Public Theatre of Kentucky plans to show a classic story about issues of misunderstanding and prejudice from the past still rings true today with Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s &#8220To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The play opens at 8 p.m. Friday and runs at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 26. Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for students and seniors and $8 for children under 12. Dale Conway, a paintings-abstract expressionist, is PTK Gallery’s featured artist. An opening night reception hosted by The Baker Arboretum, which is also sponsoring the play, follows the performance.

&#8220To Kill a Mockingbird,” set in the summer of 1935, tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer defending a young black man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. The case affects the lives of Finch’s children, Scout and Jem.

PTK producing director Delia Brown said &#8220To Kill a Mockingbird” is a story that needs to be told again.

&#8220Even to this day we still have the same issues pop up. The story teaches a great lesson that causes people to really stop and think,” she said. &#8220We’ve been wanting to do an adaptation of this for a while, but we couldn’t find one that we liked. It’s a wonderful piece of literature and a good adaptation of the book. It has most of the favorite characters from the book.”

The play shows how there was a great deal of racial injustice in the entire country in those days and how different kinds of people reacted to a racial issue, director Bill Sevedge said.

&#8220It’s also about the struggle of a father trying to get his children to look beyond what everybody else thinks and think for themselves on what is right to do to other people,” he said. &#8220It’s about unconditional love. Although it was written many years ago, it still has validity today.”

Audiences shouldn’t expect to see an onstage replica of the popular 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, Sevedge said. The play focuses on the trial and events that surround it.

&#8220There are aspects of the movie we can’t do. If someone read the novel or saw the movie they may think, ‘This is going to happen,’ ” he said. &#8220You have to pick and choose. Most of what (Sergel) has done won’t make people say, ‘Why did he cut that?’ When you have an intimate setting like PTK, it really helps you feel for the characters.”

Brown agreed.

&#8220Bill Leonard makes the role of (Finch) his own,” she said. &#8220He took my breath away during the read-through.”

Leonard describes Finch as a man who is &#8220very much aware of fairness to all folks.”

&#8220He has become a favorable American icon. Today we would say he believes in civil rights,” he said &#8220He is chosen by the judge to defend Robinson in his trial for life.”

Finch’s relationship with his children is an important part of the story, Leonard said.

&#8220His wife died when the children were young. There’s no doubt he loves and cares for them, but he was not prepared to raise them on his own,” he said. &#8220He had to come to terms with who his children are, that they are more than what he gives them credit for.”

The young actors who play the Finch children – Alyssa Phelps and Connor Lawrence – are from PTK’s Sunburst Youth Theatre, Leonard said.

&#8220It’s a pleasure to interact with them. We’re using children in the children’s roles. A lot of theaters won’t do that. They use teens or young adults to play the roles,” he said. &#8220They’re working as hard, if not harder, than adults in the show.”

Bill Green plays Bob Ewell, whom he describes as &#8220the villain of the piece.”

&#8220He’s an evil man, but he doesn’t think he’s evil. He’s at the absolute bottom of the social structure in that Depression-era town,” he said. &#8220He’s a drunkard, the poorest of the poor. Everybody looks down on him. He’s at the bottom, and he resents it. In a way, his situation makes him (evil).”

Nonetheless, Green said he enjoys playing him.

&#8220It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a good story. I get to snarl and growl. I like playing the villain,” he said. &#8220I’m good at playing heavy southern accents. I grew up in Alabama not many miles away from where this story took place, so the accent is easy for me.”

Sevedge said the cast is doing a great job of bringing &#8220To Kill a Mockingbird” to life.

&#8220I have a bunch of adults who really come in here and work. I have children in the show who are gifted. They are talented and work well together,” he said. &#8220You never know what’s going to happen when you put a group together. It’s fun and a good feeling for me as a director. The cast has put together a good feeling for this story.”

Other cast members include Linda Hill, Stevie Montgomery, Deanna Wilson, Mary Ruth, Don Rehmel, Raed Battah, Robert Karrick, Jessie Varner, Harper Lee, Mike Wilson, Jim &#8220Zeke” Nelson and Iajahnni-Matthew Lewis.

– For more information or to reserve tickets, call the theater box office at 781-6233.