Staples Players To Present '12 Angry Men' In Westport

WESTPORT, CT — "Twelve Angry Men" explores what happens when twelve men and women from various backgrounds are summoned to court on a hot summer day to decide one man's fate. During the heated deliberations of a homicide trail, the hidden preconceptions and assumptions of the jurors are revealed in a 1950’s play that feels disturbingly relevant today.

David Roth (SHS ’84) and Kerry Long (SHS ’97) will co-direct the show, which will run from May 24 to 27 in Staples’ Black Box Theatre. Adding to the intensity of the drama, the play will be performed in the round.

Reginald Rose originally wrote "Twelve Angry Men" as a teleplay for CBS in 1954, at the dawn of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.

“With racial profiling and challenges to justice ever present in the news today, this felt like the right time to bring back this show,” Roth said in a release.

Roth last directed the play in 2009, and said he finds directing in the round “liberating” and particularly effective for this show.

“It feels like the actors are in a fish bowl," Roth said, "being watched and judged by society, which is what we want.”

The jurors in the play are numbered; they have no names, rendering each of them an "everyman,” but plenty of the actors will be familiar to Players’ fans. For several seniors and stars of the Staples’ stage, Twelve Angry Men will be their last Players show before they venture off to new theaters in college.

Sophia Sherman (Juror #11) will be pursuing a BFA in Acting at the University of Michigan. “My character is a Russian immigrant who works in the Diamond District in New York City,” Sherman said in a release. “She is incredibly passionate about democracy and how free America is in comparison to the environment in Russia. This piece really highlights people's beliefs on immigration, race and class difference, which makes it an eye-opening piece for the audience to experience.

Sherman adds, "Staples Players has given me a safe community to experiment and take risks on stage, which has truly made me grow, not just as a performer, but as an individual.”

Christopher Hoile, who shares the role of bigoted Juror #3 with Nick Rossi (SHS ’19), will attend Chapman University in California in the fall, pursuing a BFA in Theater Performance.

“Players certainly has made my goal of being an actor far more achievable,” Hoile said in a release. “I have had to push my limits further than I ever thought I could in order to stay in this organization full time. I have been tested time and time again, but I have known since the first time I stepped on stage that I was going to succeed.”

The cast has enjoyed the novelty and challenge of rehearsing in the round.

“As much as I love the main stage, there’s something so special about the intimacy of the Black Box," Kristin Amato (SHS ’19) said in a release. "I love the interaction with the audience. Because we’re so close, when anyone claps or laughs or even gasps, we as actors can really play off of it and the energy just builds. With "Twelve Angry Men being in the round, this interaction is only intensified as the audience is on all sides. The show really makes you think. It is all about the questioning of morals and personal prejudices, so I think many audience members will go home reflecting on their own actions and how they may have acted if they were in the same circumstances as the jurors in the show.”

The 1957 feature film version, starring Henry Fonda as Juror #8, was nominated for three Academy Awards. The play, staged on the West End in 1964, premiered on Broadway in 2004 and ran for 328 performances.

There will only be four performances at Staples, and there won’t be an empty seat in the house.

Performances are May 24, 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. and May 27 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and $10 for seniors (matinee only). Children under 10 are not admitted. Tickets can be purchased at www.staplesplayers.com.

To sign up for Westport breaking news alerts and more, click here.

Photo Credit: Kerry Long