‘Mockingbird’ on stage

Mention “To Kill a Mockingbird” to even the most casual moviegoer and the image of Gregory Peck delivering his Oscar-winning performance in defense of a man wrongly accused of rape probably will come immediately to mind.

And, how many cinemaphiles are aware that Catherine Keener, playing an assistant’s role to Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman in last year’s “Capote,” was enacting the author of “Mockingbird,” Harper Lee?

Lee’s novel and the ensuing movie aren’t the only incarnations of this timeless story of Southern justice. There is a stage version, rarely produced, which also brings the characters of Atticus Finch; his daughter, Scout; the accused, Tom Robinson; and the other human elements of the drama into immediate focus.

This production, under the banner of the Newport Beach Repertory Theater, will be presented for a two-weekend engagement, June 15 to 18 and 23 to 25, at the company’s latest venue, the Lyceum Theater at Vanguard University. It’s under the direction of Robert Michael Conrad, Newport Beach Repertory’s longtime artistic director.

“ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was especially meaningful when it was written in 1960 and continues to have a poignancy in today’s world,” Conrad said. “Atticus Finch represents the hero that lies in us all that can change our way of viewing and understanding our commonality in the human race.”

Heading the Newport cast as Atticus will be John Savage, with Madeline Jenkins playing his daughter, and Mike Ransom as his young son, Jem. Taylor Smith is their playmate, Dill, and Ray Dennis will enact the accused Tom Robinson.

Others in the “Mockingbird” cast are Gregory Carbone, Snddra Mahanna, Russ Reck, Sasha Stewart, April Zahr, Margo Frasco, Steven Leffler, Lidia Martinez, Tara Meyer, Scot Miler and Laura Karalius.

The Newport Beach Repertory Theater was born a dozen years ago as the Irvine Repertory Theater, staging productions in local school auditoriums and sponsored by the city’s Adult Education Department.

When Irvine could no longer sponsor the program, the Newport Beach Parks, Beaches and Recreation Department stepped in, and the name of the group was changed.

With Conrad continuously at the helm, the group has mounted such productions as the nonmusical versions of “Les Miserables” and “Phantom of the Opera,” along with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Hot L Baltimore,” “Titanic” and, for the younger playgoers, “The Jungle Book.”

This year’s youth show will be “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” scheduled from Aug. 3 through 6, and the annual “Wonderful Life” from Dec. 1 through 10, both at Vanguard’s Lyceum Theater, 55 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.