12 Angry Jurors
by Reginald Rose
Photo Credit: Mark Doty
Courtroom drama par excellence.
12 Angry Jurors is one of, if not the best, courtroom dramas ever written. It deals with race, justice, class, family, doubt, and feels even more relevant today as it was when it was first produced as a teleplay in 1954.
“There were eleven votes for guilty. It’s not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.”
I staged this in the round so the audience would feel like they were “in the room where it happened.” It worked so well that one of the faculty members thought that a “set” chair was up for grabs and he spent the entire show as one of the cast members (unbeknownst to himself). That is sort of what it’s all about, right? But, we still tease him for that!
