To Kill a Mockingbird at Des Moines Playhouse

Scout, a young girl in a quiet southern town in 1935, is about to experience the dramatic events that will affect the rest of her life. She and her brother, Jem, are being raised by their widowed father, Atticus, and strongminded housekeeper, Calpurnia.

Atticus, a lawyer, is defending Tom Robinson, a young black man wrongfully accused of a grave crime. Since this is causing such an upset, Scout wants to know why he's doing it. "Because if I didn't," her father replies, "I couldn't hold my head up." He goes on to prepare Scout for the trouble to come. "We're fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they're still our friends." Atticus fights his legal battle with a result that is part defeat, part triumph.

Based on Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird compels us to think of our moral responsibility to each other.

Authors

• Aaron Sorkin
• Adam Guettel
• Christopher Sergel
• Harper Lee