The Laramie Project
by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by Oanh Nguyen
- 09/13/05 ARTICLE: Press Enterprise
- 09/19/05 REVIEW: Northern Lights
- 09/23/05 REVIEW: O.C. Register
- 10/03/05 REVIEW: Fullerton Observer
THEATER ARTICLE
Handful of actors play more than 60 roles
by Pat O' Brien, Press Enterprise
September 13, 2005
Eight actors represent more than 60 real people and never leave the stage in the Chance Theater production of "The Laramie Project," which opens Saturday.
"It's a very complex portrayal," said Annie Mezzacappa, one of the actors in the show. "Through voice and physical mannerisms, you will see them transform into other characters."
These include police officers, students, bartenders, ministers, ranchers, professors and doctors. They have diverse political and social views, different personalities and assorted levels of compassion.
The people are a cross-section of the Wyoming town of Laramie, which was thrust into the national spotlight after the horrific beating and subsequent death in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was gay.
The play was developed by the Tectonic Theater Project of New York, whose members made six trips to the town to conduct interviews.
The audience can expect some surprises in this show from the theater's artistic director, Oanh Nguyen, according to Mezzacappa. "He's extremely innovative and always takes a unique storytelling approach," she said.
The actors are supported by projected video images and sound effects.
Since Laramie was inundated with national media, the show explores the impact that had on town residents and the American public. Sunday performances will include talk between the audience and performers.
"The Laramie Project" runs Saturday through Oct. 23 at 4 p.m. Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays. $20, $17 students and seniors. The first Saturday is $15, the opening gala Sunday $25. Dinner show packages are $35. Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave. Anaheim Hills. (714) 777-3033. www.chance theater.com
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THEATER REVIEW
A haunting look into the banality of a gruesome hate crime
by Anne-Margret Bellavoine, Northern Lights
September 19, 2005
Laramie, Wyoming, put itself on the world's map seven years ago when young gay student Matthew Shepard became the victim of a hate crime perpetrated by two local thugs.
Oanh Nguyen directed this deeply moving analysis of the dynamics before, during and after an event which became a catalyst for a close look at American values and mores through the eyes of Laramie residents.
Moisés Kaufman (Richard Comeau) and members of the Tectonic Theater Project spent a harrowing year visiting Laramie on half a dozen occasions to gather two hundred interviews and sift their content into stark drama. The play was then compiled, written and edited by a team lead by Leigh Fondakowski (Keri Safran), and aided by Stephen Belber (Dimas Diaz) and Greg Pierotti (Casey Long).
Eight Chance actors portray Tectonic company members in an astonishing sixty characterizations of various individuals involved in the Laramie case, from life long residents to recent transplants, journalists to limo drivers, ranchers to bar waiting staff, and family members to law enforcement and health professionals, with Peri Baker, Alex Bueno, Bill Elverman and Annie Mezzacappa completing the cast, against a minimalist black and white set, with eight chairs and simple props removed from storage boxes.
The result is a complex mosaic, a superficially disjointed, matter of fact look which succeeds in provoking the audience, as it did the original and current cast members, to question their own attitudes and prejudices and their tragic or life affirming consequences.
The core of the premise is that humans are capable of the best and worst, and moments of crisis provide an arena against which these dramatic poles play out in various ways, as we just witnessed in New Orleans.
We are forced to examine our own positions and how our society conditions individuals to thought patterns echoed by large segments of the population. America touts itself as a beacon of humanistic and democratic light, color blind, culturally sensitive, and pro-active in respecting alternative lifestyles, whereas the reality reflects deep-rooted negative inner philosophies brewing just below the surface of P.C. public rhetoric, ready to surge up when provoked.
We all consider ourselves self-righteous in our attitudes and express them in membership affiliations, voting, and professional and volunteer activities along deeply divided lines on key issues, one of which is the perennial question of gay rights. If most of society now projects beneficent views on sexual orientation, the ultimate seal of approval is the controversial gay marriage problem, paralleling race issues a few decades ago.
More disturbing is the question of whether such isolated events as Laramie should be polarized into galvanizing national scrutiny when numerous hate murders in other communities receive little media coverage or public interest. After the media circus recedes in the aftermath of trials and sentencing, closure in forgiveness and munificence becomes the most humane path if we can muster the courage to follow its solace.
The questions are haunting and linger long after the curtain falls.
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THEATER REVIEW
Examining a symbol of hate
Anaheim staging shows confessional nature of play about murderous homophobia in a small town.
by Eric Marchese, O.C. Register
September 23, 2005
Once Matthew Shepard had been kidnapped, robbed, tortured and savagely beaten in October 1998, the small town of Laramie, Tyo., became a symbol on the order of Oklahoma City, Waco or Columbine.
A 21-year-old college student, Shepard was gay, which brought out the polarity of everyone's reactions. His eventual death forced the residents of Laramie, like Columbine's, to examine their belief systems and take a hard look at the realities of life in their community.
