Audience to feel part of ‘12 Angry Men’

Richard Tedesco

When audience members take their seats for the production of “Twelve Angry Men” at the Community Church of East Williston, they’re likely to feel as though they are sweating through the deliberation of a murder case with the jurors in the realistic drama.

That’s because veteran director Louis Fucilo has chosen to situate the set for the drama with the audience surrounding the actors.

“We’re doing it in the round. That’s the only way you can do a play like this

Author Reginald Rose wrote the play in 1954 as a one-hour teleplay for the CBS Studio One Anthology television series. It subsequently became a theatrical film featuring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb leading a cast of well-known Hollywood actors. The play’s Broadway debut came fifty years later on Oct. 28, 2004, by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre where it ran for 328 performances.

It’s not the sort of play one typically sees in a community theater, and Fucilo said the idea came from Joe Anfora, one of the 13 actors in the cast of the production by the community church’s Billboard Players.

“I never in a million years was thinking of doing it,” Fucilo said. “Just to handle 13 people, the anxiety level was very high for me,” Fucilo said.

His approach to directing the piece is to take a “liberal approach” with his actors, permitting them to find their respective characters in the course of rehearsals.

“ I learn from the actors. I want them to create the charater,” Fucilo said.

He selected his cast from 40 men who auditioned for the roles and chose a combination of seasoned thespians and inexperienced actors for the production.  

“Twelve Angry Men” depicts a jury deliberating the verdict in a homicide trial. A 16-year-old boy stands accused of killing his father with a switch blade knife. The jury, comprised of 12 men from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of education. If they find the boy guilty, he will be face the death penalty.

The drama turns on the resistance of a lone juror who resists the other 11 who initially vote to find the defendant guilty. The action takes place in New York City on a hot, humid day which adds to the increasing tension of the drama as one juror gradually begins to convince the other jurors that there are strong elements of reasonable doubt in the case. The unfolding drama reveals the characters of the respective jurors – including the racism of one of them – as they struggle to reach a consensus in the case

Bob and Charlene Eckhoff are producing the play Fucilo is directing.  

Fucilo calls it a “labor of love” and praises the teamwork of his actors in the ensemble piece. 

The cast members, who are from Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau counties, include Anfora, Anthony Bonura, Raymond Taliercio, Joe Pepe, Joseph Schweigert, Joseph Montano, John Rowe, Chris Tyrkko, Al Carbuto, Michael Wolf, Marty Edelstein, and Anthony Bisciello.  Dave Bartscher is the voice of the judge as well as appearing as the guard.

The play opens in the community church Parish Hall on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. It will run for eight performances on Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 3, 9, 10, 16, and 17 at 8 p.m., and on Sundays, Nov. 4, 11, and 18, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 and $12 for seniors.  A dinner and theatre package will be available for $25 As an added feature, on Saturday, Nov. 10.  

Dinner will be served at 6:30 in the Community Church dining room followed by the play. Reservations for this package and the other performances, can be made by contacting Charlene Eckhoff at 516-680-4424.

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