Spartanburg High School’s theater department always puts on a good show for the audience to see, listen to and enjoy. The fall performance of the 2024-2025 school year was “12 Angry Jurors,” based on the 1957 crime film by Reginald Rose. The play follows a setting in court with twelve jurors deciding the fate of a man who had recently been accused of murder.
Something that is not talked about very frequently is what all goes on into preparing for the plays at SHS every year. Play production takes hours upon hours of work to memorize lines and actions, costume and prop making and even the backstage crew has tons of work to do and prepare for the play every year.
Ella Cox (11) is in theater and enjoys putting in hard work to prepare to perform.
“A lot of different things go into production and getting ready for the play. We start at the beginning of the year memorizing lines and building our character. We work on acts one by one just getting familiar with the cast and our lines. As we get closer to opening night, we must start figuring out what we think our character should wear and sound like. The week or so before we perform is called Tech Week, when we make final preparations and a couple of full run-throughs with our microphones and costumes. Then we get to opening night when it is finally time to perform for the first time in front of the audience,” Cox said.
Steven Egge (12) has been part of theater for years and has had a lot of fun with the cast each year and has made lots of friends.
“To prepare for the play, we had to go to four rehearsals a week for several months. We have to spend time studying our lines and figuring out how our characters would react to each scenario. It’s a long process, and it takes hard work and dedication to get it right. Even when you have your lines memorized, you have to go back through and brush up on them regularly. It’s a group effort, and everyone needs to put in the time and effort. But every year, we get it done and we put on a good show, and ‘12 Angry Jurors’ is no exception,” Egge said.
Most of the time, the audience is only paying attention what is in front of the onstage rather than what goes on above and behind the stage. A lot goes on behind the scenes and behind the curtains. Things like lighting, prop changes, music and intermissions between acts are all happening before the audience’s eyes.
Bryan Long oversees most of the action that takes place before and during the theater crew’s performance each year.
“I enjoy preparing every single time that there is a performance. Working with all the students creates a bond between each other that is really awesome and they always do a great job while getting ready to perform,” Long said.
