The last thing a demure, genteel southern woman would want to create is a spectacle. So it's no surprise "To Kill A Mockingbird" author Harper Lee, who is described as fiery and eccentric, shrugged at decorum, stunning the literary community with the release of her second novel after a 55-year hiatus.

"Go Set A Watchman," published well after Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Mockingbird," was actually penned first, but shelved in favor of "Mockingbird"'s storyline.

Its resurfacing created quite the sensation. Lee fans who have always hungered for more will have a special opportunity to indulge in all things "Mockingbird" in celebration of the long-lost novel, July 18, Moravian Book Shop, 428 Main St., Bethlehem.

The 1962 film adaptation of "To Kill A Mockingbird," starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham (a Lehigh Valley resident) as Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, will be shown throughout the afternoon up until 5:30 p.m. when actor Jack Armstrong will perform several monologues from the stage version of "Mockingbird." At 6 p.m., Selkie Theatre will present "A Moment With Nelle Harper Lee," directed by George B. Miller and starring Elizabeth McDonald as Harper Lee.

Miller first read "Mockingbird" at the age of nine and was "so enthralled with the characters. I didn't know too much about the social injustices, but I related to the kids in the novel."

While directing Pennsylvania Playhouse's 2014 production of "Mockingbird," Miller decided it "would be wonderful to present before the show Harper Lee herself commenting on her life, the way she was brought up and also about the movie about the novel and then we opened it for questions for the audience.

"We did some extensive research not only in the archives of The New York Times and in newspapers down south in Monroeville [Alabama], but also there are several biographies and we gleaned information from those."

McDonald portrays the famed author. "As I've been reading about her, I really felt this organic sense of oneness with her," she says. "I just felt her kind of seep into me, into everything I read and I felt a very symbiotic relationship with her even though, obviously, I've never met her and there are very few interviews with her because she was such a recluse after she became tired of all of the publicity from 'Mockingbird.' So, it was really just a very thrilling kind of absorption, if you will."

Audiences will also get the chance to satisfy their curiosity about Lee. "It's wonderful. It also can be challenging because you never know what questions people are going to come up with, so that certainly challenges me as an actress and as someone who can only research as thoroughly as I can," McDonald says. "But that also makes it fun because she certainly was and is something of a character and because of that I think I'm able to take some liberties in the way I interact with the audience and that's just a lot of fun. It's been a wonderful, wonderful experience and I just love doing it."

The release of "Go Set A Watchman" adds a new layer to the performance, as well. "The book ... was pretty much the first version that she wrote and then her editors were so taken with the Scout and Jem relationship that they wanted to see her rewrite it as a younger Scout and Jem and from that childhood perspective," McDonald says. Miller describes "Go Set A Watchman" as the first draft of "To Kill A Mockingbird" written "as an older woman coming back, making observations of her father in the town and what has changed in the period since she was a little girl."

The discovery is sure to be referenced in Miller and McDonald's show. "George and I see this as an opportunity now to add a whole new dimension to the piece. So that's going to be very exciting to work on. Difficult also. It will be a challenge but that's what's nice about this piece that George and I have developed. It's a living, breathing piece of theater. And I think that's will keep it fresh and dynamic and certainly interesting for me as an actress." McDonald says.

Says Miller, "We open an idea and it's working very well about a conversation with afterwards questions and answers and we get some very unusual questions and I'm sure some of them are going to comment on 'Go Set A Watchman,' so we're going to have to be extremely sharp and read the book several times before we do our performance on the 18th."

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is a humorous, touching and entertaining book even while it centers on themes of injustice and racism. "I want the audience to understand exactly what the book is about and exactly where we are today. If you listen to Harper Lee or ask questions of her at our presentation at the Moravian Book Shop, you will see that it is important for us to understand the ideas and opinions of yesteryear are still with us today. After all that has happened in the 60's and 70's and 80's we still should be affected by that injustice," says Miller.

"I have written this piece along with Elizabeth because we believe in Harper Lee, who she is and what she wrote about. We would like to make it clear that I am an interlocker here, introducing Harper to the audience. Sometimes she is a bit cantankerous and we never know what she's going to do when she does the presentation or what she's going to say so we have to be very careful to make sure that it's kosher for the rest of the audience to hear."

McDonald adds, "I'm hoping that I'm doing justice to her spirit and that her personality and her intellect because she has a wonderful spirit, wonderful personality and terrific intellect and I'm hoping that I'm bringing those things together and that she's coming through as a very still vital woman even though now she's 89-years-old."

McDonald is honored to be a part of the event at the Moravian Book Shop. "I believe it is the oldest continuing bookstore in the country and it just has a wonderful reputation and it's just a wonderful gem in the community and to be able to do this performance there, it's just a great fit, I think," she says. "George and I are very much looking forward to it. I am just deeply, deeply grateful and honored that George chose me to do this and has been working with me and it's been a great joy in my life."

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