'Laramie' performed in simulcast on 10-year anniversary
The event was a retrospective on the effects of the hate-driven murder.
Published Oct. 16, 2009
Eleven years. Three presidents. More than 150 theaters in 14 countries. One play. Six chairs. One story. One man: Matthew Shepard.
In 1998, five weeks after Matthew Shepard died following his brutal beating, The Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, Wyo., and compiled interviews with residents to create the stageplay "The Laramie Project." It was later made into a film, which brought national attention to the hate crime and what the country was doing about it. The project visited again in 2008, 10 years later, to talk to Laramie residents again, this time to see how the town had changed.
Monday evening, Stephens College School of Performing Arts, along with more than 150 theater companies around the world, performed "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later."
More than 170 people filled Stephens' Windsor Auditorium and listened as actress Glenn Close and Shepard's mother Judy Shepard introduced the live simulcast of the play at the Lincoln Theater in New York.
"The production of this play has changed the world more than they realize," Shepard said of the project. "Laramie is a microcosm of the world."
Dan Schultz, Director of the Stephens College production, explained how Stephens was selected to be a part of this magnificent project.
"I read a New York Times article and decided I wanted to do it so after the initial big announcement about the performances, we were the first ones to do it," Schultz said.
About 15 students from Stephens and other surrounding colleges performed the ending to a story that took the nation by storm 11 years ago.
As each character read their lines, the audience seemed to drift away from Columbia and land in the heart of Laramie. The play revisited not only the places and people in Laramie, but the infrastructure, stores and life. They also visited the emotions, the fear, the rage and the deceit that swarmed through the town after Shepard's murder. Some of the interviews were heartfelt, others blunt and harsh.
Character Deb Thompson, a citizen of Laramie, said: "We're long past this. I don't believe the catalyst was homosexuality.”
The play featured a series of titles and words, projected on a large screen behind the actors. The words were simple and represented the emotions of the people who were affected by Shepard's death. The two investigating officers who presided over the case, the governor, Shepard's professors, his family, the grandmother of his murderer, his friends, the local priest and the entire town were featured in this play.
"The conversations — that to me is progress," said a close friend of Shepard's, Jim Osborn, represented by an actor.
"A lot of us can look out our window and see where Matthew died, where he was slaughtered," said an actor playing one of Shepard's old professors.
Interviews were conducted with the two men convicted for his murder, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson.
Actress and Stephens freshman Ally Poole said the story was very powerful.
"It's interesting to see how much growth there was," Poole said. "Just to hear the stark difference is chilling and eerie."
The cast was very open about being part of such a nationally recognized story. They were eager to express how important they felt to be in the play and to learn about themselves and their country.
The play highlighted everything from the trials of the murderers to the contrast between them; how both men had grown to understand the physical nature of the crime they committed and whom it affected. The voice of the actor playing Henderson dripped with remorse, pain and empathy. The actor playing McKinney was full of cynicism, humor and extreme hatred toward gay people. He seemed honored to be in jail for this crime.
Schurz said he was excited about the play's impact.
"There are so many ways to communicate," Schurz said. "Tonight was about a play sparking national dialogue."
