Post by admin on Oct 6, 2009 9:19:59 GMT -5
FREEHOLD BOROUGH, NJ – Center Players has announced the production of “12 Angry Men” at Center Playhouse at 35 South Street in Downtown Freehold. The fascinating, often perplexing, interactions among jurors are famously explored in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men. The drama – which first aired as a television show, and later adapted to the stage as well as the screen – runs October 16 through November 15 at Freehold’s resident theater.
Appropriately, as it turns out, the theater – located on South Street – sits in the shadow of the old Monmouth County Courthouse; itself a solid and stately symbol of trial by jury. As the show opens, we learn that a nineteen-year-old man is on trial for the stabbing death of this father. A brutal crime to be certain, and all signs point to a slam-dunk conviction and death sentence. Indeed, as the jurors poll themselves at the outset they vote 11 to 1 to convict. But no so fast: one juror wants a closer examination of the facts. “It’s not so easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first,” he says.
What ensues is a gripping analysis not just of jury decision making but of the human condition – how our life experiences and biases influence our decisions.
For Center Players’ President, Bernice Garfield-Szita, the play captures an essential truth: “Our society is not a single, monolithic bloc. We are defined by the countless small-group cultures that we function within, day in and day out – our classrooms and corporations, our churches and neighborhoods, our sports teams and households. The jury room is no exception; it has a culture all its own,” she says.
The play’s director Anthony Greco, concurs, “Juries have bullies and bigots, thinkers and sympathizers. Some try to force their views upon others and some use reason; others deploy fear while some use humor and even deception. And unlike society at large, where you can choose the company you keep, a jury doesn’t have that luxury. It is a melting pot, whose diverse members are locked in a room until they find a way forward. They are compelled to at least talk to one another even if they do not unanimously agree in the end.”
Performances for 12 Angry Men are as follows:
Fridays (8PM): October 16th, 23rd, 30th, November 6th, 13th, 2009.
Saturdays (8PM): October 17th, 31st, November 7th, 14th, 2009.
Sundays (2PM): October 18th, 25th, November 1st, 8th, 15th, 2009.
Tickets are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors, students and groups of 10 or more. Performances include an intermission with complimentary beverages and desert. Dinner packages are also available for an additional $30 per ticket at Metropolitan Café, 8 East Main Street, Solo Trattoria, 7 South Street, Bayou Café, 32 West Main Street, or South Street Steak House, 24 South Street. All are a short walk from Center Playhouse.
Center Playhouse is located at 35 South Street in Freehold. Tickets can be purchased by calling (732) 462-9093, option1 or by logging onto www.centerplayers.org.
Appropriately, as it turns out, the theater – located on South Street – sits in the shadow of the old Monmouth County Courthouse; itself a solid and stately symbol of trial by jury. As the show opens, we learn that a nineteen-year-old man is on trial for the stabbing death of this father. A brutal crime to be certain, and all signs point to a slam-dunk conviction and death sentence. Indeed, as the jurors poll themselves at the outset they vote 11 to 1 to convict. But no so fast: one juror wants a closer examination of the facts. “It’s not so easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first,” he says.
What ensues is a gripping analysis not just of jury decision making but of the human condition – how our life experiences and biases influence our decisions.
For Center Players’ President, Bernice Garfield-Szita, the play captures an essential truth: “Our society is not a single, monolithic bloc. We are defined by the countless small-group cultures that we function within, day in and day out – our classrooms and corporations, our churches and neighborhoods, our sports teams and households. The jury room is no exception; it has a culture all its own,” she says.
The play’s director Anthony Greco, concurs, “Juries have bullies and bigots, thinkers and sympathizers. Some try to force their views upon others and some use reason; others deploy fear while some use humor and even deception. And unlike society at large, where you can choose the company you keep, a jury doesn’t have that luxury. It is a melting pot, whose diverse members are locked in a room until they find a way forward. They are compelled to at least talk to one another even if they do not unanimously agree in the end.”
Performances for 12 Angry Men are as follows:
Fridays (8PM): October 16th, 23rd, 30th, November 6th, 13th, 2009.
Saturdays (8PM): October 17th, 31st, November 7th, 14th, 2009.
Sundays (2PM): October 18th, 25th, November 1st, 8th, 15th, 2009.
Tickets are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors, students and groups of 10 or more. Performances include an intermission with complimentary beverages and desert. Dinner packages are also available for an additional $30 per ticket at Metropolitan Café, 8 East Main Street, Solo Trattoria, 7 South Street, Bayou Café, 32 West Main Street, or South Street Steak House, 24 South Street. All are a short walk from Center Playhouse.
Center Playhouse is located at 35 South Street in Freehold. Tickets can be purchased by calling (732) 462-9093, option1 or by logging onto www.centerplayers.org.