Bog Theatre stages comeback with 'Mockingbird'

Up until now, Kit Fitzgerald of Arlington Heights had reserved her best dramatic work for getting her brother in trouble, or drawing a foul on the soccer field.

All that changed this month as the 9-year old stars as Scout, in the Bog Theatre's season opener, "To Kill A Mockingbird," at the historic Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge.

Shows continue at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, leading up to closing night at 7 p.m. Oct. 21, which will take the place of the Sunday matinee.

The role of Scout is pivotal to the story, as audience members learn of the racism and bigotry in the racially divided Alabama town through the innocent eyes of this young girl.

"It's very, very exciting," says Fitzgerald, a fourth-grader at Dryden Elementary School in Arlington Heights. "I've never been in a professional play before."

In fact, her only other credits include two children's plays at the School of the Metropolis Performing Arts Center, and an occasional performance at school.

"We don't really get to do plays until middle school," Fitzgerald adds.

She is joined in the cast by two of her Dryden classmates, fourth-graders Jonah Tomko-Smith, Director Dan Tomko's son, who plays her brother, Jem, and Garrett Strother, who plays the role of their friend, Dill.

Both are newcomers to the stage, and would more likely be outside playing basketball or soccer than attending rehearsals nearly every day after school.

"Dill is kind of like me," Strother says. "He's got this mischievous, funny side to him. But he's a really important character. He's the one who figures out what's happening, and it's heartbreaking."

Dan Tomko says the spontaneity of the children was just what he was looking for when casting the play.

"They're not actor kids, they're just kids," Tomko says. "So in that way, it's sort of like art imitating life, as these kids are exposed to the uglier side of life that is exposed in this play."

The young actors are surrounded by a cast of seasoned professional actors, including Evanston resident Jim McCance as Atticus Finch, and Magica Bottari as Miss Maudie, and Nadirah Bost as Calpurnia, both of Chicago.

Tomko says he chose Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel to open his new season, because of its depth and timeless appeal.

"Everyone loves this show," Tomko says. "It's accessible to so many people."

The show kicks off a new season and a new start for the Bog Theatre. After mounting plays in the old Masonic Temple in downtown Des Plaines for eight years, from 1992 to 2000, and renting space at Prairie Lakes Community Theater in Des Plaines and the Metropolis Performing Arts Center, the company closed in 2003.

Now, re-energized with its new home, company officials have put together a season of favorite shows, or the "best of the Bog." Subsequent shows this season include: Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," and John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," as well as children's theater productions of "The Velveteen Rabbit," "Charlotte's Web" and "Alice in Wonderland."

If you go

What: Bog Theatre's presentation of "To Kill A Mockingbird"

When: 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, leading up to closing night at 7 p.m. Oct. 21, which will take the place of the matinee.

Where: Pickwick Theatre, 5 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge

Cost: $25 for general admission and $22 for students and seniors

Web: www.bogtheatre.com