Greta Nerad
Staff Writer
Members of the Mira Costa Drama and Tech Department performed their first of two fall plays, “Twelve Angry Jurors,” on Oct. 12 in the Mira Costa small theater.
The play tells the story of a jury that is presented with a homicide case and must choose whether or not a young man killed his own father and should face the death penalty. However, the jurors are blinded by both discrimination and their own biases, based on the defendant’s background and the complicated relationship between the jurors and their own children, respectively.
“Choosing to do ‘Twelve Angry Jurors’ this year is super important with what’s going on in the world right now,” cast member and senior Shelby Friedman said. “It’s about how your own individual ideas can contrast with other peoples’ and how many people can come together to reach big ideas without having personal biases or judgement towards others.”
Students auditioned on Sept. 5 and the students received their roles on Sept. 8. The key roles included Lilly Fuller, juror number 3, and Will Martens, juror number 8.
“I am excited that a lot of kids that have not been in a production before [were able] to get this experience,’” Costa Drama Department Executive Director Cary Jordahl said. “What I want to do is provide as many opportunities as possible, and we had 78 kids audition, so if I only did ‘The Diviners,’ there would only be 20 people that got cast, so we’re doing two shows in order to provide an additional 14 roles.”
Rehearsals took place four times a week. The cast got to know their characters, learned their lines and rehearsed together during these rehearsals. The cast also rehearsed even when they weren’t called in to do so, according to theater technician Michael Aldapa.
“My experience working with the cast has been really fun because we’re all very different just like our characters, and I wasn’t that close with a lot of the people in the cast, so it’s been nice to get to know them a lot more,” senior cast member Jack Drinker said.
The Tech Department spent almost every day between mid-September and opening night designing costumes and preparing the stage’s behind-the-scenes features for the show. During the show, Tech students controlled lights and audio.
“When the Tech students got to see the show, watching the looks on their faces was really great because they got to know that they built that, we built that together,” Aldapa said. “The kids didn’t have as long of rehearsal time or prep time as there is for other shows, but they all worked hard and the show went great.”
The Mira Costa Drama and Tech Department’s second fall-season show, “The Diviners,” will open on Nov. 3 with a total of six performances. “The Diviners” by Jim Leonard, Jr. is set in the fictional town of Zion, Indiana amidst the Great Depression.
“I am so lucky to have been able to work with such a dedicated cast, because everyone has worked extremely hard on ‘The Diviners’,” lead and senior Ari Derambakhsh said. “I am so excited for the audience to see the play and hope they enjoy watching the play as much as all of us love being a part of it.”
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