THE JURY IS AMERICA
by Diana Howie, The Jury Bookwriter
When I started writing the script for The Jury, I did not have a particular theme in mind. I had recently heard and experienced the explosive, plaintive, slap happy, you-name-it emotions of Americans trapped in a real courtroom, and I wanted to capture those feelings and see what they were all about. By the time Anna Fay Williams and I had a first draft of the musical's book with songs, we found ourselves looking at today's self-centered America.
Indeed the jury we created was a microcosm of America: individuals who are used to having their way; individuals not used to being lassoed into community service; individuals accustomed to ignoring the rules that aren't agreeable to them; individuals who don't really consider themselves to be part of any group other than their own chosen circles.
Forced to interact, these jurors make some superficial connections to one another, but they don't even approach connection as a group of equals until they are threatened with jail themselves, and are reaching for something to talk about. One of them mentions that his father thinks the country is falling apart with so many senseless killings, and all of a sudden this topic opens the jurors' hearts and encourages them to spill their guts.
Beneath the diverse busy lives, it is the emotional cores of these Americans that allow them to connect. Those bedrock human questions ("Why are we doing this thing that disturbs us?" "What are we scared of?") bring us together. It takes time to get to these emotional cores. For some it takes more time than others to shed that protective skin that separates our lives. One juror, Della, sheds hers right away when she hears the defendant speak; another, Alexandra, is the last to shed hers, yielding only when she feels under attack by the others.
This is the theme I discovered while watching the musical develop:"Can we all stop thinking about ourselves long enough to do what is necessary for our society to survive?" Or put another way, "Are we capable of applying ourselves to the common good?" I remember at the end of A Chorus Line, I always found myself asking "What do I do for the love of doing it?" After watching The Jury, I ask myself "What do I do for my fellow man?"
by Diana Howie, The Jury Bookwriter
When I started writing the script for The Jury, I did not have a particular theme in mind. I had recently heard and experienced the explosive, plaintive, slap happy, you-name-it emotions of Americans trapped in a real courtroom, and I wanted to capture those feelings and see what they were all about. By the time Anna Fay Williams and I had a first draft of the musical's book with songs, we found ourselves looking at today's self-centered America.
Indeed the jury we created was a microcosm of America: individuals who are used to having their way; individuals not used to being lassoed into community service; individuals accustomed to ignoring the rules that aren't agreeable to them; individuals who don't really consider themselves to be part of any group other than their own chosen circles.
Forced to interact, these jurors make some superficial connections to one another, but they don't even approach connection as a group of equals until they are threatened with jail themselves, and are reaching for something to talk about. One of them mentions that his father thinks the country is falling apart with so many senseless killings, and all of a sudden this topic opens the jurors' hearts and encourages them to spill their guts.
Beneath the diverse busy lives, it is the emotional cores of these Americans that allow them to connect. Those bedrock human questions ("Why are we doing this thing that disturbs us?" "What are we scared of?") bring us together. It takes time to get to these emotional cores. For some it takes more time than others to shed that protective skin that separates our lives. One juror, Della, sheds hers right away when she hears the defendant speak; another, Alexandra, is the last to shed hers, yielding only when she feels under attack by the others.
This is the theme I discovered while watching the musical develop:"Can we all stop thinking about ourselves long enough to do what is necessary for our society to survive?" Or put another way, "Are we capable of applying ourselves to the common good?" I remember at the end of A Chorus Line, I always found myself asking "What do I do for the love of doing it?" After watching The Jury, I ask myself "What do I do for my fellow man?"
posted by Anna Williams at 6:04 PM
