FINDING THE RIGHT TEASER FOR "THE JURY" MUSICAL

One of the hardest things to do as a playwright is to reduce your play into a dozen words. After all, why would you write a two-hour show if you could say it all in 10 seconds? Yet, we writers are asked to do this all the time: to write a teaser that will entice the ticket buyers (or producers) to take a look.

Posters for plays frequently tout critics' words of praise, but brand new shows don't have those touts yet, and the writer is expected to come up with a few irresistible words. The teaser has to be one of the hardest things to write because it has to give a feeling for the piece and intrigue you at the same time. It has to find the best way of drawing you into this magic world we've created.

The composer/lyricist and I have struggled with finding the right teaser since our first reading. Some of the ones we've come up with that get some of the feeling of the production include:

"A raucous bunch of jurors gives Lady Justice a real headache."

"Mercy! are these the jurors you'd want if you accidentally shot your neighbor?"

"Reckless shootings, impatient jurors -- what is America coming to?"

"They're short on time, quick on the trigger, and fussing in a courtroom near you."

"Impatient jurors get serious when they realize they could be on trial too."

When we started writing this musical, we were exploring whether or not we as Americans could stop thinking about ourselves long enough to come together as a group, and focus our attention on the common good. We thought a jury was a very apt microcosm for this exploration. As we worked, we discovered other things about the jury process and what each individual brought to it, but the focus remained the same: could this group get together, and what would make that happen?

We're still looking for the right teaser that captures this show: funny, multi-ethnic, lively, relevant, and as one audience member said, "A bang-on picture of juries today."

(Posted by Diana Howie, bookwriter of "The Jury")

For earlier postings on "The Jury" go to the blogspot www.thejurymusical.blogspot.com/