In 1998 the members of Moisés Kaufman’s Tectonic Theater Project of New York
traveled to Laramie, Wyoming in search of understanding concerning a hate
crime that had become a national sensation. The results of their search were
presented on stage in Denver and then in New York and eventually in Laramie
itself. It became a made-for-TV movie and has enjoyed professional
productions around the country, engaging audiences in the lessons to be
learned while, at the same time, providing an engrossing evening of thought
provoking theater. Now community theaters are discovering the potential of
the play to strike a chord with their audiences. This production shows just
how well a highly-motivated, well-directed company can do with this
troubling but absorbing material.
Storyline: On a cold, clear night, two men
abducted and beat a gay man, Matthew Shepard, leaving him to die tied to a
fence on the prairie outside of Laramie. The crime and the community of
Laramie drew the attention of the media around the country and around the
world and became a cause célèbre among human rights activists and the gay
community. The members of the Tectonic Theater Project interviewed over 200
residents of the town, including police, lawyers and witnesses that had been
part of the case, and townspeople who attempted to come to grips with the
crime and its aftermath. A cast of twenty recreates those interviews.
Director Bob Scott stages this chronicle of a
play in a straight forward manner that avoids any excesses of stagecraft
which could distract from the story and the performances. He has the stage
flanked with about ten televisions displaying the frequently intriguing
video design which includes a montage of highway shots to represent that
trip from the east coast all the way into Wyoming as well as pictures of the
open prairie, key buildings in Laramie and the infamous fence to which
Shepard was lashed. But he resists over-using the effect, limiting it to the
times and manner specified in the script. He also uses a live television
hookup for the public affairs statements from the hospital where Shepard
died. But, again, he uses it sparingly and intelligently.
Scott is also to be credited with drawing
from his very large cast a uniformity of performance quality unusual in
community theater. No one of the twenty cast members either looks self
conscious or over-emotes. It helps, of course, that none of the roles is a
continuing character that must be developed at great psychological depth.
Instead, these are all vignettes drawn from the interviews conducted by
Kaufman and his team. Each cast member plays at least two characters and
some as many as five or six. Thus, all are called upon to perform rather
than to "act," but they all find ways to bring each of their characters to
life in the brief moments entrusted to them. If none is a standout of
particular note, none is significantly less effective than his or her
colleagues. The consistency of the quality of performance must be attributed
to the director's attention to detail and the thoroughness of his work.
The play is aptly titled "The Laramie
Project" rather than the "Matthew Shepard Case." Kaufman and his project
members sought and found answers to what the town felt about the crime and
its aftermath, and the play presents those answers in an intensely personal
manner. But they apparently didn’t try to probe too deeply into the
characters of Shepard or his attackers. The details of their lives - his
death and their arrest and trial - are presented almost as background
material to set up the portrait of the town’s reaction. What is there is
fascinating but what isn’t there is fodder for many post-theater
discussions.
Written by Moisés Kaufman and the members of
Tectonic Theater Project. Directed by Bob Scott. Design: Bob Scott (set) Moe
Benesch and Gamble Gilbertson of V! Studios (media) Kelly Cronenberg
(costumes) Suzanne Chaudet Maloney (lights), Jimmy Lohr (stage manager).
Cast: Brad Barfield, Bob Benn, Ann Farris, Mario Font, Gamble Gilbertson,
Wayne Henson, Patricia Jordan, Meredith Knell, Sarah Kwon, Drew Landers,
Mark Ludwick, Paul MacWhorter, Barbara Marvin, Terry McKinstry, Silvio
Menzano, Randy Moorman, Olin Nettles, Joanne Sincero, Betsy Walter, Camille
Watkin. |
