So one, time, I did a thing!
And it was actually super neat.
Everyone liked the thing, and I felt good about it.
But seriously, this weekend was cool. I participated in the Regional Thespian
Conference as a part of The Laramie
Project (well, a 45 minute cut of The
Laramie Project), and we got second place.
It’s cool, not bitter or anything.
Totally not bitter.
Anyway, despite what awards we did or did not receive
(*cough* Best Ensemble *cough* Best Supporting Actor (Gus) *cough* Best Actress
(Me)), we, as a cast, felt that the show made a colossal impact on the
audience, as for many participants, it struck a very personal issue.
Everyone in the audience.
The Laramie Project
is a piece of documentary theatre (which is a brilliant concept in itself and deserves
its own separate blog post) written by the members of
The Tectonic Theater Project about the brutal kidnapping, beating and murder of University of Wyoming
student Matthew Shepard because he was gay.
Here’s the first line of the show just to clarify some factual things:
“On November 14th,
1998, the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project travelled to Laramie, Wyoming
and conducted interviews with the people of the town. Over the next year, we would return several
times and conduct over 200 interviews.
The play you are about to see is edited from those interviews, as well
as from journal entries by members of the company and other found texts.”
Our company members.
So, in essence, the play is a live-action documentary, with
8 different actors (in our version) literally putting on hats to become
different characters. These characters
range from Aaron Kreifels, the boy who found Matthew beaten and tied to a fence
in the middle of nowhere, to Reggie Flutey, the responding officer who was
exposed to HIV attempting to revive Matthew, to Doc O’Connor, a limousine
driver acquainted with Matthew, and to Sherry Johnson, a local woman who doesn’t
believe Matthew was the martyr the huge media coverage made him out to be.
Media coverage!
The Laramie Project
is an iconic piece of theatre, not only because of how successfully it
accomplishes a documentary style, but because of its clear message. One of my favorite lines is from a scene
titled “Two Queers and a Catholic Priest”, in which Father Roger tells two of
the company members that he would “resent it immensely” should they use
anything he said to promote negativity.
The line closing this scene, which is also repeated in the show’s
finale, says “if you write a play of this, I trust that you’ll say it right,
say it correct. I think you have a
responsibility to say it correct.”
Eric as Father Roger during the IndyFringe Festival.
The themes of The
Laramie Project are what prevails.
The play preaches equality, understanding, and justice. This is accomplished not only through the way
the script sheds light on the true nature of the town of Laramie, Wyoming, as a
laid back, welcoming place despite the violence done there, but also the
unbiased nature characters with commonly negative opinions are presented. Sherry Johnson, who has a line that says “I
didn’t know him [Matthew] of course, but there’s just a lot of things about him
that have come out, like about his character and spreading AIDS and just the
kind of…person…he was…” is given just as much weight as an individual as
university student Zubaida Ula, who gives an impassioned monologue about how “we
[the citizens of Laramie] should be sad that we live in a town, in a country,
where this kind of thing [a hate crime] happens. We need to own this crime…we are like this…WE
are like this…”
Our Zubaida...not ranting.
This triumph in true understanding of the individual is
beautiful. Everyone’s opinions, no
matter how much one may disagree, deserve weight. This play is a true testament to the
character of the authors, many of whom are homosexual and could easily have
taken a much more berating tone when presenting this horrific incident as a
play, because it is so incredibly unbiased.
There’s a reason opinions are called opinions, not “facts”, and that’s
something a lot of people, from all facets of life, fail to remember. One cannot judge another based on the way
they were brought up or process the world as an individual. The best way to move forward as a society, so
crimes like what was done to Matthew no longer happen, is to learn from others
before attempting to teach them.
So, because this post was uncharacteristically preachy and I
could have gone on longer about how much I’ve grown to love The Laramie Project, I’ll close by
saying we lost to a show about how hard it is to be a teenager. But they had a reference to Netflix, and we
touched on universal issues like civil rights and acceptance, so you know, I
guess we should have seen it coming.
Still not bitter.
Despite that, I feel good about what we did. I feel like a lot of people had thoughts
provoked from this show.
Matthew Shepard died 15 years and 5 weeks ago. And here I am, someone who was wetting the
bed at the time his life was ended, talking about him. Learning from his story. That’s something that’ll last a lot longer
than a second place medal and Netflix references.
So topical.
