Rahman Williams as Juror #6
To be cast as Juror No. 6 is a challenging reward. I've come a long way from my first insight of the character to my understanding now. As time goes on, I start to see that Juror No. 6 is not as quite straightforward as I initially thought. The character is a house painter by trade, and as I start to dig into that I see parallels between his views about his occupation and situations in the jury room. Having painted myself before (disclaimer: only around the house projects) I start to see how the process of painting can define a logical approach to things in life. For instance, if you paint a room gray the obvious first take is that it is gray. However, once the paint dries and different lighting comes into play along with different pieces of room décor you can easily start to shift from the paint just being gray to a variety of different shades of the same color. This is how the character, Juror No. 6, in my opinion, is expressed in the courtroom.
This cast has a lot of talent across the board. They may not know it, but I sit back and study each of them. Every cast mate has a different method, quirk, or intricacy they add to their character as time develops. They also have different methods in the way they come in to prepare for reading as well as in ways they provide and receive feedback on changes they need to make. This is all extremely helpful as I am fairly new on the acting scene. There is so much to absorb and learn from them all and for that I am very grateful.
Through the audition process I definitely thought this would be a shot in the dark if I was to land a role in this production. However, I am a firm believer of if it is meant to be, it will be. I had reserved one of the first time slots available to audition. When I arrived at the rehearsal location it was a different story. I could not find the room where the auditions were being held as there was another event that was going on at the same time. I asked and waited around for several minutes trying to find out if the location changed, or if it was canceled. Luckily, I e-mailed Jennifer (thank you again!) when I was about to leave and she e-mailed me back as soon as I was about to get into my vehicle and leave giving me the exact location. I thought to myself “this is going well”.
Since I was now late for my audition there were several people ahead of me. Just listening to them talk and glancing at their resumes was definitely intimidating. When I finally got my turn in the room I was asked to read, but I would have to wait until everyone else was finished. At this point, I was the last man standing in the lobby. I wasn’t sure how things were going to progress from that point, but I am definitely thankful for the way things turned out!
Richard is a director I love working with now and would love to work with in the future. The way he allows each one of us to find our character on our own (with an occasional nudge, nod, or push along the way) is amazing. It is like you don’t feel pressure, but then you do because you don’t want to let him down and you want to either meet or exceed his expectations since he is giving you that kind of freedom. I am also impressed with all of the supporting staff as you see their hard work behind the scenes, but keep a low and humble profile the entire time.
I feel this production is going to be quite a gem. We still have plenty of work to do, but we are absolutely heading in the right direction. This will be a play to remember!
Rahman Williams--Juror #6