Laramie Project
This evening I went to see The Laramie Project, produced by members of Studio 180.
Laramie Project poster The Laramie Project is based on a series of interviews by members of the Tectonic Theater Company conducted in Laramie, Wyoming, following the murder of Matthew Shepherd.
Matthew Shepherd was a gay 21 year-old student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming. He was attacked, beaten, and left in a field outside of Laramie in October 1998; he died five days later.
In the year following his death, members of the Tectonic Theater Company went to Laramie several times and conducted over 200 interviews with members of the Laramie community. The experiences from those interviews formed the basis for the theatrical production The Laramie Project. It’s presented as a series of interviews and journal entries showing how the people of Laramie reacted to the murder and how their community changed as a result.
I was touched by the intense personal nature of the production. The original production in New York was performed by the actors who had actually gone and done the interviews. So this production was not only about the events of October 1998 but also about the actors who originally developed the project.
Through the production, we came to know the fears and hopes of some people from Laramie. My favourite character was Jebediah Schultz, a university student. He came to university on an acting scholarship, having won an acting competition through his portrayal of a gay character; his parents wouldn’t come see him perform at the competition. A year after Matthew’s death, he auditioned for and was cast in that same role in a production at university. (The play was Angels in America.)
Many of the townspeople reacted by distancing themselves from the reality of the event. “Laramie isn’t the kind of place where this type of thing happens.” But one character responded that it was a place where this type of thing happens, because it did. She argued that they needed to own the tragedy, to take it in, and only then could they grow from it.
Too often we try to separate ourselves from the reality of the events around us. Those types of things don’t happen around here, we’re not that type of place. And yet they do happen, we are that type of place. Not everywhere and not always, but we have a long way to go.
Matthew’s mother maintains a website about her son.
Comment by :: fiercepoet ::
The Laramie Project
I can not be more thrilled than I am right now. I, out of curiosity, ran a search for “The Laramie Project” upcoming show on Google and to my surprise the local theatre here in Huntsville, Alabama will be performing…
