Cast set for CCHS spring production of ’12 Angry Jurors’

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

A dozen Charles City High School students will deliberate democracy and put the U.S. Judicial System on trial this spring.

The CCHS drama department will present the play “12 Angry Jurors” on Friday and Saturday, April 1-2, at The Charles Theatre in Charles City. Friday’s show will be at 7 p.m. and Saturday’s show will be at 2 p.m.

About 25 students auditioned for the 14 roles — 12 anonymous jurors, a guard and a judge — last month. The 12 jurors will be played by Susana Gonzalez, Kaity Heckers, Griffin Franksain, Sophia Jensen, Taylor Myhre, Emma Schmiedel, DaShawn Griffin, Anders Haglund, Harper McInroy, Clayton Rand, Teagan Prigge and Elise White.

The guard will be played by Blake Hoeft and the judge will be played by Anna Herbrechtsmeyer.

Tickets to the show will be available March 23, through Showtix4u. Cost is $5 per ticket and seating will be limited. The Charles Theatre will be selling concessions.

The play tells the story of a jury of 12 people as they deliberate the conviction or acquittal of a teenage defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt, forcing each one of the jurors to question his or her own morals, values, prejudices and preconceived notions.

The play, directed by Michelle Grob, was originally called “12 Angry Men” and written for men only, in a time before women could serve jury duty. Most modern productions cast the play as gender neutral, with a mix of both men and women in the various roles.

The original play was written by Reginald Rose, adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title for the CBS Studio One anthology television series. It was first staged in a 1964 London production and made its Broadway debut in 2004, when it ran for 328 performances.