"Using Christopher Sergel?s faithful adaptation, the 20 ensemble members deliver some impressive storytelling: occasional parts may fail, but the whole remains great" Chicago Reader

?A famous novel, an equally famous movie starring Gregory Peck, a staple of high-school reading lists, and last year?s :One Book, One Chicago? choice? ?To Kill a Mockingbird? ? in CollaborAction theater?s new and fresh approach ? is well wroth seeing. Those who loved the book will love the play; newcomers will be enchanted.
Christopher Sergel?s adaptation of Harper Lee?s Pulitzer Prize-winning work skillfully weaves a talk of race, class and justice into a tapestry that reveals the pain of acquiring a conscience and growing up. The main thread follows your Scout finch (10-year-old Meredith Maresh) and her brother, Jem (11-year-old Bryce Bashford), who learn to appreciate the real value of their lawyer father, Atticus (Dan Flannery). He may not play football, and he may hide the fact that he is a crack marksman, but when he takes on the unwinnable case of a black man accused of rapping a white woman, his children ? and the whole town ? learn a prime lesson in humanity.
Chopin Theater?s unique space provides a perfect setting for the town of Maycomb, Ala., during the Depression. While half the theater holds tiered rows of seats to accommodate 150 theatergoers, the other half comprises the stage. This deep space allows set designer Wesley Kilmer ample room to display his creativity. The audience faces a town square bounded by homes. Tidy fronts of neat well-kept dwellings line both sides, contrasting with a far shabbier structure behind them ? where town bogeyman Boo Radley (Tony Fitzpatrick) has cowered in his house for 30 years.
Constructed of mesh, Radley?s tall, circular dwelling looks like a cross between a gazebo and a cage, and becomes a perfect setting for boo?s ever haunting presence. Providing additional country atmosphere, boo?s space is shared with a flock of 30 live finches, swirling like falling leaves as they fly from the rafters to the ground and back again, softly twittering throughout the play.
Later, the open space between the houses is easily transformed to the site where Atticus confronts the bullies who want to lynch his client, Tom Robinson (Vershawn Ashanti Young), and the site of Tom?s memorable trial.
In this large cast of 21, the three preteen actors ? Maresh, Bashford and 10-year-old Max Kirsch, as playmate Dill ? put in excellent performances, but the rest of the ensemble is good enough to keep the kids from stealing the show. Judy Blue, as neighbor Miss Maudie, provides the calm rational view as she doubles as narrator. Kaitlin Byrd achieves the difficult task of making the lying rape victim, Mayella Ewell, a sympathetic character. Patricia Donegan is wonderfully nasty as the embittered old Mrs. Dubose, and no one could be meaner ? or spit better ? than Larry Neumann Jr. as murderous Bob Ewell. Throughout, the lumbering glimpses of Fitzpatrick as Boo, who has virtually no lines, make the character?s presence felt, even when unseen.
It is Flannery, however, who holds the story together, as he portrays Atticus in relation to his children, his clients and neighbors, and most important, his conscience.? Beverly Friend

?Chicagoans who never got around to reading Harper Lee?s novel in the city?s ?book club? initiative can still see this show. More than a civic duty, this is an edifying coming-of-age story for both nine-year-old Scout and the hidebound Alabama town where her idealistic father, Atticus Finch, repudiates bigotry in 1935.
Using Christopher Sergel?s faithful adaptation, the 20 ensemble members deliver some impressive storytelling: occasional parts may fail, but the whole remains great. Like Wisdom Bridge Theatre?s 1994 staging of Sergel?s script, Anthony Moseley?s CollaborAction production celebrates down-home decency. Appropriately, the story of a white lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape is seen from the perspective of Atticus?s adoring daughter, who recognizes the good in a situation that could have seemed dark: her father?s efforts ultimately outweigh the ugly prospect of a black man being put to death for a rape he didn?t commit. And when a strange neighbor saves Scout?s life, it?s further proof that people can improve in Macomb, Alabama.
Deliberate and certain in a crisis and even in defeat, Dan Flannery?s Atticus fully convinces us of his moral stature. As the abusive father of the prevaricating victim, Larry Neumann Jr. is a snarling monster, a cracker matched in pathos by Kaitlin Byrd as his deeply damaged daughter. The evolving Alabamians are best represented by Judy Blue as the compassionate narrator and Meredith Maresh as a sparkling Scout. The show has only one drawback: the set is bone ugly, never suggesting a kid?s view of a beloved small town. And why are three real finches in Boo Radley?s shack?? Lawrence Bommer

?In its annual ?Sketchbook? series of short plays and its hit show ?The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip? (to be remounted this summer at Theatre on the Lake), the CollaborAction Theatre Company has demonstrated its flair for capturing a certain mythic Americana onstage and a youthful crowd in the audience. Its engagingly acted, winningly homespun procuction of ?to Kill a Mocking bird,? adapted by Christopher Sergel from the Harper Lee novel, and directed with a light and appealing touch by Anthony Moseley, further enhances the troupe?s reputation.
