The Pasadena Playhouse announced today that Reginald Rose's classic drama TWELVE ANGRY MEN will be presented as the second production of its 2013 - 2014 Season playing November 5 - December 1, 2013, with a press opening night on November 10, at 5:00 p.m. The previously announced production of Stoneface starring French Stewart will be postponed due to Stewart's recent television role on CBS' comedy "Mom" that premieres this fall. The cast of TWELVE ANGRY MEN for The Playhouse presentation will be comprised of a mix of African-American and white actors with casting and the creative team to be announced at a later date. Tickets are currently only available with a 2013 - 2014 Season subscription.
"I certainly applaud French's good fortune, and wish him well with his new television series," stated Playhouse Artistic Director
Sheldon Epps. "It is indeed our hope to produce Stoneface at some point in the future. However, making this shift does give us the opportunity to make an incredibly timely choice and to further a much needed conversation in our community and in our nation. I believe that TWELVE ANGRY MEN, as it will be cast for our production, will prompt serious and profound dialogue onstage and off about the vitally important issue of race in America. In remarkably startling ways, the play reflects issues that are daily in the headlines. It mirrors the ongoing challenges that come from assumptions, pre-conceptions, and prejudices that still exist in our country. It is important for the theatre to sometimes face hard issues through our art form. Certainly doing this particular play, at this particular time, in this particular way will do that in a manner that is both theatrically and culturally exciting, potentially explosive and very necessary."
"The
Pasadena Playhouse has a national reputation for creating theater that reflects our multicultural American landscape. Our plays become a catalyst for conversations about diversity, instigating conversations about issues that swell to the surface of our collective consciousness," says Executive Director,
Elizabeth Doran. "When Sheldon saw the opportunity to bring this work to our stage now, when our President has asked us to take the conversation on race into our churches, homes, and communities, I could not have been more thrilled that we will take it to our stage."
TWELVE ANGRY MEN unfolds in a New York City courtroom on a sweltering August evening in 1955 as a jury is filed into a deliberation room. They are tasked with determining the verdict in a murder case in which a young man is accused of killing his father and faces the death penalty if found guilty. These dozen nameless men find themselves in the role of potential executioner, but first they must face themselves, their biases and their own sense of justice. What starts as an open-and-shut case soon twists into an edge of your seat drama as each juror begins to question how he should cast their vote.
First created as a 1954 teleplay for the Studio One anthology television series, TWELVE ANGRY MEN was aired as a CBS live production on September 20, 1954. The following year, it was adapted by Rose as a stage play. In 1957 it was rewritten again as a feature film and directed by
Sidney Lumet. Starring
Henry Fonda, the film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Over the years, the play has received several noted revivals including a 2004 Broadway production starring
Boyd Gaines and
Philip Bosco and a 2007 US national tour starring
George Wendt and
Richard Thomas. And in 1997, TWELVE ANGRY MEN returned to the small screen in a new adaptation directed by
William Friedkin, which included some modernizations to the script, and a cast led by
George C. Scott and
James Gandolfini.
TWELVE ANGRY MEN will play November 5 - December 1, 2013, with a press opening night on November 10, at 5:00 p.m. Tickets are currently available with a 2013 - 2014 Season purchase. The
Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Subscription packages are available by calling The
Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529 or by visiting The
Pasadena Playhouse Box Office, Tuesday - Sunday from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. during non-performance dates. On performance dates the Box Office is open Tuesday - Saturday from 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit
www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.
Casting, creative team and single ticket on-sale information will be announced at a later date.
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