Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2010 / 12 Angry Men: Seminarian's first play in decades to benefit quake victims
12 Angry Men: Seminarian's first play in decades to benefit quake victims
by Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 19, 2010
|
Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Seminarian Mitchell Gleason, portraying Juror No. 3, banters with other jury members about the presumed guilt of the defendant. |
DETROIT — A dozen students at Sacred Heart Major Seminary might be angry on stage, but they're happy that their hard work will benefit the people of Haiti.
Seminarians will be performing the seminary's first play in about 20 years, putting on "12 Angry Men," with the proceeds to benefit the people of Haiti who are recovering from the January earthquake. Two performances of the drama, which follows 12 jurors as they deliberate over the possible guilt of a young man on trial for killing his father, are scheduled for next weekend at the seminary.
|
Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Jurors No. 9, 7 and 10, portrayed by seminarians Mario Amore, Pierre Konja and Patrick Setto, discuss the case. |
Stephen Pullis, a third-year theology student who plays Juror No. 4 and is handling the play's marketing, explained that a fire in the seminary's main chapel a little more than a year ago moved Mass and other assemblies into the seminary's auditorium. Spending some time in there, seminarians saw names of plays and actors painted on the walls behind and above the stage from previous performances at the seminary.
"A few of us got the idea to bring back the plays," Pullis said. "Sacred Heart has grown in the past few years — we have more seminarians and people with the skills to put it on."
As providence would have it, one of those seminarians was Brian Meldrum, who's directed and otherwise worked on a number of plays in the past, and took on directing "12 Angry Men," with the help of assistant director Matthew Hood. The play was adapted by Reginald Rose from his original 1954 teleplay.
An open invitation to seminarians in early January led to nearly two dozen interested in helping out, whether in one of the acting roles or behind the scenes.
"With a full schedule of classes and formation obligations, prayer time, and all of the other things that kind of fill up our day, we didn't really know how much of a project we could take on," Pullis said. "We figured it had a small enough cast, with not too much set or costume."
He added that he hopes the tradition of an annual performance can continue. "We're hoping it turns out well," he said.
They decided to have a free-will offering at the performances benefit Haiti, as the earthquake happened not long after they started rehearsing. Not only was the metropolitan area surrounding Port-au-Prince devastated, but the area's seminary was destroyed, and a number of seminarians, priests and even archbishop Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot were killed in the quake.
"We figured this would be good chance to enter into solidarity with the seminarians and the Catholic Church in Haiti," Pullis said. "This little project of ours can have an impact, and make the Church stronger and people's lives a little better."
Hood said sometime in the late 1960s seminarians performed the same play, as their names are painted on the wall above the stage. As far as they know, every class performed a play in the earlier years, but that fell out of favor for some reason in the late 1980s.
"We're hoping to invite some of those guys back," Meldrum said of the earlier "12 Angry Men" production.
Two weeks before production, the cast was refining lines and discussing costumes at its evening rehearsal. While the play's mission was evident — the group opens play practice with a prayer, keeping the people of Haiti in mind — rehearsal was still light and peppered with jokes: "I can't work in these conditions!" shouted one man to his friends' laughter, and any line misspeaking resulted in more laughter and teasing.
|