Set in a bitterly segregated town in Alabama, the center piece of the show is a trial in which a poor black sharecropper, Tom Robinson ( Vershawn Ashanti Young), is accused of raping an abused white girl, Mayella Ewell (Kaitlin Byrd), the daughter of a vicious, alcoholic, illiterate redneck. The moral heart of the play is Atticus finch (expertly played with quiet charm and intelligence by Dan Flannery), Tom?s brave, soft-spoken and profoundly decent attorney. A widowed, somewhat older-than-average father, Finch earns the respect and appreciation of his two young children, Scout (the feisty, accomplished fifth-grader Meredith Maresh) and her older brother Jem (sixth-grader Bryce Bashford), and their little friend Dill (Max Kirsch, an irresistible fifth-grader), as they watch Atticus? bold stand in the courtroom.
Moseley?s production, with a cast of nearly two dozen actors, is especially noteworthy for the way it captures the life of the town, with Debbie Baer?s evocative costumes and a ?Wizard of Oz?-like set by Weley Kimler and David Wolf that kind of grow o the viewer.
The tone is enhanced by Judy Blue, who does a first-rate job as Miss Maudie, Finch?s admiring neighbor. There is appealing work by everyone from Chris Jackson (as the white sheriff), to Oha William King (the black minister), to Lily Fortin (the local gossip), to Kevin Holdread (the prosecutor), to Tony Fitzpatrick (as Boo Radley, the gentle monster who lives next door to the Finch family and whose unexpected act of valor puts questions of justice into a whole new light for Atticus).Hedy Weiss
Judging by the startlingly large crowds chasing scarce seats at the Chopin Theatre on Thursday night, Collaboraction?s idea of piggybacking its new show on Mayor Daley?s ?One City One Book? promotion was a very smart idea.
Who knows if it?s a consequence of following the recently expired municipal edict to read Harper Lee?s ?To Kill a Mockingbird,? but there are clearly a lot of Chicago folks who want to see the adaptation for the Pulitzer prize-winning novel, which concerns a girl?s coming of age as her lawyer father defends a young African-American from trumped-up rape charges in a small Alabama town in the 1930?s.
Actually, there are two quite different Sergel adaptations of the novel. In the earlier (and truer to the novel) of the two dramatizations, an adult incarnation of Atticus? daughter , Scout provides the narration while looking back on her childhood from the edge of the action. But Sergel rewrote the play in the late 1980?s, deleting the elder Scout and using neighbor Maudie Atkinson as the narrator. This later adaptation is being used by director Anthony Moseley.
Collaboraction likes to think of itself as an edgy troupe, and Moseley?s production makes various weird departures from the traditional approach of poetic realism. Sculptor Wesley Kimler (with David Wolf) has built a huge, bizarre set that?s not only made out of junk (perhaps it?s designed to show things from Scout?s point of view), but includes a live aviary on Boo Radley?s front porch. There?s a conceptual electronic score and various strange light cues in the trial scene.
One can appreciate the creativity of the ideas, but it?s hard to see what these inconsistent and distracting affectations add to this show. Whichever way you take it. Sergel?s but-the-numbers version of ?Mockingbird? is a traditional piece of American gothic. And a perfectly good one at that.
Happily, the more tradition aspects of Moseley?s production are sufficiently grounded and truthful that they make for a very solid and enjoyable ?Mockingbird.? The underrated and credible Dan Flannery, who played Atticus Finch at Wisdom Bridge some years ago, is back in the central role. There?s a remarkably self-assured little Scout in the diminutive but spunky form of Meredith Maresh. And there?s decent character work from Vershawn Ashanti Young, Larry Newmann Jr and, as the narrator, the classy Judy Blue.
?Mockingbird? is one of those works etched on the American psyche, and its themes shine through pretty much any dramatic prism. On Thursday night, it greatly moved an audience, as it always seems to do. Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune March 3, 2002
br/> ?[The paint across the crude wood leaps at you, really. The prominent raw star atop Scout?s house. Gleaming yellow. The tree (chicken wire, duct tape and insulating foam).]
The finches were in position ? well, as in position as they could be in the wire cage that is Boo Radley?s house. As members shuffled into the Chopin theatre?s dipped stairwells. The stick-balloon flowers were primped.
At this first dress rehearsal, director Anthony Moseley shouts out, ?We can stop if we need to ? but I would rather every body kind of push through it- power through it. To the actors: just let go and enjoy the work.?
Pushing through. Evolving. It?s what collaboraction?s Refuge embodied, a story about a family whose parents took off and abandoned three siblings.
And in the Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild: A Road Trip, about a girl who embarks on a journey after her mother dies.
And now in Harper Lee?s To Kill A Mockingbird, as it exposes racial tensions in segregated Maycomb through the eyes of nine year-old Scout Finch, showcasing an America that is trying to overcome a time of ignorance.
