By Owen Kurtiak

 

The lights faded, curtains closed, and it was time for opening night of the fall play.

    
Oyster River High School’s drama department puts on a fall play every year. This year the cast and director Meredith Freeman-Caple have been determined to make Twelve Angry Jurors by Reginald Rose an impressive show. “I think it will be better than last year’s fall performance. We have a very good cast and everyone is well prepared,” said Sarah Corrow (‘17).

     The play takes place in a courtroom, with twelve jurors who will decide the fate of a boy who has been accused of murdering his father. At first only one juror believes that the boy is innocent, but with all of the information that’s given throughout the course of the production, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the jury is convinced. In the span of eighty minutes, there was a lot of drama between the panel of jurors, ranging from debating their points, to yelling, to a near outright fight.

     “This play is what I call cerebral. It’s all thinking and talking, as opposed to a lot of movement and scenarios that center around certain characters. This was a whole unit of people who had different opinions and different characteristics. It was all about what they were thinking and how they achieved what they wanted to achieve,” said Freeman-Caple.

     The cast has worked extremely hard getting ready for this moment. “I think it’s going to be really successful. We have had rehearsal every day after school until about seven,” said Jarrod Bernier (‘17), who played juror #8.

     The main characters of the play are juror #3, played by Nick Murphy, juror #4, played by Lily Mangan, and juror #8, played by Jarrod Bernier. These three actors have the most lines in the play and they do most of the convincing. Another notable part is juror #1, played by Sarah Corrow, who is basically in charge of the whole courtroom. She tries to keep it as civil as possible as the jurors debate the outcome for the boy.  

     Juror #3’s battle with juror #8 is an attention grabber and is present throughout the play. “I fight juror #8 who believes that the boy is innocent. This is one of the more dramatic plays I’ve participated in and I’m both happy and proud to be a part of this play,” explained Nick Murphy (‘16).

     The show ran for three nights, November 19 – 21, 2015, in the Oyster River High School Auditorium. It was attended by students, their families, and other members of the community.

     “I thought it was really well done, I was amazed that how completely the students assumed their characters. The other thing that amazed me is how the performance kept my attention, without any scene changes,” said Oyster River’s Dean of Faculty, Mark Milliken.