To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an academy-award-winning movie in 1962 starring Gregory Peck. Since the movie came out, Miss Lee has shunned publicity, never given an interview and has had nothing whatsoever to do with the play (first performed in 1997), the restored courthouse, its museum, gift shop and many, many ubiquitous "Mockingbird" souvenirs available there. She still lives in Monroeville in an assisted-living facility with her older sister Alice (both are in their 90's).
In her book, Harper Lee describes Monroeville as Macomb, using the old Victorian courthouse (built 1903) as a backdrop for many of the scenes in the story. The play is held behind the courthouse (Acts I - III) and inside the building in the beautiful old courtroom (Acts IV - VI).
The play is a community effort and is very well done. As in every small town, everyone seems to be connected somehow with everyone else. The husband of the waitress who served us lunch plays Atticus Finch, the male lead in the play. The woman who was selling lemonade at the courthouse had children in the production. The "bad guy" who dies at the end of the play is actually the local District Attourney, and the prosecuting attourney in the play is actually a local judge.
It was a wonderful day with perfect weather and a perfect setting for a great piece of Americana.
Monroeville - Lunch at Radley's Fountain Grill
Monroeville
Old Courthouse - Monroeville
Old Corthouse Museum and Gift Shop
To Kill A Mockingbird Show
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