GL_122817

20 | December 28, 2017 | The glenview lantern life & arts
glenviewlantern.com
South’s ‘Twelve Angry Jurors’ leaves no room for debate
Neil Milbert
Freelance Reporter
“Superlative” and
“compelling” are the
words that best describe
the performance of the
student actors at Glenbrook
South in their winter
play, “Twelve Angry
Jurors.”
The play is a Sherman
Sergel adaptation of
Reginald Rose’s classic
“Twelve Angry Men.”
In the GBS performances
on Dec. 14-15 in the
Lyceum, Director Beth
Barber’s cast was made
up of eight young ladies
and four young men.
The plot featured the
80 minutes of jury room
deliberations in the case
of a 19-year-old man on
trial for the murder of
his father with a switch
blade in the father’s
apartment.
When the vote was taken
at the start of the play,
it was 11-1 to find the defendant
guilty.
The lone dissenter was
Juror No. 8, played by El
Eavenson, who was deeply
troubled because she
was unable to conclude
beyond reasonable doubt
that the defendant was
guilty, even though the
evidence was overwhelming
in the minds of most
of the other jurors.
Tempers flared, which
led to angry outbursts and
confrontations, when Juror
No. 8 insisted that the
jurors conduct a painstaking
review of the testimony
and the evidence.
The most vehement of
her adversaries were Juror
No. 3, played by Kayla
Kraft, and Juror No. 10,
played by Marina Madsen.
During the course of the
impassioned and borderline
physical exchanges,
reasonable doubt gradually
began creeping into the
minds of the other jurors
as they wrestled with their
decision. In the course of
these arguments, a few of
the jurors’ prejudices and
preconceptions came to
the fore.
Some came to favor declaring
this a hung jury,
thereby leaving the case
for a new jury to decide,
but Juror No. 8 pleaded
with them to continue
deliberating and to begin
questioning the reliability
of the witnesses’ testimony.
However, there is no
reasonable doubt on
the verdict for the quality
of the cast of the
GBS adaptation. The actors
played their roles to
perfection.
Joining Eavenson, Kraft
and Madsen in the cast
were Abby Neptun, in the
role of Madam Foreperson;
Kat Cooper, as Juror
No. 2; Allie Vogelmeier,
as Juror No. 4; Michael
McNeela, as Juror No. 5;
Jakobe Rabor, as Juror
No. 6, Natalie Kahan, as
Juror No. 7; Lauren Bundy,
as Juror No. 9; Joey
Rigney, as Juror No. 11;
Jack Taylor, as Juror No.
12; Clara Blackwell, as
the guard outside the jury
room; Tadhg O’Connor,
as the judge; and Hannah
Glaser, as the clerk of
court.
Glaser also served as
the understudy for Juror
No. 7; Blackwell served
as understudy for Juror
No. 9; and Tadhg served
as understudy for Juror
No. 11.
Katie Durow, who was
understudy for Juror No.
2, and Robin Woitesek,
who was understudy for
Juror No. 10, were the director’s
assistants.
The understudies all
had the opportunity to
perform in the roles of jurors
at the 4 p.m. performance
on Dec. 14.
The actresses cast in
the leading roles all had
appeared in many previous
productions at GBS.
It was the 10th show for
Eavenson and the ninth
for Kraft. Madsen also has
been involved in many
shows.
Barber, who teaches
theater and English at
GBS, has directed countless
productions during
her 30 years on the faculty.
Prefacing the performance
of “Twelve Angry
Jurors” was a 12-minute
slide presentation, showing
pictures of individuals
who later were found
to have been wrongfully
convicted of murder, as
well as details of their
cases and their sentences.
Among those ultimately
found innocent were some
who were executed after
receiving the death penalty.
The slide show established
the theme for the
play, and it concluded
with a quote from Voltaire:
“It is better to risk
saving a guilty man than
condemning an innocent
one.”
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