to make it all the way to monroeville, alabama, you have to really want to be there. 6,500 is not exactly on the map of the average tourist, but signs of its favorite daughter, harper lee, are everywhere. >> to bible to come in and just experience the rural community feel here and be able to walk the town square mean as lot. >> reporter: will ruzic is the executive director of development for the region. people come here for a live performance of "to kill a mockingbird." the play, based on lee's 1960 novel, is put on by people from the community. >> this is something we rely on. it's a tremendous tourist attraction, always has been for years. >> did you ever see yours as an actor? >> never. >> what was your reaction when they asked you to do it? >> well, i laughed it off. i ig nodder the emails and phone calls. i just assumed this was a joke. having never been on stage, you don't take on one of the most iconic roles in american literature. >> but that's exactly what's been happening here the past 29 years. ruzic just finished his year as a small town role lawyer attic

i had always wanted to see monroeville, and i had done these southern driving trips, but i never made it to town where harper lee was born and raised. you know, not that the novel is purely autobiographical, but it bears a strong resemblance to town in the novel. i wanted to see it. so in 2017, you know, for 50 years harper lee had said i'm never publishing another book, and she often announced in her 80s that she's publishing this book, and her older sister who had been her caretaker and kind of business manager had died a few months before that, and there were all these questions about the prove nance of that manuscript and about her ability to consent to publication. and so reporters from everywhere went down and was hooking into that book when i found out about this other book she had tried to write. and it was interesting and strange, and, you know, given a thousand years i would never have guessed it's what harper lee was up to in the years after "to kill a mockingbird." the more i looked at it, the more interesting it was, and the more original people were alive. music to a rep