By Mitchell Clark

Have you ever wondered how hard it is to be a juror, especially to make a choice when the pressure and summer heat just want you to get it over with?
Well, for the next week you can go see what it might be like at the “12 Angry Jurors” show here on campus – for free, no less.
The play is being directed by Professor Kelly Morgan and worked on by two sets of casts of one of his classes. So it is almost entirely being put on by students here at FSU. It is 80 minutes of controversy.
Morgan said that he wanted to show that “it’s all about otherness” when he was speaking about the play, which is set during the summer after 9/11. And the jurors are trying to determine the fate of a Hispanic individual.
Morgan said he wanted to show a group of people struggling to “seek truth and fact.”
The play has that there was a varying group of people stuck in a room and just want to get it over with so that they can leave and go do what they need to do. That jury duty is just a annoying task that is not very important in comparison with other things. But they need to think carefully about what really this person deserves, and if they are just making a snap decision based on their bias.
Morgan wanted audiences to “get some laughs, be challenged and a little ticked” as the concepts that are in the play are those that touch on sexism, racism and fear and ignorance. The point is to get people talking, Morgan said. Especially right after this past election, when people are already angry and hurt.
Morgan was an advocate for people to come and watch to help out the students that worked for months to get this play ready for the campus and suggested that it was a great thing to come in and watch as something to do in Fitchburg. As most people on campus or around are complaining that there is nothing to do, well for this next week here is something to come and see. And with the two casts there is a reason to come twice, Morgan said, as you get to see how the actors play their roles differently.
He said that not many, if any, other classes on campus got to interact with the public while on campus like Applied Acting. Joining the class for this sort of play would be a great way to “find your real voice,” Morgan said.
Getting involved with the play was also a way to put other skills from other majors to work for the play. An engineer did the stage for this one, for example. Morgan thought it was a good way for students to learn from one another and do some networking with classmates, which he thought was very important for college life.
So as Morgan wanted to show people coming together in this play, people can come together to see this play. If only for something to do for an evening out.