We just did 12 Angry Jurors this past May. I absolutely love this show and so did our students as well as the audience. I think our students grew the most in their acting abilities with this show more than many others because of the work necessary to nail these characters and keep them from falling flat when not speaking. It is a challenge as the actors never leave stage and they all need to stay engaged and react to everything the entire show. We had an even cast of 6 men and 6 women (not planned, just how it panned out in the casting process). We did the same with looking at the character's lines and taking into consideration of keeping with the 1950's era as to what characters should be male and which ones could be female (we used the male script). For our vision, we felt keeping jurors 3, 8 and 10 as male would work best but if you have some powerhouse female actors these characters would be a good challenge for them too.
I echo the necessity of keeping the characters engaged and moving, even in subtle ways. The lines are powerful, thought provoking and engaging but the body language and facial expressions, especially of those not speaking, need to be just as powerful and engaging. We spent a lot of time doing book work, analyzing the script so each actor would know how their character would respond to each line everyone else said. Who did they agree with, who didn't they agree with, how were they persuaded to change their mind, what emotions were going through their head, and most importantly, why? Creating a detailed backstory for each character was imperative for giving each character dimension and understanding into why and how they reacted to others. Through this process natural relationships, bonds, alliances, enemies emerged within the characters and everything became more honest and believable. Body language and facial expressions began to come naturally. The actors started to naturally create blocking of their own, two would go off to the side and compare notes, someone would give a disapproving look across the table, another would get frustrated and go to the window, an old lady would pull out her knitting, etc. The actors knew their characters so well that they just let the body language and facials come poring out of them, and much of the movement/blocking worked itself out naturally, but the key is to really take the time to dive into those backstories. Half your blocking/movement work is done if the actors know their characters well.
I know one worry about this show is the table and actors having their back to the audience for much of the time. We were able to perform on a thrust stage so audience on three sides, someone's back was always going to be to the audience. We chose not to worry about it and even purposefully had backs to the audience at some points in time. We chose to focus more on honest, believable movement rather than constantly be worried about cheating out. Again this created a more natural, real world look and feel to the show. And strange as it sounds it actually helped to bring the audience into the story even more and talking to them afterwards, many said they felt they were right in the jury room with the characters. No one really even noticed or minded seeing the actors backs at times. For this particular show, I would challenge anyone doing this show, no matter what kind of stage they are performing to focus on more natural movement over the traditional blocking (where the actors constantly cheat out and never turn their backs). We all felt this created a more powerful and dynamic performance for actors and audience alike.
I highly recommend this show. Good luck!
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Jillian Lietzau
Lutheran High School
CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-16-2023 18:29
From: Becky Beth Benedict
Subject: 12 Angry Jurors
Hello Amazing Colleagues,
I'm considering 12 Angry Jurors for our fall play - but I have questions, can you help me out?
I need a script where the genders are flexible - who licenses 12 Angry Jurors? On the Concord website, I see only 12 Angry Men -- but there is NO MENTION of being flexible with the genders. But I hear of many people doing 12 Angry Women and 12 Angry Jurors.... who hold these rights and scripts? Who do I go to?
Second question - if you have done this show what advice do you have for me?
Thank you for reading and for any advice!
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[Becky Beth [Benedict]
[Theater Teacher, Director & Arts Dept Chair]
[The MacDuffie School
[Granby] [MA]
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