it can be and some of the downfalls that it may have racially. Because I have those experiences to draw from, I can infuse it into the character," explained Yaegel T. Welch (Tom Robinson). "I'm not necessarily from the South, but my family is. I was able to connect with my family about stories of Jim Crow and infuse elements of my uncles and grandfathers into this particular part."

Because Yaegel attended Morehouse College, a historically black college, for his BA before graduating with MFAs from Brandeis University and The George Washington University Academy for Classical Acting, he learned much more about black history. He could pull details from his schooling into the character of Tom.

"I was able to call on resources and stories I heard in the past. I am trying to base everything I portray on truth and real stories."

Yaegel prepared for the role by doing background work - reading about real people who had unjust circumstances happen to them.

"It happened a lot during Jim Crow. I was able to fuel this fictional tale with some reality."

Yaegel said that the honesty of the play is what he loves most.

"I think the audience will love how the play harkens back to a lot of the fun stuff that happens in the novel because, at its core, this is a coming-of-age story of a Southern white family. Those stories always have feel-good elements, laughs, and silly things because, through a lot of the play, we see things through the eyes of children who see things so much more innocently. The audience loves to laugh at all their adventures.

Yaegel hopes the story pushes people to think that they have to do something to fight injustice.

"This version of To Kill A Mockingbird is different from the novel, which is different from the movie. I feel like this version of the story is centered around the trial of an innocent black man. This version of the story, I think, is so honest about what we're experiencing now in our time. It really puts in our faces that this was written in the 1960s about life in 1934, and some of the same injustices are still happening. I think if we don't see it (the injustices), we forget it's happening. I think it's important to remind ourselves how we can move to act. The play lets us see that honestly and shows us where we have grown because America isn't Jim Crow anymore. That's not to say America is perfect, but it is inching towards a form of perfection as we eliminate these things. This aspect of history is not a fallacy. We didn't make it up. The story is fictional, but the events actually happened. We have countless stories. The play shows us how we've grown, and it also shows us where we've got work to do."

To Kill A Mockingbird is April 11-16. Sign language interpretation will be provided at the 7:30 PM performance on Thursday, April 13. Audio Description will be provided at the 2 PM performance on Saturday, April 15. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.strazcenter.org/events/2223-season/broadway/to-kill-a-mockingbird.

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