News Nearby

Lionheart Theatre Spotlight: Alexis Seith as 'Scout'

The middle-school student has lead role in "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the Norcross community theater.

Twelve-year-old Alexis Seith of Duluth is playing "Scout" in "To Kill a Mockingbird" at Lionheart Theatre in Norcross. The play opens Friday, April 26, and runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through May 12. Alexis started acting at age 6 when she played "Zuzu" in the New Dawn Theater production of "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Red Clay Theater. She has appeared in several local community theater productions at New Dawn Theater and in Drama Club plays at Chattahoochee Elementary School. She is really excited to play Scout, her first real lead.  "The people at Lionheart have been so nice!" she said. "It's been a wonderful experience." Seith is a sixth grader at Duluth Middle School. She is a gifted student and a …

• Photos (9)

Classic American Literature on the Chopping Block

U.S. schools are dropping classic books from curriculum in favor of "informational texts."

I can remember the feeling of my world expanding as a student when I sat in a bright classroom and read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The discussions that unfolded about the wrongs of discrimination stayed with me to this day. Scout became my hero and my heart yearned to one day marry a man with the moral integrity of Atticus Finch.  Young people today will no longer be given the opportunity to learn from the trial of Tom Robinson. To Kill a Mockingbird, and other American literature classics such as The Catcher in the Rye, are being dropped from classrooms to be replaced by manuals and plant inventories by the year 2014.  Suggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the the US Environmental Protection …

• Photos (1)