Harper Lee’s timeless classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is coming to the Saenger Theatre in Mobile on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. The Mockingbird Players from Monroeville will present the stage adaptation of Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel as part of a fund-raiser benefitting residents of the Westminster Village Retirement Community in Spanish Fort.

A pre-performance reception will take place from 5 until 6:30 at the Centre for the Living Arts, Third Floor Conference Room and Terrace, 301 Conti St. in Mobile, featuring “A Maycomb County Picnic Supper” catered by Martha Rutledge.

Entertainment for the reception will be provided by the Mockingbird Play Gospel Choir, and the special guest will be Mary Badham, the Oscar-nominated actress, who at age 10 portrayed Mary Louise “Scout” Finch opposite Gregory Peck in the acclaimed 1962 film version. Badham will take questions from the theater audience as well.

“I’ll also be trying to make the point that we really need to pay attention to our kids, spend time with them and make sure they get a good education,” Badham said Friday.

The Birmingham area native and mother of two (her daughter is 25, and a son adopted from Calcutta, India at 13 months is now 15) said kids need to turn off the television and log off the Internet and spend more time reading.

The 55-year-old former actress spends some of her time these days restoring art, and has many clients whose treasures were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. She also devotes many days a year traveling and speaking about Mockingbird.

“I just got back from Russia,” Badham said. “We’ve really done a number on our reputation. We need to pull this country up and make it the great country it once was. It means kids need to get off their keisters. There’s no way we can better ourselves if our education department is lacking.”

Although she sees some schools as just “schlepping along” because administrators’ hands are tied by misguided regulations and overwhelming paperwork, Badham said others are stepping up to the plate and overcoming the bureaucracy. Teachers and librarians deserve our thanks, she added.

Badham encourages parents to travel with their children as a way of expanding their world view. She said, “Kids need to meet people from other areas. There’s so much for them to see, and it will teach them how to get along with others.”

Looking beyond differences is a primary theme in the book, play and movie.

Lee based Maycomb County on Monroe County, Ala., where she was born and raised. Like Atticus Finch, her father was a lawyer, but in a 1962 interview with John K. Hutchens of the New York Herald Tribune, Lee noted that’s where the similarities end.

“It is and it isn’t autobiographical,” Lee said. “For instance, there is not an incident in it that is factual. The trial, and the rape charge that brings on the trial, are made up out of a composite of such cases and charges … What I did present as exactly as I could were the clime and tone, as I remember them, of the town in which I lived. From childhood on, I did sit in the courtroom watching my father argue cases and talk to juries.”

Badham said part of her own life mirrors Scout’s, however. She was a tomboy growing up in the rural South. Her family also had someone in their home who cooked and helped take care of the children, just as the Finches did.

It is that Southern upbringing that in part keeps Badham so attached to her most famous role.

“It’s a heavy responsibility,” she said. “I enjoy it because I travel and meet the kids, and hopefully do my part in helping the country and the world be a better place. I do it because it’s such a great book and film to help us through the problems we have nowadays.”

She said the world issues of ignorance, bigotry and racism are addressed effectively in Mockingbird, and we have much to learn from its lessons.

Peck, who played Atticus, holds a special place in Badham’s heart. She said she lost her parents early in life (her mom died shortly after Badham’s high school graduation, and her dad passed away two years after she married at age 21). Peck maintained a close relationship with her, and was a surrogate dad, until his 2003 death.

Badham said, “It was nothing for him to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey kiddo. What are you up to?’”

Peck pointed out in more than one interview that Atticus Finch was a role that most suited his personality.

“He grew up in a town much like that,” Badham said. “Everything he portrayed were beliefs he held in real life. He raised his kids like Atticus did — firm, but gentle.”

Her favorite scene, she said, was the bedroom scene where Scout reads to Atticus. She said, “We had that wonderful little moment together.”

Atticus tucked her into bed during that scene, but Badham noted, “That never would have actually happened because of the social structure of the day.”

Badham was also close to Brock Peters, who played Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a white woman. Peters died from pancreatic cancer in August 2005.

