The Laramie Project
The Laramie Project is a play by
Moisés Kaufman and members of the
Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the
1998 murder of
Matthew Shepard in
Laramie, Wyoming, widely considered to be a
hate crime motivated by
homophobia (see the Shepard article for more on the incident). The play draws on over 200 interviews conducted by the theater company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entires, and published news reports. Eight actors portray more than 60 characters in what have been described as scripted "moments," rather than traditional acts and scenes.
The play premiered at the
Civic Center, Denver in February
2000 and was then performed in the
Union Square Theater in
New York City before a November
2002 performance in Laramie itself.
As a result of the play's success,
HBO commissioned a
2002 film of
The Laramie Project, also written and directed by Kaufman, starring
Christina Ricci,
Steve Buscemi,
Camryn Manheim,
Bill Irwin,
Summer Phoenix,
Joshua Jackson,
Clea Duvall and
Janeane Garofalo. The film employs a
documentary style but includes actual events re-enacted by actors. The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival in January
2002 and was broadcast on HBO in March
2002.
The Laramie Project was performed in
Hamilton, New Zealand in June 2006 by Theatre Studies Students of
Waikato University and Directed by Gaye Poole.
In July of 2006, The Laramie Project will be performed at
French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in
Hancock, New York.
The play was performed by the
Carl Sandburg High School Theater department in
Orland Park, Illinois for its 2001 fall play.
The play was performed by
Westtown School in
Westtown, Pennsylvania for one of its two fall performances in 2001.
In
fall 2002,
Naperville North High School in
Naperville, Illinois, ran a production of the play. North's production was later selected for the Illinois High School Theatre Fest in early
spring of
2003.
In the fall of
2002,
Astoria High School in
Astoria, Oregon put on a production of the show. Astoria's production was selected as the closing-night show of the Oregon State Thespian Conference and performed there in the spring of 2003.
In
March 2005 the play was performed by the theatre department of
Punahou School in
Honolulu, Hawaii. [
1]
In the
winter of 2005, the theatre department of
Roseville Area High School in
Roseville, Minnesota performed the play.
The play was performed at the Lydia Mendelsohn Theatre in
Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 17-20, 2005 by students from the Department of Theatre and Drama at the
University of Michigan.
The highly-acclaimed, award-winning
Westmont High School drama department in
Campbell, California, directed by Jeff Bengford, performed The Laramie Project in January 2006 as part of their Unity Week celebration. (
Click for photos.)
Performances of the play have sometimes generated controversy. When the
Southridge High School theatre program, in
Beaverton, Oregon, requested rights to perform the play for their Spring 2006 production, a major outcry from fundamentalist Christian organizations followed. Groups travelled to protest the event, including
Fred Phelps and the
Westboro Baptist Church from
Topeka, Kansas. With support from community activists and the repeated efforts of the school's theatre program, the production proceeded to open on
May 26,
2006.
In their 2007 drama season, both
Lincoln High School and
Jesuit High School in
Portland, Oregon will perform the play. This also is expected to generate controversy, as JHS is a Catholic school. Cabra Dominican College is also another school, located in South Australia, which performed this play and received high praise in the fall of 2006.
The
University of Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada) Department of Theatre will present
The Laramie Project in November 2006. The production will be directed by Kathryn Bracht (Assistant Professor, Acting), and with set design supervised by nationally recognized designer Wes D. Pearce.
The Laramie Project will be performed in the UK by Xpress Theatre Company, Surrey. They are touring the production in schools to try and increase awareness of this type of bullying that still occurs in schools.
*
*
The Tectonic Theater Project's website*
HBO's website for the film
