Theatre is a bridge into mystery. It doesn’t offer answers, but serves as a mirror and reflects humanity to itself. Such is the case with the play you are about to see tonight, and while The Laramie Project is a play about hate, it is also a play about love.
In November, 1998, Director, Moises Kaufman, and the Tectonic Theatre Project members, flew to Laramie, Wyoming, a month after Matthew Shepard, a gay 21 year old college student, was murdered. The Company spent two years interviewing over two hundred people to discover what happened the night that Matthew was kidnapped and brutally beaten. With the creation of The Laramie Project, The Tectonic Theatre Project members sparked a nationwide dialogue about hate crime that continues today, every time it is performed.
Stylistically, The Laramie Project is an example of verbatim theatre, meaning, the script is word for word what real people said in interviews, news reports, journal entries, and court proceedings. This style of theatre reveals the varying belief systems and ideologies of the Laramie people as the script was devised directly from their own words.
Tonight ten actors will portray over sixty roles. Each actor is playing a New York City Tectonic Theatre Project member who traveled to Laramie to interview people. This character’s “base” costume will be represented by neutral colors, gray, black, white or beige. These characters are often silent, recording conversations, or interviewing Laramie citizens.
When actors portray a Laramie citizen, they make a simple costume change such as a hat, a shirt or a pair of glasses. What makes this show challenging is that the actors will be on stage the entire time, changing character and costume in front of the audience. The actors are actively listening to each interview, bearing witness to every voice that speaks.
I am grateful for the opportunity to direct The Laramie Project. The actors and understudies have been deeply committed to authentically portraying a wide range of characters and to relaying the play’s message with precision of speech. I would like to thank the actors, crew and production team for wholeheartedly embracing The Laramie Project with the spirit of the wounded warrior. And to Matthew Shepard, we love you.