With "The Laramie Project," Moises Kaufman and seven other playwrights of the New York City-based Tectonic Theater Project hoped to shed light on the questions raised by the crime and it aftermath. Within days of Shepard's beating, the group descended upon Laramie and began hundreds of interviews that formed the basis for their play.
If you doubt the power of live theater to document human behavior and force us to question our society's ills, look no further than Oanh Nguyen's Chance Theater staging. Moving his eight actors from the stage's sides to its center and back again, into and out of the more than 60 characters, "Laramie" becomes one giant confessional, a microcosm of American attitudes toward homosexuality, violence and religion.
"I don't agree with homosexuality," says a detective grilling Shepard's tormentors, "but until I was thrown into this case, I didn't understand the magnitude with with some people hate."
That, and the town's deep denial over something so horrific being perpetrated by two young men born and raised there, is what drives "Laramie"; in Nguyen's hands, the play becomes a dialectic, investigating and questioning beliefs in search of the truth. With nary a false note, his cast's chacterizations are piercing and haunting, especially when depicting hardened professionals - policemen, doctors and the like - unable to keep their composure when describing their experiences.
At first, Kaufman (played by Richard Comeau) and his colleagues reach those who knew Shepard. "Doc" (Dimas Diaz), the old limo driver with a thick rustic accent, praises Shepard ("he may have been gay, but he was straightforward"). A close lesbian friend of Matthew's (Peri Baker) recalls, with warmth and pride, his "incredible smile" and growing social consciousness.
The lengthy first act then begins to peel back the curtain on the crime's more repulsive aspects. The playwrights visit the remote field where Shepard was lashed to a buck fence (represented by eight chairs strewn across the stage). Greg Pierotti (Casey Long) chokes back tears; more devastating is the testimony of Reggie Fluty (Keri Safran), the first police officer to the scene, her voice cracking as she describes her efforts to get Shepard to the hospital.
Act 2 delves into the reactions of the community as the facts of the case come to light, the flurry of media coverage, the arraignment of the two young men, and Shepard's death; the final act follows Shepard's funeral and its aftermath and the trial and conviction of his killers.
What emerges, in the Chance's staging, is something grueling and gritty yet touchingly poetic. Nguyen's cast members switch from one character to another without missing a beat, essaying a wide range of accents and personality types. All are outstanding, with Bill Elverman etching himself on the memory as, among others, a homophobic reverend who spews vitriol at Shepard's funeral, and, in separate scenes, Shepard's killers - one a callous jerk, the other, a big, scared kid.
In a play whose development was akin to documentary filmmaking, Nguyen employs unblinking realism. Ashley Rhodes clads every cast member in black, underscoring the somber nature of this tragic tale. John Robinson's set is striking in its simplicity, with three large horizontal video monitors at the rear of the set and file boxes, stacked floor-to-ceiling, on both side walls until the third act, when the side panels are used as raised areas on both sides of the stage.
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THEATER REVIEW
The Laramie Project
by Elliot Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer
October 3, 2005
On the night of Tuesday, Octover 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young, gay, college student at the University of Wyoming was savagely beaten, tied to a fence post along a remote country road, and left to die... which he did... five days later. Two local toughs, both high school dropouts, were subsequently charged and tried for his beating and death. This tragedy, thanks to a media feeding frenzy, drew the attention of America, and indeed the world, to the cowboy town of Laramie and the effect of a hate crime on its citizens.
Moises Kaufman and fellow members of the New York based Tectonic Theater Project decided to dramatize (in the literal sense) the effect the incident had on the townspeople of Laramie. To do this they traveled to the community six times during an eighteen month period. During those visits they conducted more than two hundred interviews with more than sixty different people all of whom had differing attitudes about the crime and about gay people. From these interviews, and from their own experiences, Kaufman and the Theater members constructed a deeply moving theatrical event. The Laramie Project chronicles the life of the community in the adtermath of the murder using eight actors to portray the people. Amazingly, almost every word uttered in the performance is true to what the townspeople actually said... and sometimes the truth is quite disturbing.
That The Chance Theater should produce this moving story is commendable. That they should do it so well is a tribute to director Oanh Nguyen and the actors who make up the cast. That cast includes Chance Theater Repertory Members: Alex Bueno, Richard Comeau, Dimas Diaz, Casey Long and Annie Mezzacappa. They are joined by Peri Baker, Bill Elverman and Keri Safran. These eight actors do a marvelous job of portraying the more than sixty different people who tell the story of the Laramie tragedy. The actors' skill, deftness and agility at quickly and effectively switching roles is remarkable. It is like a vocal ballet. The show, although lengthy, two hours and forty-five minutes with two intermissions, moves along at a brisk pace and at the end of the performance this writer regretted only one thing... that we could not have met the hero, Matthew Shepard.
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