hello i am melanie moore
hello i'm jaegel t welch and we are here
at playbill to talk about the first
national tour of harper lee's to kill a
mockingbird
what has it been like to work on this
piece of theater to tell this story it's
been rewarding because i understand now
that i'm a part of something that is
transformative that's going to heal
society that's going to address issues
that we have been uncomfortable with and
it sort of just puts it right in front
of our face and hopefully can implement
some type of change culturally and
sociologically i am so thrilled to be a
part of this production i've seen it
three times on broadway
i'm a fan um and honestly i do have to
say the last time i saw it i got to see
this wonderful human sitting next to me
and he's astounding so just getting to
be in his company uh daily and see him
do that work is uh really uh special and
um i'm just so excited so many people
have such deep-rooted memories with this
and have so much love for this story so
i'm excited to bring it to new audiences
because in uh some places they're not
reading it anymore and i hope those
people are coming to see our show so uh
to understand a little bit more about
why people are um deeply attached to it
and um yeah i can't wait for america to
see it i think that there's a difference
between the movie and the book and
there's a difference between the movie
the book and the play this particular
production gives a lot of voice to
characters that were often unheard in
the original
um and and those voices were needed um
in order to sort of bring those unheard
voices and i mean african-american
voices into the discussion as well
because at the core of this story it
centers about how racism transforms a
community
some might say in some lenses the book
makes it it shows how racism transforms
a white community
and not necessarily lends voice to the
black characters and this play aaron
sorkin sort of hones in on that and sort
of provides that voice and it really
does serve as a missing link that's
that's very much needed i think that
going into
communities of people that might not
necessarily come to new york and uh take
in a lot of art uh i think will be very
exciting i i hope that we can go into
communities and hold up a mirror in some
ways and i hope that as they're sitting
in the audience they are not capable of
walking away without seeing themselves
in our story and how they play a role in
today's world
because unfortunately
the story that we're telling is uh
not far off from some things that are
still happening in different places in
the country i am so excited to be uh
going on tour across the country i've
never been on a road trip before so uh i
i'm very excited to be traveling with
some of my dear friends and we're gonna
have so many experiences that you really
could never have if you were just at
home in new york doing the run of the
show for example there is a bar i think
in cleveland sorry if you're not in
cleveland i think in cleveland that's uh
called goodnight jonboy and i don't know
if you know that richard thomas is john
boy and so we're very excited to bring
him there i can't wait drinks for
everyone they're gonna be like they're
gonna be so excited i'm really so
excited it's like experiences like that
you you can't write that stuff and those
are gonna be memories that i'll have
forever well what am i excited about um
as it um pertains to touring across the
country food
um you know seeing the sights the
museums um
hanging out with great friends and
and binge watching shows together
connecting with people hopefully getting
to talk to some um high schools and um
doing some type of community work um
um yeah and really just looking to sort
of like see
since covid has happened the world has
changed and maybe i might have a better
um understanding of what other people
are experiencing if i'm in their
environment
i hope that when audiences across
america come to see our production of to
kill a mockingbird they're able to
separate what they thought they were
going to see from what they remembered
about the book
and uh open up their minds to
what we're
showing them uh because while it is very
similar and it's completely based off
the book aaron sorkin has done such a
beautiful job of really making it its
own entity like jaego has said it is
there is the book there is the movie and
then there's our production
and i hope that people
leave the show and start a dialogue with
the people in their homes in their
communities and really feel inspired to
create change in
not only their own lives but in
the lives of their neighbors in the
lives of people who maybe they don't
know
um
because as diego has said it's
um
still happening and and racism is not
sort of a thing of the past and i hope
that uh people can
watch our show and
see how racism is a part of their own
communities and how they can affect
change
well one i hope they have a good time
there's a lot of laughs in this play
there's
a lot of joy there's a lot there's a lot
of joy there's a lot of quirky
characters that come out and sort of um
you know
help you to see um the social world of
this um particular culture but in a in a
very funny and and light way i also hope
that they leave transformed i hope that
they leave more empathetic i hope that
they leave with more of an open ear to
what another person is experiencing and
i hope that they now choose to sort of
open their eyes when something is not
happening to you it doesn't mean it's
not important it doesn't mean it's not
harmful i hope they see the world from a
different lens thank you for watching
and thank you to playbill and be sure to
catch
the first national tour of harper lee's
to kill a mockingbird in a theater near
you