Montana's chief public defender and a district court judge will be among the cast in an enactment of the trial scene from "To Kill a Mockingbird" this weekend.

The First Judicial District Bar Association is putting on the production as part of Lewis and Clark Library's Big Read Under the Big Sky program.

Randi Hood, Montana's chief public defender will portray the attorney Atticus Finch. The judge will be portrayed by District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock.

The classic courtroom drama will take place Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol Building.

Lewis and Clark County is part of nearly 200 communities nationwide participating in The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

In Lewis and Clark County, Big Read events revolve around the themes in Harper Lee's novel.

Other upcoming Big Read events:

n A children's program, "Own Your Stuff," on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 10:30 a.m. in the big meeting room of the Lewis and Clark Library.

Elementary-school aged children and their parents can learn about mockingbirds and join in activities following the themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in a program presented by Birds & Beasleys and the Lewis and Clark Library.

n The PBS Documentary "Two Towns of Jasper" -- the East Valley Branch of the Lewis and Clark Library on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m. The branch is located in the East Valley Middle School at 400 N. Kalispell in East Helena.

The feature-length documentary is about the racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas.

n A lecture by Claudia Durst Johnson in the UM-Helena Lecture Hall on Thursday, Oct. 25, from 2 to 3 p.m. Johnson, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries and Understanding to Kill a Mockingbird," will lecture on the historical context of the novel.

UM-Helena is located at 1115 N. Roberts Street, but its main entrance is on Livingston Street.

Johnson taught for 23 years at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, chairing the English Department for 11 years.

Johnson's lecture is sponsored by the UM-Helena Library, Phi Theta Kappa-Beta Omicron Omega Chapter, and the UM-Helena Creative Writing Club.

For more information, contact Patricia Spencer, public information officer for the Lewis and Clark Library at 447-1690 ext 124. All Big Read events are free and open to the public.

A complete listing of events, programs, and book discussion groups is available on line at www.lewisandclarklibrary.org.