CORONA — Taryn Sacramone, managing director of the Queens Theatre, has thought a lot about "To Kill a Mockingbird" over the past year.
The classic book was on her mind as lawmakers voted to take down the Confederate flag in South Carolina, and other events that "had our entire country talking about race and justice and progress — or lack thereof," she said.
She thought about it all over again when Harper Lee's related book, "Go Set a Watchman," was released.
"When the book came out there was all this controversy," she said, referring to the revelation that the book's main hero, Atticus Finch, was a racist.
"You realized how many people cared so deeply about who Atticus is, that it would be such an important conversation. ... I thought, this would be a great time to put it on stage."
"To Kill a Mockingbird," the play, will premiere Nov. 13 at the theater, the first of an eight-show public performance.
The book is required reading in most schools, and the film is a classic.
But director Rob Urbinati said he tries to push past people's perceptions when he translates it to the stage.
"When you work with classic material, a book and film people remember, I feel the best thing to do is to forget about that," he said.
"You focus on what's going on right now, in this moment, in this theater, on this stage."
The Queens Theatre at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. (DNAinfo/Katie Honan)
Many themes in the book, released in 1960, remain relevant in 2015, he said. His focus is to make it come alive in the present day.
"You just have to trust that you have great material," he said. "Like a good Shakespeare play or another class play, it holds up for many interpretations."
Actress Shannon Harrington, 11, plays the narrator, Scout — a tomboy growing up during the Depression in the South.
The Toms River, New Jersey native has watched the movie, and is reading the book, to get a feel for her role.
"You really have to research," she said. "You can't just go up on stage and say you can embody this character. You shortchange the audience."
Sacramone hopes to attract a diverse audience to the show, which runs through Nov. 22.
"There's something about the fact that the story is so enduring, generation after generation," she said.
"It's rare that you get to discover it on stage. I think that it's going to be a good thing."
