Most sixth-graders who read “To Kill a Mockingbird” do so because it’s a school assignment.
Actress Jacqueline Williams was in the sixth grade when she first read Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, but school had nothing to do with it.
“I just remember seeing the book around our house,” said Williams, a native of Evanston, Illinois. “I think the copy we had originally belonged to one of my brothers.
“What caught my eye was the cover,” she said. “It didn’t seem as if anyone else in the house was reading it, so I picked it up and started reading. And I loved it from the start. My family is from the South, and this was the first novel I’d ever read that really spoke to my experience. I appreciated the humor in the story and how Ms. Lee described things.”
Williams said she has re-read “To Kill a Mockingbird” several times since, adding, “Every time you read a book like this, that you think you know well, you keep coming across things that you never caught before. Or else, you understand things on a deeper and more layered level, because of the life you’ve lived and the wisdom you’ve obtained.”
People are also reading…
Williams is a member of the cast of the national touring production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which opened Tuesday, March 26, at the Tulsa PAC, as part of Celebrity Attractions’ season.
Adapted by Emmy and Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin, this adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel about racial injustice and innocence lost in a small Alabama town in the 1930s has been called “the most successful American play in Broadway history,” and which Rolling Stone described as “an emotionally shattering landmark production of an American classic.”
Williams plays Calpurnia, who works for the family of local lawyer Atticus Finch (played by Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Thomas) as a cook, but has been part of the family for so long that she has become something of a co-parent of the two children, Jeremy, known as “Jem” (played by Justin Mark), and Jean Louise, nicknamed “Scout” (Maeve Moynihan).
Sorkin’s adaptation expands Calpurnia’s character in the story, emphasizing the character’s role in educating Atticus Finch in the realities of life for Black Americans, especially those living in the Deep South in the 1930s.
“As liberal as Atticus is — or thinks he is — there are just some things about being a Black person in that time and place that he simply cannot understand,” Williams said. “So Calpurnia has to school him about these things.
“At the same time, she and Atticus have been raising these kids together,” Williams said. “So she has been something of a surrogate mother. There is a long, long family history, and a sense of trust that is very deep, between these two people. They really are confidantes, free to be honest with each other, to disagree if necessary. To me, it is the central relationship in the story, this family unit, so there also is lot of playfulness going on between them.”
Williams has been with the production since it set out in early 2022. It’s the first time she has been part of a major tour; she has worked extensively on Broadway, in productions such as Horton Foote’s “The Young Man from Atlanta,” as well as with such Chicago companies as Steppenwolf Theater and the Goodman Theater. Williams has also appeared in TV series such as “Chicago Fire,” “ER” and “61st Street.”
“I’ve never been out on the road for this long of a time, and it’s been grueling at times,” she said. “But this is a story that means a lot to me. It’s a story we still need to hear, because we as a country have made very little progress in terms of social justice and equality.
“It’s also important for me because this is, regardless of the story, this is really a wonderful evening of theater,” Williams said. “It takes people through the whole journey of coming to a story they may have known and loved forever, and discovering all sorts of new things within it. People are surprised at how much laughter and joy there is in this story. There is pain, but there also is hope. That’s why it’s so fulfilling for me to be a part of this.”