Atticus Finch is a role that I have long dreamed of playing. One of the plusses, I guess you could say of middle age, meant that I was now old enough to play him! So when the season was announced, I put my hat in the ring for the part and I was fortunate enough to get the role. Preparing for the role has been fun, exhilirating, at times stressful and always rewarding. I have drawn on my experiences raising my own daughters and also growing up in a small southern town, Shelbyville, TN., in the 1960’s. While integration, for the most part, had taken place in the schools by then, I can still remember the impact it had on my elementary school. I can also remember the “colored section” in the old movie theater up on the square in downtown Shelbyville. That had also pretty much gone by the wayside thank goodness during my early formative years, but the entrance to the stairs leading up to the colored section was still there.Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a pretty laid back kind of guy which is one of the characteristics of Atticus, but he also needs to have some fire in him to persuade the jury of Tom’s innocence. My main challenge has been to clearly represent a multi-faceted human being capable of rearing two children in a loving but responsible way as well as face the challenges of defending Tom Robinson, which could not have been an easy task in 1935 Maycomb, Alabama!
(Victor Clark as Atticus Finch)