August 20

Today we talked some more about questions that came up in our research. I did more research on the switch knife and why the shopkeeper was arrested for selling it to the boy since he was over 18. I found out that there was a bill passed in 1954 banning switch knives in an attempt to reduce gang violence which would have made the sale and possession illegal in the time period of the play. This did, however, bring up a new question for me which was whether the boy is also being tried for possession of the knife and if this is at all part of the deliberation we do in the jury room (it does not seem to be, as very little conversation revolves around the arrest of the shopkeeper). Perhaps it was just a fine for possession, or, he is unable to be tried for this charge because he was not physically in possession of the knife at the time of his arrest. Overall, it does not seem to have much impact on the story being told, so either of these seem plausible so long as it is not something that the jurors have to deal with in the room, which it doesn’t seem we do. Aside from this, one of the things that struck me about today’s rehearsal was my line before deliberation starts “Is it custom?” This line struck me because it seems to be so different from all of my other lines. Throughout the play, I am focused on the task at hand and the urgency of getting out of the jury room; even the story following this one relates to the case in that it motivates my adamant guilty vote and acts as a warning to the other jurors of the magnitude of what we are dealing with. This line, however, is a distinct shift from the motivation that carries me through the rest of the show. I suspect the staging of this moment will help aid in this discovery, but currently it seems to be such a stark difference from the rest of any of my lines in the show which always urge the room to move faster or to get back on track (or take a vote).