By Dallin Smith
The audience stirred as the theater darkened. The narrator began her first lines in a strong southern drawl.
?In 1935, Macom Alabama is already an old town, a tired old town,? she said. ?In the rainy weather the streets turn to red slop, grass grows on the sidewalk, courthouse sags in the square. Somehow it?s hotter here.?
The narrator?s voice continues as the play begins and the audience shifts and settles into their cushioned seats.
Gayle Hayes Castleton plays the narrator, Miss Maudie, in ?To Kill A Mockingbird? at Hale Centre Theatre. Her character plays a key role in the play. She is most known for the line in which the story gets its name:
?Mockingbirds just make music. They don?t eat up people?s gardens, don?t nest in corn cribs, they don?t do one thing but sing their hearts out. That?s why it?s a sin to kill a mockingbird.?
Michael Fox, the box office manager at Hale Centre Theatre, said he appreciates Castleton?s involvement with the theater.
?Gayle has been in several performances and is fantastic at what she does,? he said. ?She wins all her roles hands down.?
?To Kill a Mockingbird? is the fourth play Castleton has done at Hale Centre Theatre. She has been in plays for most of her life.
?I?ve been doing this since junior high,? she said. ?Any time I could get myself on stage I would.?
Castleton?s experience recently led to her brother, Craig Hayes, into getting involved in acting by playing a minor role in ?To Kill a Mockingbird.? She said her brother had recently retired and she thought he might enjoy participating in the play.
Castleton said she asked him if he would like to be a townsperson or part of the lynch mob and he said ?sure.?
Hayes worded it differently than his sister.
?Gayle called me and said they needed some warm bodies,? he said.
Hayes said he was glad to be in the play. He is an artist and said he plans on using this experience to get involved in stage design.
Both Hayes and his sister said they were happy to be in the play because of the time they were able to spend together.
?We?ve always been really close,? Castleton said. ?But now we have no choice but to sit and visit. Forced closeness- it?s great.?
Castleton and her brother both said they felt the play they shared was important and powerful.
?The show evokes some strong emotions in people,? she said. ?You usually see an audience coming out with a lot of red noses and red eyes.?
Castleton said the eloquent wording in the plays on one?s emotions. As an example, she cited her last words in the play, once again as the narrator.
?None of us ever saw him again, but I saw something else,? she said, referring to Boo Radley, a major character in the play. ?Neighbors bring food with death, flowers with sickness, and Boo Radley was our neighbor. He gave two children a pair of slicked up good luck pennies, a stick of chewing gum, and their lives.?
?To Kill A Mockingbird? is being performed at Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley City, Utah. It began on April 15 and will play through May 21. Ticket prices are $16 Monday through Thursday and for matinees and $19 Friday and Saturday.