Well, we open tonight, and I'm having the time of my life, hanging out with 25 years worth of theatre pals, and just being in rehearsal again. Haven't acted in a show since HUNGRY SEASON, and that's ninteen months ago. Too darn long.
Here's the line-up, with actors from the 1957 and 1997 versions in brackets following).
JUROR NO. 1 Ron Reed (Martin Balsam, Courtney B. Vance)
JUROR NO. 2 Adam Bergquist (John Fiedler, Ossie Davis)
JUROR NO. 3 Mike Kopsa (Lee J. Cobb, George C. Scott)
JUROR NO. 4 David Nykl (E.G. Marshall, Armin Mueller-Stahl)
JUROR NO. 5 Kyle Jespersen (Jack Klugman, Dorian Harewood)
JUROR NO. 6 Frank Nickel (Edward Binns, James Gandolfini)
JUROR NO. 7 Francis Boyle (Jack Warden, Tony Danza)
JUROR NO. 8 Allen des Noyers (Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon)
JUROR NO. 9 Terence Kelly (Joseph Sweeney, Hume Cronyn)
JUROR NO. 10 Kerry Vander Griend (Ed Begley, Mykelti Williamson)
JUROR NO. 11 Tim Dixon (George Voskovec, Edward James Olmos)
JUROR NO. 12 Tariq Leslie (Robert Webber, William Petersen)
Director: Ian Farthing
Five years ago, the 1957 original film ranked twenty-third on the IMDb list of users' favourite films of all time: today it has climbed to an astonishing #13. It's listed as one of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" (list here) and Roger Ebert writes it up as part of his "Great Films" series.
This story originally premiered live on CBS in 1954 in a shorter version, which was adapted by Sherman L. Sergel into a full-length stage play in 1955. Reginald Rose worked from his own original teleplay to create the 1957 screenplay, which he reworked only slightly for MGM's 1997 made-for-TV treatment. (Interestingly, the racist "#10" is African-American, a former member of the Nation Of Islam movement.) An Off-Broadway stage version of the Reginald Rose screenplay is currently touring the U.S., with Richard Thomas (John-Boy Walton) in the pivotal role of "#8" - played in our production by Allen des Noyers, co-founder of Pacific Theatre. We will be working from the 1955 Sherman Sergel version.
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