That Time I Did A Thing

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 14^th, 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.