"What do you want?"

“What do you want?”

At first glance, this phrase may seem blatantly rude. You may consider it to be harsh, even. But in our production of Twelve Angry Jurors, it has been the single most useful sentence I have heard. How? It all comes down to one simple subject, a tiny piece of the puzzle that is the play. What is this piece? Characterization. What does it have to do with the play? Almost everything.

Twelve Angry Jurors is unique in the sense that most of the plot is driven by emotion. While other plays may have a plot in which the conflict itself spawns emotional reactions from the characters, 12AJ turns that dynamic upside-down. It cuts straight to the raw emotion of twelve unique individuals, all stuck in a hot room to decide the fate of someone they’ve never met. As you can tell, there’s a lot of layers there. And that’s just where the phrase, “what do you want,” comes into play.

Each and every character in the story has a reason for doing what they do. Every single person has an internal dialogue that is slowly molded into their agenda throughout the play. And so far, all of my fellow actors have been doing an amazing job at portraying this - all because of that seemingly-rude phrase.

Here’s how it works: imagine you have just sat down, program in hand, in the house of a theater. You’re excited, not knowing what’s about to happen onstage. Perhaps you have picked up a little knowledge about the play somehow, but ultimately you’re here to watch a magnificent piece of drama unfold. The lights dim, the actors walk onto the stage, and…

...the play is boring. So boring that you’re yawning. It’s clear that the actors are just saying their lines, and they have no understanding of what the characters are grasping for. They’re barely acting, just reciting the script and going through the motions. It’s almost exhausting to watch - and not in a good way.

Now, I’m not saying you’ve ever seen a play like this. Perhaps you’ve seen something close, but not to this extreme. In any case, you can rest assured that Twelve Angry Jurors steers quite clear of this, all because of our secret weapon of a phrase that we’ve been using all throughout our rehearsal process:

“What do you want? Why are you here? What is your character striving for in this moment? Why do they agree - or perhaps disagree - with what one of the other jurors just said? What are they trying to gain by saying this?”

Variations of this phrase have been used during every rehearsal. Furthermore, each actor has filled out several pages worth of character analysis guidelines, all with the specific goal of bringing these fantastically intricate characters to life. It’s been a lot of work, but it will have been worth it when you come see the play. Instead of watching fourteen people recite line after line, you’ll be watching the amazingly detailed narrative of a rag-tag group of people from different backgrounds, different beliefs, different morals, all coming together to decide on one of the most difficult decisions that can be thrust upon one’s conscience.

It’s thrilling, to say the least. It’s a story that’s definitely worth more than just one evening in the black box. It leaves you exhausted in the best way possible - all because of that one question that keeps nagging, keeps biting, keeps pulling away at the layers, until what’s left is the raw, unadulterated plot of twelve uniquely complex characters who have been assigned to accomplish the most daunting task of their life.

Gerrit VanDyk

Juror #12/Set Team