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22 | May 24, 2018 | The frankfort station life & arts
frankfortstation.com
‘12 Angry Jurors’ a study in human character
T.J. Kremer III
Contributing Editor
Curtain Call Theatre in Mokena
is currently preparing for
its next production, “12 Angry
Jurors,” a classic 1950s play
and movie based on a jury deliberating
a murder trial of a
19-year-old-man, updated for
today’s audience by including
females in the cast. The
Frankfort Station sat down
with some of the cast and crew
to find out what audiences can
expect when the play makes
its two-weekend run from
June 15-17, and June 22-24.
Frankfort Station: How difficult
has it been preparing for
a role where you’re onstage
during the entire play?
Joshua Reid, of Mokena,
“Juror No. 6”: It is a little bit
trickier... The main difference
is you never stop acting, even
if you don’t have a line, you
still have to be onstage performing,
reacting to everyone
else and selling the whole idea
of a jury room and the tension
that goes along with it.
Jacob Tolbert, LW West
grad, “Juror No. 5”: It’s really
interesting because you
have to act the whole time.
You can’t just say your piece
and sit down. I like it because
it keeps you on your toes. For
me, it’s more stimulating because
I’m on stage the whole
time. I get to act, I get to react
to everything that’s going
on. I’m there from the beginning
to the end. I don’t miss
any of the action… Everyone’s
seeing everything at the
same time. It’s very intimate.
There’s nothing that can be
hidden. And that’s really, really
interesting in developing
a relationship with the cast and
in building the character.
Adam Griffiths, of Mokena,
“Juror No. 4”: I’ll be the guy
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wearing Depends, as the elder
statesman of the group. For
me this will be the most static
role that I’ve ever done … The
previous show’s I’ve done
have been all chaos and farce;
this is one of those where we
have to be seriously conscious
of every minute moment and
focus and expression, because
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Cast members of Curtain Call Theatre’s “12 Angry Jurors”
rehearse a tension-filled part of the play on May 8.
T.J. Kremer III/22nd Century Media
there is no escape, there is no
prep for that next scene, you
prep as you go… The minimalist
of it is more challenging
than I realized.
Drew Morin, of Mokena,
“Juror No. 8”: As far as being
what they call, “off book,” that
doesn’t help me. I’m going
to drop four lines and somebody’s
going to have to pick
them up for me throughout
the run of the show, and I’m
already mentally prepared
for that embarrassment. But
I actually like being onstage
because then you don’t have
to worry about entering at
the wrong time. You’re there,
you’re not going to break the
curtain at the wrong time.
FS: What are some of the
tips and tricks you’re giving
the cast in terms of helping
pick each other up when one
may be forgetting a line or
something is just out of order?
Donna White, Frankfort,
assistant director: [Director]
Jaimey [Kennedy] is more the
seasoned veteran on that one,
and what she’s been trying to
let everybody know is kind of
have an idea of what the person
ahead of you is saying,
so if they drop, if they forget,
you’re able to either pick it
up, ad lib and move on, or you
can kind of cover. They can
kind of cover for each other if
things get dropped.
FS: The play is 60 years
If you’re going…
What: “12 Angry Jurors”
When: 7:30 p.m. June 15-16; 2 p.m. June 17; 7:30
p.m. June 22-23; 2 p.m. June 24
Where: 11112 Front St. in Mokena.
General admission is $20. Tickets can be purchased
online at ccctheatre.com, or by calling the box office at
(708) 607-2281
Upcoming performances
• Emily McCabe Musical Theatre Program is currently
holding registration for its summer productions of
“Singin’ in the Rain, Jr.” (June 11 camp starts for
children in grades 4-8, performances July 13-15) and
“Bugs!” (June 11 camp starts for children in grades
K-3, performance July 5).
• Summer Stock Theatre’s presentation of “Urinetown,
the Musical” scheduled for July 19-22.
old now. But, if it was being
written for the first time today,
what themes do you think
would stay the same and what
might be different?
DM: It feels timely, despite
the facts of the crime itself
wouldn’t work today, the attitudes,
the characters, you
know these guys, or you’ve
met them, whether you consider
yourself friends with
them or not. The earliest social
justice warriors are in this
play, and the reasons they exist
are also in this play.
FS: To follow up on that
point, are today’s juries more
polarized than they’ve been in
the past as a result of politics,
as a result of the widening gap
between the socioeconomic
classes? Would the juries be
able to communicate as effectively
today as what we’re
going to see on the stage at
Curtain Call?
JT: Me, personally, it feels
like a lot less things were taken
for granted back then… At
the end of this play, everyone
leaves in this kind of mutual
feeling that we’ve achieved
something, and it’s silence.
We don’t celebrate the verdict
that we’ve decided. We have
ended it. And it was exhausting,
and it was scary at points.
And leaving with everyone
— we were incredibly close,
but as soon as we leave, we
don’t know who we are, we
leave and we go back to our
lives after we’ve delivered
this verdict, and no one knows
what it was like in there. But,
today, everyone shares everything
with they do with everyone
that they can. There is
no — you, know, people are
incredibly connected today,
but no one understands —
there’s no sense of walking it
in your own shoes. Everyone
can relate to something. And
the idea of sitting on a jury and
not talking about it, and walking
off that stage going, “Yeah,
we just did that. We just fought
— violently and verbally, loud
and passionately — about
how a man is either guilty or
not guilty.” It’s a sort of purity
in the sense that it’s not
tainted by today’s view of, in
my opinion, fake connections.
You know, that people want to
be connected, people want to
help each other through, but
there’s these points in time
where we have to leave the
social aspect of what we are
behind us and just be, make a
decision, without having everyone
going, “What are they
going to think?” And that’s the
best part about being anonymous
in a jury, is that it takes
away [that] social bias.