Behind the Scenes of “12 Angry Jurors”
12 Angry Jurors (based off the 1957 film 12 Angry Men) is a court-case tale following a jury’s deliberations over whether a 19-year-old boy is guilty of stabbing his father to death. At first, the case seems very straightforward, but as the show unfolds and the jury starts to probe into the details, the verdict grows less cut and dry. This year, Vernon Hills is double-casting the play, so one cast will perform the original 1957 version, while the other will perform a modern version set in 2015.
“The show can easily be ‘Why do you think he’s guilty? Why do you think he’s not guilty?’” said Tom Tinetti (12), who plays the 1957 foreman, “but I think that’s what’s especially difficult about the show for us, because it’s more than just a fishbowl discussion. It’s so much more than that.”
To bring the show to life, the actors have been working in particular on character development and being active so they can move around on set. Ryan Gold (11), who plays the 2015 foreman, picked up cues from other people in his life to develop his part.
“[The foreman’s] taking his job very seriously,” Gold said. “I kind of interpret him as a history teacher. There’s a teacher in this school, who I will not name, but I think he embodies what this character is, so I’ve been picking up his mannerisms and trying to incorporate them into the show.”
For the first time in Vernon Hills history, this year’s winter play has been double-casted, so twice as many people were able to participate. While double-casting usually just means one show with two different casts, director Ms. Stephanie Freichels chose to differentiate the two a little more and have the casts set in different years.
“I knew I wanted to get a lot people involved, so I knew I wanted to double cast it,” Freichels said. “I thought the themes in this are pretty timely, because even though the play was written in 1957, there are themes dealing with justice, racism, and the same sorts of things we deal with today, so I thought it might be kind of cool to see.”
The two casts technically have joint rehearsals, but they’re structured so one cast will be rehearsing with Freichels while the other cast is out in the hallway working with student stage managers or reading lines. To accommodate for the second cast, Freichels added a fourth performance this year, so each cast will perform twice and alternate shows.
“I’ve liked the double-casting a lot,” Kelsey Carido (10), who plays Juror 5 in 2015, said. “First of all, we’ve never done it before, and I’m only a sophomore, but hearing from the older kids’ experiences, it’s a lot different because the rehearsals are structured differently. I think it’s a really cool experience, because it gives a lot more people the opportunity to be in the play, and it’s also cool to change the themes and see how they are now in present day.”
Each cast shares the same general set, but there are different costumes and a few of the individual pieces will change for each show. Freichels and the casts are hoping students will come twice to see each time period’s respective show, because they each have something different to offer.
“Directing both of them, it’s interesting to see the different interpretations that each cast has,” Freichels said. “Obviously they all have the same lines and we have the same themes, but it’s stylistically a little bit different for each cast. It’s been kind of cool, exciting experience figuring this out with the cast, and trying to figure out ‘OK, how should this rehearsal process work?’ We’ve stumbled in some places and then made some really cool discoveries in others.”
Besides adjusting to the new double-casting process, another challenge about this particular show for the actors has been line memorization. The entire play is one consecutive scene, which means everyone is on stage the entire time, and paying attention to everyone else’s lines can be difficult.
“This is the only show most of us have done where everybody’s on stage the entire time, so there’s no entrances or exits,” said Cassidy Raasch (11), who plays Juror 7 in 2015. “If you’re not paying attention, you can tell. It’s hard to be on stage and not know when entrances are, because lines usually come off entrances, so you have to be paying attention to what everybody’s saying all the time.”
This show also features a diverse array of characters. Nikki Medanovic (10), who’s a newcomer to Vernon Hills theater (but not acting in general), plays Juror 8 in 2015 and has enjoyed exploring her character’s persona onstage.
“The part is challenging because there are so many different aspects to it,” Medanovic said. “The nature of the character is very maternal, however, towards the end, she gets fed up with the other jurors and tries to defend herself, so portraying how she tries to defend herself but still keeping that maternal side and how she’s fighting for her values is something I’ve been discovering how to do.”
12 Angry Jurors will debut on Feb. 11 with a 1957 show at 7:30. After that, the casts alternate, so the 2015 cast will perform at 3:45 on Friday, 1957 will perform at 7:30 on Friday, and finally, the 2015 cast will perform on Saturday at 7:30.
“I’m looking forward to seeing if the audience responds differently to each of the different versions,” Freichels said. “I think they’re both really compelling in their own way. I am so proud of this entire group of kids, because they’re so fun and cool to work with. I can be having a terrible or stressful day grading papers and all that, and then I get to rehearsal and it’s like,” she took a calm, deep breath, “Here I am, and these wonderful, nice people are just having a good time at theater. It’s a joy for me.”
