Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010

Learning lessons from a classic

Two Midtown mainstays - the Cameron Village Library and the Burning Coal Theatre Company - are poised for a month of community conversation and exploration.

At the center: The 50th anniversary of Harper Lee's classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" - and the 50th anniversary of the vote taken in the auditorium of Murphey School to desegregate Raleigh public schools. In 2008, the auditorium, preserved and renovated, reopened as Burning Coal Theatre.

On Saturday, we're invited to the library from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to watch Burning Coal actors rehearse their season opener, an adaptation of Lee's classic novel. Directed by New York's Randolph Curtis Rand, the show runs Sept. 9-26.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" tells the story of a 1930s small-town Alabama lawyer, Atticus Finch, who selflessly defends a black man falsely accused and convicted of raping a white woman. Narrated by Atticus's young daughter, Scout, we uncover timeless lessons about right and wrong and good vs. evil; about tolerance gained by learning all you can about a person - "Climb into his skin and walk around in it," as Atticus says - to understand his point of view; about the link between social status and prejudice.

And we learn about how all of it threatens the moral and academic education of children - our symbolic mockingbirds - whose innocence and social consciousness are confused and potentially destroyed by adult-world decisions. As Scout learns: "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

It's a tale read in more than 40 languages with more than 30 million copies sold worldwide. It also is an Academy Award winner, a top novel of the 20th century by librarians nationwide and a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction.

If timing really is everything, it's hard to ignore why it matters; why we should appreciate the values it teaches us and the guidance it offers as we navigate today's tensions, moral dilemmas and social challenges.

Consider our school board's decision to end Wake County's national model of socioeconomic school diversity, opting instead for neighborhood schools. Critics say we're headed back to one-race schools with unequal opportunities. An organization that accredits high schools is investigating whether that's true.

Consider, too, Central Prison, in our backyard is home to five death row inmates who've filed motions under the year-old N.C. Racial Justice Act, claiming evidence of racial bias in their sentencing.

And consider, again, the changing face and culture of our communities as diversity chooses us as neighbors.

There's no better play than "To Kill a Mockingbird" to address those present-day realities - and no better place than Burning Coal Theatre, dedicated to its mission to affect change through theater and cloaked in history as the land where Bill Campbell first integrated schools here.

"The issues the school board is deliberating are issues that, more or less, have been with us for 50 years," said Jerome Davis, Burning Coal's co-founder and director. "It used to be political discourse, but now...there's no discussion of character, bravery or courage. It's about who wins."

Atticus, however, was selfless, teaching his children and neighbors the importance of doing what's right.

"We could use a few Atticuses today, in all walks of life, but certainly in the political arena," Davis said.

Rand cast actors with whom he wanted to explore the questions of race and racism central to the story.

"If theater has any relevance, it's to get the audience to ask questions about their own lives," he said. "We want community; people in a room together and experiencing something - together."

The library also will exhibit pieces inspired by Lee's novel submitted by local artists of all ages by 5 p.m. Aug. 31. A screening of "To Kill a Mockingbird," starring Gregory Peck, will open the library's Southern Film Series at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 13; and it will host a book discussion for adults and teens on Lee's novel at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 25.

Regional Library Manager Jean Ells is excited.

"We can't keep the book on the shelf," she said. "It's one of those American classics that really touched people and struck a nerve; brought racism - and the basic decency in which everybody needs to be treated - to the forefront in a way people understand."

And as Atticus reminds us, "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."