Badham likewise maintained a lifelong friendship with Mockingbird producer Alan J. Pakula. He died suddenly in 1998 when a pipe lying in the roadway was run over by another motorist, and it flew into the windshield of his car.

Another good friend she met during Mockingbird, composer Elmer Bernstein, died in 2004. And John Megna, who played Scout and Jem’s friend, Charles Baker “Dill” Harris, died from AIDS-related complications in 1995.

“It was a hard few years,” Badham said. “It’s hard to talk about because I feel alone sometimes.”

She had the pleasure of appearing on-screen briefly alongside the then up-and-coming Robert Duval. Badham said, “He’s an incredible actor — a very talented man. I didn’t get to know him very well. We only had a few days together, and he stayed in character.”

Another who stuck to his role throughout the production was method actor James Anderson, who played the menacing Robert E. Lee “Bob” Ewell. It was Ewell’s daughter, Mayella, who Robinson was accused of raping.

“He made everybody’s hair stand on end because he stayed in character from the time he was called on the set,” Badham said. “He walked up to (Peck) and said something to him. (From then on) they were spitting venom at each other from across the room.” In reality, Anderson was reportedly a very nice man.

“Paul Fix was one of the greatest loves of my life,” she said of the character actor who portrayed Judge Taylor. Fix appeared in more than 300 films during his career, and was a familiar face on television. “He was such a sweetheart.”

Badham continued, saying, “We really became a family, and we kept in touch with one another. That’s very rare. It was a special cast and crew.”

The Mockingbird Players are renowned as well. The amateur theater group have performed the play to sold-out crowds at the old Monroe County Courthouse since 1991. The players are all volunteers from the community who share a love of the story and the county’s heritage.

The group gained international attention in 1996 when they were invited to perform at the Jerusalem, Israel International Cultural Festival, where they were well received.

In 1998 and 2004, they traveled to Kingston-upon-Hull, England for performances, and in 2000, they took their production on the road to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where the show ran for five nights.

Tickets for the single Mobile performance (now on sale at the Saenger Box Office) are $100 for the main floor and loge ($65 tax deductible), $75 for lower balcony seating ($40 tax deductible) and $50 for the upper balcony ($15 tax deductible). Group ticket packages are available.

Limited tickets (350) to the reception are available for $50 each, and are available at Page & Palette in Fairhope; Private Gallery in the Eastern Shore Centre in Spanish Fort; through Westminster Village (call (251) 626-4324); Private Gallery in Legacy Village in Mobile; and Martha Rutledge Catering in Mobile.

All proceeds go to the Westminster Village Foundation.

“(The foundation) was established in 1991 to provide the resources for the benefit of the residents,” said Gordon Kolb, director of development for the nonprofit, 501(c)3 retirement community. “It funds programs and program enrichments, and assists residents who need financial assistance in the future.”

Kolb said $900,000 in improvements to the facilities and programs were funded by the foundation, which has Westminster residents seated on its board. The organization has also been heavily involved in community projects as well, he said, including donations to Spanish Fort School.

Westminster Village is a life care community for ages 62 and older, which opened in 1983. It is owned by Presbyterian Retirement Corp., Kolb said.

There are around 400 residents at Westminster, who receive four levels of care: independent living, assisted living, skilled care and dementia care.

“We support the enrichment programs for residents,” he said. “One of our primary functions has been the addition of equipment and special care for the nursing home section.”

The foundation is also responsible for funding the library and other amenities that residents enjoy.

Kolb is excited about the Sept. 6 play, something he calls the “signature main event” for Westminster’s 25th anniversary.

“We’re really looking forward to (Mary Badham) coming,” he said. “It should be a special time.”

For those who would like to take advantage of the group ticket packages, they are:

Buy 10 $100 tickets, and receive five more at no additional cost. With the purchase of eight $100 tickets, three complimentary tickets will be received.

You will receive five complimentary $75 tickets with the purchase of 10 tickets at that level, and two free $50 tickets when you purchase 10 upper balcony admissions.

Tickets must all be purchased at the same time to receive the group package rates.

For more information about tickets, call the Saenger Theatre Box Office at (251) 208-5600. To find out more about the performance and the reception, call (251) 626-4324.