High School Thespians

Laguna Beach High School thespians have a chance to show off their skills, versatility and maturity in “Twelve Angry Jurors” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” two stage productions running concurrently that could not be more different from each other.

“Twelve Angry Jurors,” adapted from a 1954 teleplay by Reginald Rose, is a drama centered on the last stage deliberations of jurors of highly diverse social and educational backgrounds, who must decide the guilt or innocence of a teenager accused of killing his father.

As the plot unfolds, the audience may decide along with the 12 immensely talented high school juniors and seniors whether the youth is innocent as one holdout, juror 8 maintains. Or the audience may be persuaded, as the other 11 are convinced, that the accused committed the crime and himself to the electric chair.

The second show, titled The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, is a musical based on a book by Rachel Sheinkin (with lyrics and music by William Finn). The play pokes lighthearted fun at junior high school-aged contestants intent on spelling words ranging from cow to lugubrious and other challenges multi-lettered enough to stump even a writer.

Both productions have in common compelling characters that draw the audience into the action. In the case of “12 Jurors,” seating is staged in an arena around the set. In the “Spelling Bee,” the script calls for a surprise selection of audience members who can show off their spelling prowess or be brought up short by the kids.

“The cast had only two weeks to memorize ‘Spelling Bee.’ Since it’s a fairly new Broadway show, it took a while to get copyright permission to stage it,” said director Mark Dressler. But, he added that his cast members were adept at learning their material. “Most get ‘My Fair Lady’ down in a couple of days and nowadays everyone seems to know every song in ‘Rent’,” he said, adding that many students had actually seen the show on Broadway and loved it.

The musical also distinguishes itself by being more expensive than usual, said Dressler, since the royalties are higher than they would be for an older production, though he declined to provide specific figures. In addition, costumes and sets had to be designed and fabricated from scratch. Characters include baby punks, parochial school students, assorted geeks and loonies and a lanky boy scout whose spelling performance gets derailed by a hormonally induced embarrassment brought on by a cute contestant.

During a recent rehearsal the spelling bee participants showed off their pipes minus amplification, accompanied only by music director Rick Hechman on keyboard.

Throughout, the cast is divided into “Bee” participants who sing and their family members who do not, excepting the gay couple, two stagefathers (Nicolai Doreng-Stearns and Luke Dressler) who spur their daughter into acing the Bee.

Doreng-Stearns and Dressler, both LBHS seniors, are the only actors segueing between “Spelling Bee” and the “12 Angry Jurors.”

A son of the director, Dressler (juror 7) seems to the manor born, and he plans to pursue an acting career after college. Doreng-Stearns (juror 4), on the other hand, takes inspiration from his father, whom he describes as a logical minded architect. He plans to become a scientist, a nuclear engineer perhaps, and has his sights set on Cal Poly or Princeton.

Juror 11, played by Macarena Rivera, will resonate with immigrants from countries with dark human rights records. While avidly participating in the jury room debate with a Balkan accent, Rivera, an immigrant from Argentina, is the one whose convictions are based on the U.S. Bill of Rights rather than the precepts of family dysfunction and class that undermine the others’ arguments.

Rivera says that she hopes for a future in film acting. Then again, while the others debate and reason at varying decibels, juror one can only speak during vote counts. “It is a difficult role for me, since I have to convey all emotions through movement only,” said Nia Evans, the jury foreman.

Sawyer Pierce (juror 3) and Kate Stewart (juror 8) are particularly called upon to reach into depths of emotions remarkable for their years. Stewart, preparing for a career as a stage actor, sets the soul rending, constant search for that crucial reasonable doubt into motion, while Pierce, playing a father who feels that his own son failed him, is her equally compelling adversary. “I drew on the father’s sub-conscious wish for revenge and also the sense of justice that we all feel,” he said. His acting role models? Heath Ledger and Robert Downey Jr.