It is what collaboraction itself is about. Both in its themes, its players and its approach, fusing various artistic mediums ? revealed through the set design, music and sound. Mocking bird, with its contemporary-flared set and folkloric tunes melding with classic acting and timely dress- may catch you.
Something different is happening. As the dungarees show through the haze and are illuminated next to the fluorescent forms.
The collaboraction theatre company was founded in 1997 by Kimberly Senior. Now entering its fifth season, the company has produced 30 shows and events representing a wide variety of theatrical genres including Sketchbook, a 16 ?short play mixed media theatrical festival.
Anthony took over as Artistic Director of collaboraction in October 1999, and things began to change from a democracy to ?a benevolent open-minded dictatorship,? he said. ?We started making smarter business decisions,? said Anthony. ?And focusing more on high-end product ? process.?
And they started looking to other ways to present theater. ?Theater is insulated ? and the audience is insulated too. You see the same artists and actors and members at every show in town and it?s just suffocating ? and that?s a big problem,? he said. ?We?re really trying to shy away from convention. And focus on the audience as opposed to the actor.?
So: great sound, great lights, great talent and shorter plays (under town hours), according to Anthony. And people have noticed ? with over 450 people showing for the last Sketchbook.
And involving all kinds of artists ? and people (collaboractions is at 13 members currently). ?That?s what?s cool with this is that it?s really serious people working tighter ? it?s just a conversation of people trying to find a space to work in together, an intellectual space. That?s the whole idea,? said Wesley Kimler, board of Directors member and Resident Artist of collaboraction.
Wesley, on of Chicago?s most dynamic contemporary artists, came on the scene with the first Sketchbook a couple years ago to design the backdrops. Once Wesley and Anthony met, something clicked, and they went forward. With this idea of the fusion of the arts.
?The relationship with Wesley really spun and helped evolve this whole idea for bringing these different mediums together ? personalities ? passions ? audiences- networks ? they all really feed off each other.?
There were many new ventures in Mockingbird. Heck, Anthony is a 28 year-old former Notre Dame finance major who abandoned selling mutual funds and working for the Chicago Bulls to find something more.
For the first time, Wesley decided to try his hand at set design, having his work on the theatrical stage instead of at The Museum of Contemporary Art. Wesley then called up his friend, local musician Nicholas Tremulis, to see if he would lend a hand with music. While Tremulis had composed music for countless films, he had never done music for a play before. ?It was the first movie I ever saw that made me cry ? it?s the fist book I ever read that was long.? He said. ?And they called while I was showing the movie to my kids ? you can?t say no to that.?
Wesley then sought out another victim in Tony Fitzpatrick for the role of Boo Radley. A maverick actor, poet and artist who will be performing his recently published burn Town at the Steppenwolf Studio on February 25.. Tony had not been on stage prior in 12 years. He had been busy with film, playing ?bad guys, thugs and degenerates.? ?when they asked me I thought, ?Whoa ? that?d be tough. You know, it?s pretty complex- everybody thinks he?s the bogeyman- and he turns out to be something quite different. Kind of a well of gentleness. And I haven?t really done that?haven?t really done it, period.?
He took it on.
And look at what they have created.
Wesley made Boo Radley?s house an entire birdcage ? with real finches flying around ?I just had this idea of making boo Radley?s house a birdhouse. He is the mockingbird.?
The houses have a bird-like look. And as for the shapes that made their way onto the tops of the houses? The star on top of Scout?s house was inspired by a photograph by Birney Imes from ?Juke Joints? that had a yellow star painted on the house. While the moon on Mrs. Dubose?s house I interpreted a symbol of her death, and the star on Scout?s house as a symbol of her rising up ? the ?moon? wasn?t supposed to be a moon. ?It was just a shape I like,? said Wesley. ?but that?s how it is now ? it was a happy accident.?
And the fluorescent yellowish color?
Anthony and Wesley had initially discussed having the set be black and white. But then they thought about the warmth of the South. ?And the fluorescence kind of has a cheap, run-down look to it ? and the color values of yellow are similar to black and white ? so it was a way to almost have black and white with color, and have it be about color.? Wesley said.
Tremulis used flutes and recorders to imitate birds for the opening scene. ?And used all acoustical instruments, including a banjo and mandolin to give the tune a ?folkloric-like? twang.
And what?s it?s like for some of the actors working within these eccentric surroundings? for Dan Flannery, who plays Atticus Finch, Scout?s father, this is a fist encounter with collaboraction ? but not with the role as Atticus, which he performed seven years ago. ?This set is a long ways away from that ? with very traditional three little houses and railings on the porches,? he said. ?there?s a unique mixture here ? a traditional play with classical acting and a strong cast in this kind of setting.?
?We?re dedicated to try to make art and commerce work in Chicago,? said Anthony. ?Like Atticus says: ?Courage isn?t a man with a knife in his hand, Jem ? it?s when you know you are liked before you begin, but you see it though no matter what.? Leah Pietrusiak, Citylink February 22, 2002