November 09, 2009

Contact:   Bill Giduz

Montanta Repertory Theatre Performs "To Kill a Mockingbird"

The Montana Repertory Theatre will present the classic American tale To Kill a Mockingbird on stage at Davidson College on Thursday evening, November 12. The play will begin at 8 p.m. in Duke Family Performance Hall.

The presentation at Davidson is part of the college's C. Shaw and Nancy K. Smith Artist Series of performances. Tickets are $20 general admission, and are available in person at the Alvarez College Union ticket office, or online at www.davidson.edu/tickets, or by calling 704-894-2135. Group rates are available for parties of 15 or more by calling Jason Shank at 704-894-2192.

Published by Harper Lee in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an instant success and has become a revered standard of American literature. It received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the year after its publication, as well as the Brotherhood Award from the Conference of Christians and Jews and the Paperback of the Year award from Bestsellers magazine. The book was made into the well-received 1962 film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. In 1999, it was voted the "Best Novel of the 20th century" by readers of the Library Journal magazine and author Harper Lee, who is still alive, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 by President George W. Bush. To date it is her only published novel.

The story of racial injustice and the end of innocence speaks eloquently of human nature and values. Set in a sleepy Southern town of the 1930s, attorney and widowed father Atticus Finch stands against his fellow townspeople by defending a young black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

As the trial unfolds unjustly, Finch continues to instill in his children values of honesty, courage, integrity, respect for others, and responsibility for one's actions. Without bravado, he achieves the status of a true American hero. Despite its treatment of serious issues, the story is renowned for its warmth and humor.

Montana Repertory Theatre is funded in part by a grant from the Montana Arts Council (an agency of state government), with support from the Montana State Legislature, The University of Montana, the Montana Cultural Trust, and Dr. Cathy Capps.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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