February 2008

Dear Subscriber:

Reginald Rose’s riveting courtroom drama, Twelve Angry Men, brings the stifling heat of a New York City summer to our stage as it plays out, in nearly real time, the intense deliberations of a seemingly hung jury determining the fate of a young delinquent accused of murdering his own father. Originally written as a teleplay for CBS’ drama series Studio One, the story took the silver screen by storm in 1957 with Henry Fonda starring as Juror #8—all jurors are identified only by number—the lone holdout whose reasonable doubt stands in the way of what would otherwise be a quick conviction and mandatory death sentence for the unseen defendant. Tempers flare, prejudices emerge and each man is forced to confront himself as this randomly assembled group of strangers grapples with their collective turn at civic duty. Rose (scriptwriter for The Defenders) penned his stage version in 1964 with a London production the same year starring Leo Glenn and directed by Margaret Webster.  In 1997, Showtime produced an updated film version which featured a racially diverse cast. The first-ever Broadway production was mounted by Roundabout Theatre Company in 2004 under Scott Ellis’ direction, earning three Tony Award nominations. And most recently, 2007 saw the 1957 film honored in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

Our production is using the version the Roundabout used, set in 1957 with a historically representative all-male jury, and we are the first theatre outside of the tour to be able to use this script. Though service by women was permitted in the New York City system at the time, it was not the norm, with most prospective female (and minority) jurors being dismissed. This creates a very interesting dynamic with ramifications for both the function of the group and its eventual verdict. Recent studies indicate that while more diverse juries may initially have greater conflict and lower morale than those that are more uniform, these attributes may actually benefit their deliberation process, as they prompt jurors to think more critically rather than just casually acquiescing to the beliefs of dominant group members. We see this play out onstage in a very interesting reverse order, as the initial vote, taken among what is at a glance a fairly uniform group, looks promising for a speedy resolution; however, as the majority work to persuade Juror #8 of their case, they uncover greater differences among themselves than expected and their solidarity and their certainty begin to crumble.

Of course, perspective is everything, and everyone has a unique perspective that follows, in this case, him into the deliberation room. Scott Ellis speaks to this effect in the Roundabout’s Production Study Guide:

All twelve men are going to have a history of how they deal with the world, how they deal with individuals: their prejudices. Everybody is prejudiced, everybody. On one level or another we have prejudices we deal with. I don’t just mean prejudices against black, Hispanic, white, gay or straight...it’s not about that. Prejudice can be as general as someone feeling like, “I shouldn’t be there, I’m above this,” or “I don’t have time for this.” There are those types of feelings, too. Some deal with it better than others. What we bring to the table is so much of what our lives have been up to that point. I think the interesting part is when those things have to be changed or looked at differently. How do you change your perceptions? How do you change a prejudice that is deep-rooted, that has been with you, even if you don’t know it’s there? And there’s nobody on a jury that doesn’t come with that. It’s human nature.

And that is what makes the exchanges between these 12 men so compelling. They are by turns, bigoted, receptive, hostile, rational, impatient, conscientious and, of course, angry. But above all, they are undeniably human, through their deliberations revealing to themselves, each other and us, who they really are.

We are pleased to have Martin Platt back to direct this great cast which includes St. Louis actors James Anthony, Jerry Vogel, Rich Pisarkiewicz, Gary Wayne Barker and Greg Johnston along with returning national players R. Ward Duffy (A Flea in Her Ear), Dane Knell (The Crucible), Greg Thornton (Cyrano), Peter Van Wagner (My Fair Lady) and Craig Wroe (Saint Joan), and new friends Steve Brady, Richmond Hoxie and Jeff Talbott. Together they make an unforgettable collection of types for our jury room which has been designed by Judy Gailen. Claudia Stephens evokes the 1950s in the clothing, and Dan Kotlowitz lights the proceedings. It is worth noting that this play is performed without an intermission.

Having served on three juries, I find the experience onstage in Twelve Angry Men a pretty realistic portrayal of what takes place in that room outside the view of the court. Reginald Rose has written a play that fully captures the mood and sensibility of the very public, yet isolated world of the jury room, a place in which 12 strangers, known only by number, are randomly assigned to make a life or death decision. That is drama—there’s no other word for it. Princeton historian D. Graham Burnett writes in A Trial By Jury—his own response to sitting on a jury for a Manhattan murder trial—"[T]he jury room is a most remarkable—and largely inaccessible—space in our society, a space where ideas, memories, viruses and prejudices clash with the messy stuff of the big, bad world. We expect much of this room, and we think about it less often than we probably should.” Twelve Angry Men invites you into this space to witness the good, the bad and the ugly and will certainly prompt you to think about what transpires behind those locked doors. We look forward to sharing this unique perspective with you.

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf
Artistic Director

P.S.  Major kudos are in order for you, our generous patrons, and our amazing Kiss Me, Kate cast whose curtain speech appeals resulted in $29,000 in contributions to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and St. Louis Effort for AIDS. We are fortunate to work with and in such a giving, compassionate community.