"Twelve Angry Men is a classic piece of theatre -- and film -- history, and I am thrilled to bring it to George Street Playhouse," said Mr. Saint. "It is a play I have wanted to produce for a long time, and am delighted to have Jack Klugman in the cast. Not only is he a quintessential actor, it is especially meaningful for him to return to the play, as he is the last living cast member of the 1957 movie. The entire staff of the Playhouse is so happy to be welcoming him back to New Brunswick."
Individual tickets, beginning at $26.50, as well as subscription and flexible admission packages, are now available and may be purchased through the George Street Playhouse Box Office, 732-246-7717 or on the Playhouse website: www. GSPonline.org. George Street Playhouse is located at 9 Livingston Avenue in the heart of New Brunswick's Dining and Entertainment District, easily accessible by car or public transportation. Visit the GSP website (GSPonline.org) for directions, as well as dining or parking recommendations.
Twelve Angry Men was written in 1954 and didn't make its Broadway debut until 50 years later. Originally conceived as a television play presenting on the 1950's-era anthology series Studio One, its writer Reginald Rose, expanded it into a stage version in 1955, and wrote the Academy Award -- nominated screenplay in 1957. In 2007, Twelve Angry Men was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
A young man is on trial for the first degree murder of his own father -- a charge which carries a mandatory death sentence. As the curtain opens, the twelve men are instructed by the judge on the gravity of their deliberations, saying that if there is the slightest doubt in their minds as to the guilt of the defendant, they must acquit. Eleven members believe that the young man is guilty; one juror -- Juror 8 -- is not convinced, and asks the others to persuade him. The drama depicts a jury forced to reconsider its nearly unanimous decision by the single dissenter who sows a seed of reasonable doubt. Throughout their deliberations, the men do not even call each other by name -- because they don't know their names. But as the deliberation goes one, they learn more about each other than they ever bargained for.
Three-time Emmy Award winner Jack Klugman returns to George Street Playhouse after appearing in previous seasons in The Sunshine Boys and The Value of Names. He is best known as 'Oscar Madison' in the TV series The Odd Couple and as the star of Quincy, M.E. For over fifty years, Klugman has made countless stage, film and television appearances that have made him one of America's most loved and respected actors. His first big break on the New York stage came in 1959 with Gypsy, opposite Ethel Merman in Gypsy. Since then his numerous film appearances include: Twelve Angry Men, Cry Terror, Days of Wine and Roses, The Detective, Goodbye Columbus, Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow, with Judy Garland, The Two Minute Warning, and Dear God. He also appeared several times on Rod Sterling's classic television anthology The Twilight Zone. In 1971, he landed his big break in The Odd Couple produced by Garry Marshall (Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirley) opposite Tony Randall. Klugman went on to have seven successful seasons with his next television show, Quincy, M.E.
Mr. Klugman's work has earned him many awards, including three Emmies, his first for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series for The Defenders, and two for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for The Odd Couple. Other awards include a Golden Globe award for The Odd Couple, a Tony award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for Gypsy, and even a Chloe award for his role in an Eagle Brand Snacks commercial in which he appeared again with Tony Randall. It is theatre, however, that has endured for Mr. Klugman and he recently toured with a one-man show about his life as well as appearing regionally in The Value of Names, " When I'm in the theatre, it's the only time I really feel at home in the world."
Reginald Rose started writing for television in 1951 for CBS, eventually writing for all the major networks. He wrote various episodes of Studio One (of which Twelve Angry Men was one), Playhouse 90, was one of the creators of The Defenders, as well as the mini-series Studs Lonigan and Escape from Sobibor. His other plays include Black Monday, The Porcelain Year, Dear Friends and This Agony, This Triumph. His screenplays include Crime in the Streets, Twelve Angry Men (which he also co-produced), Man of the West, The Man in the Net, Baxter!, Somebody Killed Her Husband, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Whose Life Is It, Anyway?, The Final Option and Wild Geese II. Mr. Rose has been honored with three Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination (for Twelve Angry Men), the Writers Guild of America Award and the Writers Guild of America Laurel Award.
David Saint (Director/Artistic Director) Now in his fourteenth season at George Street Playhouse, Artistic Director David Saint has directed twenty-nine mainstage productions. Most recently he directed Ken Ludwig's The Fox on the Fairway; the NJ premiere of the Broadway hit God of Carnage; the world premiere of Joe DiPietro's Creating Claire; Boyd Gaines and Rachel Dratch in A.R. Gurney's Sylvia; Marlo Thomas and Keith Carradine in Arthur Laurents' New Year's Eve; Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen; Jack Klugman and Paul Dooley in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys; William Finn's landmark musical Falsettos, the film noir musical Gunmetal Blues, Inspecting Carol, the world premiere of Arthur Laurents' 2 Lives; The Last Five Years, Lend Me a Tenor, the world premiere of Charles Evered's Celadine starring Amy Irving and Jonathan Larson's tick, tick…BOOM!. Mr.Saint's time in New Brunswick has been marked by collaborations with such artists as Uta Hagen, A.R. Gurney, Arthur Laurents, George Grizzard, Chita Rivera, Eli Wallach, Frances Sternhagen, Anne Meara, Dan Lauria, Stephen Sondheim and Jack Klugman.
Mr. Saint has directed on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at most of the leading regional theatres around the country. Recent credits include directing the first national tour of the recent Broadway revival of West Side Story, A.R. Gurney's new play The Fourth Wall at Primary Stages, starring Sandy Duncan, as well as the world premiere of Mark St. Germain's The God Committee at Barrington Stage. Other regional credits include Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Paper Mill Playhouse, Bay Street Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, where he served as Associate Artistic Director to Daniel Sullivan, directing many productions including the West Coast premiere of Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter. Other productions include two Anne Meara plays: After-Play, in New York and Los Angeles, and Down the Garden Paths, which began at George Street Playhouse and moved to New York; the national tour of The Cocktail Hour, with Fritz Weaver and Elizabeth Wilson; Fame: The Musical; The Fourth Wall, with Betty Buckley and George Segal; Fourplay, with Elaine May and Gene Saks; Sons and Fathers, with Holly Hunter; and the West Coast premiere of Lend Me a Tenor, as well as world premieres by such authors as Jonathan Larson, Peter Parnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Aaron Sorkin, Wendy Wasserstein and others. Mr. Saint was recently a panelist for the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative for the Pew Charitable Trust, has taught at Bennington College, and directed the short film Celebrity. He is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Award, Helen Hayes Award, Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, and several Drama-Logue Awards.
GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE
Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint, George Street Playhouse has become a nationally recognized theatre, presenting an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an artistic home for established and emerging theatre artists. Noted Arts Administrator Norma Kaplan was appointed Managing Director in September 2011. Founded in 1974, the Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway -- recent productions include the Outer Critics' Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger, the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill and the recent Broadway hit and Tony® and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In addition to its mainstage season, GSP's Touring Theatre features four issue-oriented productions that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by its lead season sponsor, Johnson & Johnson.
