Their mockingbird: Newly released documentary captures joint MBHS-Fairfield High School production
People in Boston drew conclusions about Sandra Jaffe when she arrived in the 1970s simply because she was from the land of George Wallace and Bull Connor.
“We are not all like that,” the Mountain Brook native would respond.
In her young adulthood, she would rediscover how the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, though fiction, showed that there were people “not all like that” on the right side of history who would work to make things better.
As she entered the 2000s, she would explore the 21st century impact of the novel in a documentary, Our Mockingbird.
The film will be shown in Birmingham on April 28 at 3 p.m. at the Carver Theatre as a part of the city’s “50 Years Forward” events, but to get there Jaffe would first spend time back in Mountain Brook documenting a 2007 joint production of the play To Kill a Mockingbird between Mountain Brook High School and Fairfield High School for the film.
“This collaboration between two different schools, separated by race and class, in a city where the civil rights struggle was brought to a head on September 15, 1963 [when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed], was a journey that paralleled the messages in the book,” Jaffe said. “It seemed like a self-selecting group of students from both schools who were up for an exchange like this – who wanted to experience ‘walking in somebody else’s shoes’ to the extent that they were able to do so.”
The novel, first published in 1960, follows six-year-old Scout and her older brother Jem as they befriend their mysterious neighbor “Boo” Radley in fictional Maycomb, Ala. Meanwhile, their father Atticus, a lawyer, defends Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman. Much of the town’s residents do not approve of Atticus’ defending the man, and the children become a part of the resulting turmoil in the town over the case.
“The events of 1963 in Birmingham and To Kill A Mockingbird are very much intertwined, but Harper Lee’s story is not just an Alabama story, it is our nation’s story,” Jaffe said.
Mountain Brook students had read and discussed the novel in eighth grade, but in 2007 theatre became the avenue for those in the production to more strongly feel the weight of the situation in the novel and to address tough questions in a safe environment.
“One of the legacies [of the production] for me was realizing how theatre tackles real life and raises those questions in a safe environment and opens the opportunity up for discussion,” said Regan Stevens, who played Scout. “It also simply brings people together, and our production is certainly evidence of that.”
Fairfield High School had no theatre program, so the students helped one another as they rehearsed at both schools under the leadership of now retired MBHS Theatre Director Pat Yates.
“The coolest element of the whole experience was bringing theatre to a group of kids that in most other ways were just like me but had not had that experience,” Stevens said. “We got to share this gift with them that until that time I had taken for granted.”
Gena Casey, who played the adult Jean Louise, recalled being able to openly discuss questions about race because the cast trusted each other.
“There was this big consensus from both of our groups that we respect the past but we are so ready to move on from it,” Casey said.
The final production would lead to national media coverage, a performance at State Capital in Montgomery attended by Patsy Riley, and most notably, meeting author Harper Lee herself.
For the students from Mountain Brook High School, which has a 1 percent minority population according to U.S. News and World Report, To Kill a Mockingbird was the first time they had been closely exposed to another culture.
For Stevens, the play gave her a heart to share theatre in communities that otherwise might not have it.
“[The play] heightened our awareness of the lack of diversity that we were exposed to,” said Stevens, who now acts in New York City. “To Kill a Mockingbird was the catalyst that caused us to think about it and ask questions, and really be challenged.”
Casey saw Jaffe’s documentary at Sidewalk Film Festival in the fall and will be part of a panel discussion following the April 28 showing. She said she enjoyed seeing how much history was in the film.
“I was very proud that we were able to accomplish that and that it could be linked to something greater,” Casey said. “It was cool to see it go along with a greater theme of acceptance and tolerance.”
Jaffe said she hopes that the film will inspire collaborations similar to the high school production, not just in Alabama but around the country.