It’s such a beautiful story, and I think it really offers an important springboard for conversation for both children and parents.” She’s dealing with her own feelings, while trying to understand her father and everyone else searching for closure. But because of the specific difficulties facing our main character, she is quite literally discovering what it means to have empathy.

It’s about a community responding to violence.

“For me, this show is really about empathy. It’s shocking to think that we are literally responding to what is happening in our schools right now.”īased on the award-winning book by Kathryn Erskine and adapted for the stage by Julie Jensen, “Mockingbird” centers on Caitlin, an 11-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome, who must navigate the complicated emotions surrounding grief and loss when her older brother is killed in a school shooting. “But ‘Mockingbird’ is so current, so of the moment. “Usually, we tell stories that are very ‘Once upon a time,’” Nolan says. More: Why Tennessee students say they are speaking out after the Florida school shooting But there's no way he could have known just how timely that conversation would be, in light of the recent shooting that took place in Parkland, Fla. On the first day of rehearsals for its upcoming production of “Mockingbird,” Nashville Children’s Theatre Executive Artistic Director Ernie Nolan spoke to the cast and crew about the play’s themes of understanding and healing in the wake of school violence.

Mockingbird book autism