Students lead the play. Courtesy | The Sauk Theatre

Student-led play “Mockingbird” will premiere on April 5 at The Sauk Theatre in downtown Jonesville.  

The show, sponsored by Playford Real Estate in Jonesville, has additional performances on April 6 at 7:30 p.m. and  on April 7 at 3 p.m.. Admission costs will be $10 for a reserved seat and tickets at the box office will be on a “pay-what-you-can” rate. 

The play, featuring nine local Hillsdale teenagers, is the first of many student-led showcases for The Sauk according to Trinity Bird, executive director of The Sauk Theatre. 

“Mockingbird” is intended to bring awareness to significant social issues, Bird said. 

The play is a story about an 11-year-old girl on the autism spectrum named Caitlin Smith. A traumatic shooting takes place at her school and her older brother Devon is killed, according to Bird. Smith learns how to navigate the loss of her brother, her mental disabilities, and the post-traumatic stress from the shooting. 

Atticus Maas, who plays the role of Caitlin’s antagonist, said the focus of the play is Caitlin navigating her emotions after the shooting. 

“It’s from the perspective of Caitlin, who is an autistic girl and how she’s dealing with everything happening around her,” Maas said.

Bird said he chose the play to draw out social issues and could bring awareness to the local community. 

“The idea was to pick a social issue or something that could speak to modern day,” Bird said.

Samuel Guest, a member of the cast, said the play is communicating serious and emotional subject matter. 

“We realize how somber the subject matter is, but we want this show to be really accessible to everyone,” he said. 

“Mockingbird” is the first play produced through a youth theatre program Bird intended to launch in March of 2020. The program finally got its start this year. 

The program is an opportunity for local teens to be involved in theatre as well as learn valuable life lessons, Bird said. They can use it as a creative outlet. 

“The whole idea for the theatre project is that the students make 99% of the decisions,” he said. “They set the budget. They pick the ticket prices. They approve all the costumes.”

The theatre held auditions for the play and advertised it throughout Hillsdale County.  

The goal for the project was to make social issues a comfortable conversation within schools, especially mental disabilities since April is autism awareness month, Bird said. 

Although Bird intended for the student groups to choose or screen write the plays, he chose the first production to include prevalent social issues. 

Bird attended a theatre conference at the American Association of Community Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky where he saw “Mockingbird” for the first time. 

“In the middle of it I knew that ‘This is the play,’” he said.