![]() So much in the book is about that whole summer. To read it as a parent is completely different. Kids read this in school, but it’s an adult book, it isn’t a YA book. I’d seen the movie and remember loving it, but this isn’t an adaptation of the movie. “When I got the offer, I went back and read the book,” Thomas added. PHOTO BY JULIETA CERVANTESJulieta Cervantes Welch as Tom Robinson in a courtroom scene from “Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird'” at The Bushnell this week. Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch and Yaegel T. The question is how do you own it,” he said. Was Thomas given leeway to make the role his own and distinguish it from what Jeff Daniels did on Broadway? “First, you can’t help but do that. Recent tours directed by Sher that played The Bushnell include “My Fair Lady,” “The King & I” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” The director of “Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird” is Bartlett Sher, who has his own Hartford Stage connection - he was the associate artistic director in the early 1990s. “He called me a year later and said ‘Well, you’ve got your invitation.’” If it does, this is a play I want to do on the road,’” Thomas said. “When I heard that they were developing it in New York, I called my agent and said ‘Look, this show is going to be good and it’s going to go on the road. He also gives him a sense of humor, which may be the greatest gift.”Ītticus Finch is a role Thomas wanted to play as soon as he heard about it. ![]() The first thing Aaron did in the adaptation was take Atticus off his pedestal and give him a journey. “Certainly that’s the case in my performance in this production and in Aaron’s adaptation. “The odds are against him and he’s just trying to do the right thing,” Thomas said of Finch. The struggle for justice in the segregated South is played out alongside the coming-of-age of Finch’s young daughter Scout and some pressing social issues in the community. Finch is the small-town Alabama lawyer who defends a Black resident, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of raping a white woman. “Is there any other kind?” Yet some might say that Atticus Finch, whom he plays in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” maybe another kind. It was counterintuitive casting and came at just the right time in my life.”Īsked how he came to gravitate toward flawed heroes in classic dramas, Thomas laughed. I was really happy to be offered that part. He was the straightest arrow, but you never knew quite where he was coming from. One of his favorite TV roles in recent years was Frank Gaad, director of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Department, on “The Americans.” ![]() “My Equity card will be 65 next year,” Thomas joked. Thomas continues to stay busy on both TV and the live stage. They were so responsive and ready for whatever was going to be thrown at them.” ![]() “I loved the audience that had been cultivated and developed at Hartford Stage. “Mark and Peter and Bob Wilson - I wouldn’t say Mark was as experimental, but in the same spirit as the festival-style theater or the kind of theater you would see in Germany,” Thomas added. I love working with directors who have a sense of all the things in the production. We were like soulmates when we worked together, it went so beautifully. “Mark and I had a really satisfying mutuality to our collaborations. “Those shows were absolutely at the top of my list in terms of satisfaction,” he said. Among the guests at the “Let’s Celebrate” party were former artistic director Mark Lamos, left and actor Richard Thomas. It was a star-studded walk down memory lane at Hartford Stage during its 50th-anniversary celebration. In an interview with the Courant, Thomas said he only has fond memories of his Hartford Stage period. ![]()
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