Spectators had an opportunity to feel as if they were part of an intense courtroom drama last week as Thespian Troupe 2898 of Lake Orion High School presented “Twelve Angry Jurors.”
The production, which ran Nov. 18-20 on the Lake Orion Performing Center’s main stage, was a take-off of the 1957 play “Twelve Angry Men” starring Henry Fonda.
Director Leann Lowe purposely chose a difficult fall play, she said, because each show produced at LOHS is “selected with something distinctly teachable in mind.”
“I wanted a show that would stretch (students’) characterization and believability and the governing board of our Thespian Troupe pushed me to do a serious fall show,” she wrote, noting the script presents each juror as a number without a name, and each student actor, therefore, was challenged to develop his or her character’s personality.
The audience got a look inside those individual prejudices and personalities as what appeared to be an open-shut case of murder unraveled in the jury room and an easy verdict turns out to be anything but.
With the 12 jurors positioned at a table on a raised stage and the audience seated around them, Lowe said, playgoers became “part of the decision-making process and the democratic ideals on which this country is based.”
Upcoming productions include Winter Cabaret, Jan. 6-7 and Seussical, April 14-16.