by Olivia Byrnes
Editor of Production
In September as freshmen funnel into the school for the first time they enter a new stage in their lives. Part of this stage is taking freshmen English and reading “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In addition to this rite of passage, the students were able to see this book transformed into a play. For the month of March, Lee’s classic novel was transformed into a play and acted out at Syracuse Stage.
On Tuesday, March 1, freshmen students loaded onto buses to catch the show. Freshman Liam Kaplan said that after starting the book in October he was hoping for an amazing production, but it didn’t live up to his expectations. “They cut out the scene at the school and went straight to the trial,” he said. Freshman Sophia Vinciguerra agreed with Kaplan and thought that “Atticus was a really good actor and portrayed his part well, but Scout and Jem were okay.” Freshman Jackson Brang also said that he wasn’t “impressed,” because it wasn’t really like the book. Freshman Ana Dieroff agreed with Brang but was happy that she got to leave school with her classmates.
Spanish teacher and Umoja adviser Simone Pacilio also took her club members to see the play. Even though she had never read the book, she knew the story line and thought that the play was very well put together. Freshman Mark Davis also thought that the play was pretty good, except that he found it funny because the actors who played Jem and Scout “didn’t really know what they were doing.” However, sophomore English teacher Kristin Hardy said that she was very impressed by the actors and actresses because they were so young. Sophomore Nico Modesti, who went to see it with his parents, thought “it was really interesting to see how it was acted out.” English teacher Terri Eaton thought that the play was more like the movie version, but that it was really good and worth seeing. “The biggest change throughout the play was that they combined Mrs Maudie’s character with Calpurnia, so that was different to see that, but overall it was a great play,” she said.
Although freshmen had differing views of the overall production most students agreed that being able to see the play after they had read the book was cool. Teachers, however, agreed that they play was very impressive, “I would definitely take my cl
