Submitted by Storytellers Entertainment <\/p>\nA fun moment with the cast of \u201c12 Angry Jurors\u201d shown here pointing to one another during a break in rehearsal. Top row (left to right): Anna Vasilchuk, Nettie Penner, Mason Esau, Devon Littlejohn, Hailey Klassen, Sofia Fernandez-Couto. Bottom row (left to right): Jess McCowan, Nyx Harder, Maria Esau, Tanner Klassen, Chris Kirpluk, Danielle Kirpluk, MJ Ascough. The play is the first adult cast for Storytellers Entertainment theatre group. \u201c12 Angry Jurors\u201d will play at the Pat Porter Active Living Centre on April 24 and 25, 2026. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The idea to do the play came about during last year\u2019s production of \u201cHansel and Gretel\u201d when Littlejohn and \u201c12 Angry Jurors\u201d\u2019 director Andrew Derksen decided to produce the drama as they had plenty of adult actors in the company. Also, Derksen had acted in the Candlewick Productions\u2019 version of \u201c12 Angry Men\u201d a couple of years ago where Littlejohn was an audience member and when they heard of \u201c12 Angry Jurors\u201d it seemed like a natural fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter some chatting back and forth, we ultimately settled on that one,\u201d said Littlejohn.<\/p>\n
Normally, Littlejohn directs all of Storytellers\u2019 plays, but this time he gave the reins to Derksen and took the role of assistant director and actor in this production; he plays the foreman of the jury. Littlejohn said it felt \u201cpretty good\u201d to hand the directing job to someone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may not come as a surprise, but being the director could certainly be a challenge at times. And yeah, I\u2019m honored that I was one of the people that Andrew wanted to have be in the show. And it just feels nice to just kind of have that kind of pressure as director to be like lifted off of me and then I could just focus on acting with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlejohn said as a director, Derksen is \u201cvery articulate on the analytical side.\u201d He said when the cast is in rehearsal, Derksen already has a vision planned out on what he wants to see, which Littlejohn said makes it easier for the cast because he gives very clear instructions on what they should do and how they should do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gives some leeway when it comes to characterization. During the first rehearsal when we started handing out scripts, it was like most scripts come with the character description and all that, he already told us to look at that as a guideline, (and) don\u2019t fully use that as a reference to the character.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actors for the play are coming from all over the RM of Hanover and Winnipeg. Littlejohn said there are three actors who stand out in the production: Danielle (Juror 12) and Chris (Juror Three) Kirpluk from Mitchell and Anna Vasilchuk (Juror Five) from Kleefeld.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The Kirpluks) have been with our group for a number of years already. And every time the Kirpluk family has been in the show, they\u2019ve just been phenomenal. They\u2019re really good at what they do. In fact, I believe the Kirpluks are now involved in shows like \u201cBroadway Moments.\u201d Even like Danielle Kirpluk, she played the one leading lady in \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kirpluks take their craft very seriously. That\u2019s probably one of the greatest things too. They\u2019re really down-to-earth. They\u2019re fun to work with. They take direction really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding Vasilchuk, who is one of the younger jurors, Littlejohn said he is amazed at her acting as she is keeping up with the mature tone of the play and the dramatic setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a certain flair you got to add, or there\u2019s a certain way you got to act during the show to truly convince the audience what you\u2019re doing here. And Anna is still in high school and the fact that she\u2019s keeping up with like everyone else too, it\u2019s just amazing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlejohn said the play has strong acting, is dramatic, and since it takes place in one setting where all the actors are on the stage at the same time throughout the play, it forces the actors to be thoughtful in their delivery of the dialogue and how to make that dialogue interesting for the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident people will react positively to that\u2026It\u2019s very much a character-driven play more than anything else, really, that relies heavily on its dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlejohn said the play is for those who are 12 years old and up and that there is no swearing or sexual content in the show.<\/p>\n
Going forward, Littlejohn said Storytellers will do more dramatic and comedic adult plays. He said there will be three different types of casts and plays: Adult, youth, and adult and youth mixed.<\/p>\n
If everything falls into place, Littlejohn said the next youth production in May will be a comedic and family friendly production of \u201c12 Angry Jurors.\u201d<\/p>\n
To buy tickets to \u201c12 Angry Jurors\u201d visit zeffy.com\/en-CA\/ticketing\/12-angry-jurors-3 or buy them at the Pat Porter Active Living Centre in Steinbach. The centre is also where the play will be shown on April 24 at 7 p.m. and on April 25 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $15. Run time for the show is about 80 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thecarillon.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Storytellers Entertainment will open its 2026 season with its first adult production with the showing of \u201c12 Angry Jurors.\u201d \u201cThe shows we\u2019ve done, like for the youth, they\u2019ve been a fun ride for sure. But I guess it\u2019s just kind of, for some of our adult actors, it\u2019s not quite the kind of shows they\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2371121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2371120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Storytellers-Entertainments-first-adult-production-opens-season-\u2013-The-Carillon.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2371120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2371122,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2371120\/revisions\/2371122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2371121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2371120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2371120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2371120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}