Tessa LaFleur, daughter of Susanna and Gary LaFleur and granddaughter of John and Sallie Lamers, appeared in the major role of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch in the play "To Kill A Mockingbird," presented March 15-18, 2007 by the Nicholls State University Players in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Scout is the play's narrator and central figure whose childhood innocence exposes the illogical and hypocritical prejudices that exist in her town.

From the Playbill: Welcome to Maycomb, Alabama --1935! Here is the rural South of our fondest memories and of our worst nightmares as the Nicholls State University Players present "To Kill a Mockingbird." It is part of the wonder of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel and of Christopher Sergel's skillful dramatization that we see it all through the eyes of the adult Jean Louise Finch and, closer to our hearts, her pre-adolescent self, Scout. At the emotional center of this story is Scout's coming of age, and especially her growing respect for, even intimacy with, her noble but distant father, Atticus.

How far we have come in the last 70 years -- thanks in no small measure to those twin pillars of the modern, progressive South: air-conditioning and Civil Rights. Yet, how easily we are drawn back to the seductive renderings of memory -- to that time in history when, as a child, we seemed to be so much more alive because everything, our fears as well as out hopes, seemed so freshly minted. The play is a journey into the past -- not just into an earlier, often more frightening time in the American South, but into that earlier stage through which we all journeyed and so often have need to revisit, into the mystery and wonder of childhood.

From the reviews: Nicholls Players' production of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" proves several things. One is that veteran actors are right when they say they don't want to play against children. Tessa LaFleur's scintillating version of Scout outshone her elders, as solid as those performances were. Another is that local theater can provide serious drama. And another thing the drama proves is that, though the setting is 1935 Alabama, the truth it brings to light is as near and as up to date as home.
Tessa LaFleur captures those moments in Scout's life when, though she can still be lost in the wonderment of the world, she first begins to see a grown-up reality that is not so beautiful. The most powerful scene in the drama is after the trial. Atticus slowly collects his things and begins to walk out of the courtroom. Everyone rises respectfully, and Reverend Sykes tells Scout, "Miss Jean Louise! Miss Jean Louise! Stand up -- your father's passing."

Because the play has three main characters who are children, the Nicholls Players had to look outside the university for actors and put out an open casting call. Tessa LaFleur, a fourth-grader at St. Joseph Elementary School in Thibodaux, answered the call. LaFleur, who plays a pivotal role, has been acting at the Nicholls Performing Arts Camp for two years. She learns her lines by practicing with her mother, Susanna.