The show will go on: New Harper Lee nonprofit will put on 'Mockingbird' play at her hometown museum
A nonprofit headed by Harper Lee and her lawyer is taking over the annual theater production of To Kill a Mockingbird at a museum once targeted for allegedly violating the author’s trademarks and rights of publicity.
The executive director of the Monroe County Heritage Museum is out of a job, and the nonprofit will produce the play for the museum, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The nonprofit’s president is 89-year-old Lee and its vice president is lawyer Tonja Carter.
Lee never saw the plays produced by the museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, because she wasn’t consulted about the annual production, according to the Wall Street Journal. The story says the new development shows Carter is “widening her ambit as protector of the Harper Lee brand.”
Paving the way for the nonprofit production, the company that owns the rights to the Mockingbird play decided not to renew the museum’s license for the performances. Now the company, Dramatic Publishing, is negotiating with Lee’s nonprofit to give it exclusive rights to produce the play in the Monroeville area for multiple years.
The nonprofit will pay rent to the museum and will contribute any remaining money from ticket sales to charities.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Carter’s husband, Patrick Carter, joined the museum board this year after its president sought him out, hoping to repair the museum’s relationship with Lee.
