Empty chairs await happy spectators at Desert Theatreworks, a community playhouse in Indio.
PHOTO BY BRANDON HARMAN
Treat yourself to something different — a community rendition of To Kill a Mockingbird at Desert Theatreworks in Indio. “[The story] is in everyone’s DNA, whether you read it in high school or saw the movie, or just know about it,” says director Daniella Ryan, who has helmed plays at Desert Theatreworks for the past nine years.
The Pulitzer-winning storyline centers around Scout and her brother, Jem, living in a sleepy Alabama town during the Great Depression. When their attorney father takes on the case of a young Black man accused of a heinous crime, the neighborhood’s prejudices show in a plot that spotlights the importance of courage and compassion, even in the face of immense hardship.
“The story really is about the community at its core,” Ryan says. “It’s not about the accusation of one person, it’s about the shake-up that accusation has on the entire community.”
Ryan will pare back this adaption, eliminating the set, costumes, and props in favor of a bare stage. “When you have a set, the minute the audience walks in, they’re already telling the stories to themselves inside their head.” She enjoys encouraging the audience to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks.
“I hope the audience will be able to relate [the story] to what we experience in this day and age and not just ground it in 1935,” she says. “It really is an iconic story, in part because while so much has changed, so much has not changed.”