Although I do think that producer Scott Rudin is being a bit of a meany, the Feb. 28 AP story in the Monitor claiming that the current Broadway production “is the only version allowed to be performed” is inaccurate.
In 1969, a contract between Harper Lee and Dramatic Publishing Company prohibited production of any adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird within 25 miles of any city with a population of 150,000 or more in 1960 at the some time as “a first-class dramatic play” based on the novel is playing in New York or on tour.
As Rudin acknowledges (and was quoted so in the article), the adaptation by Christopher Sergel, long beloved by amateur groups, “can contractually continue to be performed under set guidelines.” He is referring to the 25-mile limit. I see no reason why the Sergel version could not be performed in Concord or in thousands of other places in the United States.
ROBERT S. PINGREE
Concord