Pasadena Playhouse Kicks Off Talkback Todays for TWELVE ANGRY MEN Tonight

The Honorable Lance A. Ito, Honorable Lance A. Ito, Curtis Silver of United Negro College Fund, Daniel Mayeda, Co-Chair of Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, Dr. Jorge Huerta, UC-San Diego Professor of Theatre Emeritus California, and Twelve Angry Men cast member Jason George, Chair of the National Diversity Advisory Committee for SAG/AFTRA lead the list of community members discussing the play as part of the new Talkback Tuesdays series at The Pasadena Playhouse. Ito, Mayeda, Huerta and George will join six other esteemed panel members for these post-performance discussions tonight, November 12 and November 19 and 26. The Pasadena Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps, who is the director of Twelve Angry Men will participate in all three Talkback Tuesday events.

During the run of Twelve Angry Men, playing through December 1, there will also be a Pre-Show event on November 6; a November 20 Hotseat event with courtroom illustrator Mona Shafer Edwards, who witnessing first hand some of the most infamous trials of our time, including OJ Simpson, Rodney King, Oscar Grant (Subject of Fruitvale Station), the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial, and many others; and a post-show event on November 24 - all of which provide interesting engagement with the play and for the audience attending those performances.

The cast for the production is comprised of a mix of African-American and white actors. Sheldon Epps said, "This production gives us the opportunity for us to make an incredibly timely choice and to further a much needed conversation in our community and in our nation. I believe that our casting for Twelve Angry Men will prompt serious and profound dialogue onstage and off about the vitally important issue of race in America. In remarkably startling ways, the play reflects issues that are daily in the headlines. It mirrors the ongoing challenges that come from assumptions, pre-conceptions, and prejudices that still exist in our country. It is important for the theatre to sometimes face hard issues through our art form. Certainly doing this particular play, at this particular time, in this particular way will do that in a manner that is both theatrically and culturally exciting, potentially explosive and very necessary."

Executive Director Elizabeth Doran said, "Beyond convening the community and prompting discussion on themes explored in our plays, The Pasadena Playhouse agitates - and engages -- audiences to discover solutions to issues we face together as a society. Talkback Tuesdays are enriching and empowering opportunities to improve and positively define our community."

Twelve Angry Men unfolds in a New York City courtroom on a sweltering August evening as a jury is filed into a deliberation room. They are tasked with determining the verdict in a murder case in which a young man is accused of killing his father and faces the death penalty if found guilty. These dozen nameless men find themselves in the role of potential executioner, but first they must face themselves, their biases and their own sense of justice. What starts as an open-and-shut case soon twists into an edge-of-your-seat drama as each juror begins to question how he should cast his vote.

Twelve Angry Men will plays through December 1, 2013, at The Pasadena Playhouse, located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Tickets are available by calling The Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529 at the The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office and by visiting www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

Pasadena Playhouse Audience Engagements Events during run of "Twelve Angry Men":

Wednesday, November 6 at 7pm - Pre-show event

Tuesday, November 12 -- Talkback Tuesdays Race Relations in Courts
Judge Lance A. Ito; Attorney Rickey Ivie, Senior Partner, Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt and Chair, UCLA Black Alumni Association? Attorney Tami L. Warren, President, Black Women Lawyers of LA/ Office of the Public Defender.

Tuesday, November 19 - Talkback Tuesdays Race Relations in the Community
Attorney Melinda J. Murray, President, John Langston Bar Association (Black Lawyers Organization)? Curtis Silvers, Western Region Director, United Negro College Fund (UNCF)? Rev. William Smart, President/CEO, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California.

Wednesday, November 20 - Hotseat with Mona Shafer Edwards
Edwards as a Court Illustrator covered some of the most notorious cases in California history for many news, entertainment, and television outlets. Her images, among the most famous in judicial history, have been widely seen on ABC News, Entertainment Tonight, A&E, CNN, 20/20, and in many foreign language publications and international programs. A Los Angeles native, graduate of Art Center College of Design, Mona is co-author of several Fashion books for HarperCollins and Addison Wesley Longman. Her book Captured! Inside the World of Celebrity Trials, features her illustrations during her 20-plus years as a courtroom artist. Mona is a Judge in the National Constitutional Rights Foundation, Courtroom Art program for High School students, and has lectured nationally in Colleges and High Schools.

Wednesday, November 24 - Post Show event - conversation with cast members of Twelve Angry Men

Tuesday, November 26 - Talkback Tuesdays Race Relations in the Arts.
Moderated by Steven Leigh Morris (Critic, LA Weekly), panelists include Twelve Angry Men cast member Jason George, Chair of the National Diversity Advisory Committee for SAG/AFTRA; Dr. Jorge Huerta, Chancellor's Associates and Professor of Theatre Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego; Daniel Mayeda, East West Board Member and CoChair Asian Pacific American Media Coalition.

Pictured: Director Sheldon Epps and the cast of "Twelve Angry Men". Photo credit: Clarence Alford.

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