[Music]
all rise aaron sorkins to kill a
mockingbird is coming soon to a city
near you the national tour headed by
richard thomas in the role of atticus
finch let's go ahead and send it back
out to paul wontorek so excited to see
you in the killer mockingbird hit the
road in this iconic character atticus
finch that that name has a lot of weight
to it doesn't it yes it does he's
atticus his shoes are large he he takes
up a lot of space in our in our uh
cultural history and is very a very
important
character he's one of those
characters who seems to be
a real person and we think of him
frequently not as a not as a character
in a novel and then a film but it's
actually a person
and uh
so it's gonna be very exciting do you
remember when
this harper lee novel came out and the
movie came out you were a boy at the
time already in show business of course
i read it in school and was very moved
and touched and
frustrated and energized by it
and then the film is just a wonderful
wonderful piece of film from that period
with terrific performances and so that
that
became a part of my memory of it you
know you think about it now and you put
faces
one does one puts film faces to
characters and novels and it all gets it
all gets a little bit mixed up
but sure it was a real presence for me
growing up i mean for so many americans
you're a real man of the theater
uh you've done so many amazing things on
on stage in addition to all your great
um tv and film work iron sorkin and
bartlett share have created sort of an
iconic new stage adaptation i feel like
what aaron sorkin did with the text it's
perfect for today's audiences a book is
a book and a film is a film and a play
as a play
and what aaron sorkin has done is really
made play of it while sustaining the
the integrity of the of the book he
managed to address
issues in the play
that a modern a contemporary audience
would demand right to be addressed
and without which we would just be
telling the story to get the emotional
reaction we want everybody to have from
to kill a mockingbird so he's created
a very faithful adaptation but
it's a new piece of work uh
entirely and and that so it has its own
value in its own integrity and it's just
brilliantly done you know and of course
you know i'm a text actor so i can't
wait to say those words because he's he
writes fabulous words yeah the
relationship between atticus and scout
is special your father yourself
he's kind of the uh ultimate father
figure to a lot of people is that is
that special to you well yeah i mean
yeah i have five i have five daughters
and two sons the job for me is like you
know you can't play important you can't
play historic
those things are all great generalities
that can be in the mind of the audience
but if you place too many obligations of
that type on top of yourself as a
performer you'll never find a yourself
in the piece which is the only thing you
have to offer you just have to find the
man who's trying
to do what he thinks is the right thing
under against great odds and so if i can
just find the person in there and not
worry about the rest of it
then the audience will be able to have
an immediate experience and maybe
instead of looking at atticus as some
sort of
mythic godlike character you know sort
of a demigod up there
that they'll be able to find points of
connection between themselves and him
just as people so that's going to sort
of be my job you're going to look great
in the suit i can already pick strap
suit's pretty great
i'm going to look great in the suit
short but good
because you've had such an incredible
career
audiences really feel connection too and
i think that is something that really
will work for this role as you take it
on the road you must feel that
relationship you have with audiences i
do i love audiences what's so exciting
about about taking this show on the road
which is by the way a great show to take
across the country it's a a show that i
think will elicit
profound responses from people across
the country emotional political all
kinds of stuff it's going to make all
it's going to make all kinds of noise
one of the great things about having
been out a couple times before
is i love the specific audiences in the
specific town there are different things
they find funny and you know you know we
didn't get that laugh in baltimore well
they didn't think it was funny they
didn't you know what they're like they
don't know they but they like this but
you know the joy of the of the road if
you've done it before is that you you
come into a town having a feeling of the
particular character and personality of
that theater-going audience and it's
very exciting you know not to mention
the gorgeous theaters that you get to
play first time i did it
i thought there's something so ancient
about this process
of having a group of players together
and going from city to city and bringing
your play and setting it up and doing it
and unpacking it and moving it on
it makes such a wonderful connection
with
the history and the story of our
profession
we also caught up with more of the stars
of the mockingbird national tour i
started in the broadway production as a
cover for tom robinson and so i got to
steal from all the great performances
and sort of craft my own it feels like
an honor
with everything that's happening
in america and in other parts of the
world it feels like an honor to be able
to tell a story of a community of people
that are terrorized and how that tarot
transforms
other communities this story is as much
about
how racism transforms the white
community as it is about how it destroys
a black family i love scout finch as a
character because she i feel like stands
for so many things and i feel like can
represent so many things to a number of
different people
i think that there is a sense of
innocence
uh
throughout the play and throughout the
book with scout that i feel lucky to
embody every single night the show is so
rooted in physicality especially for the
kids we have to be able to embody a
nine-year-old for me a nine-year-old and
for jim a little bit older you know it's
it's a challenge but it's a very
welcomed challenge what excites me about
it is
i know a lot of people that will come
have some of them a lifelong
relationship with the book or with the
movie for those who might be younger who
uh haven't read the book yet who you
know haven't seen the film you know
they're really gonna be in for
a wonderful
needed necessary
evening at the theater as a country as a
society as a world
part of me wishes we didn't need this
story
as much as we do everyone will be coming
in
from whatever walk of life they come in
with
i don't think it's possible to
experience
this story this play
this evening
and not feel something
this is a broadway show and we're back
in just a few
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