Jump to content

The Laramie Project

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Darbygrl (talk | contribs) at 18:29, 12 December 2010. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the play. For the film based on the play, see The Laramie Project (film).
The Laramie Project
Cover of the published text
Written byMoisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
CharactersResidents of Laramie and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Date premieredFebruary, 2000
Place premieredRicketson Theatre, Denver
Original languageTransclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{lang-en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.
SubjectHomophobia, violence
GenreDocumentary theatre
SettingLaramie, Wyoming

The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, John McAdams, Maude Mitchell, Andy Paris, and Kelli Simpkins) about the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.[1] The murder was a hate crime motivated by homophobia.[2]

The play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.[3]

Performances

The Laramie Project premiered at The Ricketson Theatre by the Denver Center Theatre Company (Denver) (part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts) in February 2000[4] and was then performed in the Union Square Theater in New York City[5] before a November 2002 performance in Laramie, Wyoming.[6] The play has also been performed by high schools, colleges, and community theaters across the country,[7] as well as professional playhouses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.[8]

Many of the performances in the United States have been picketed by representatives of Fred Phelps, who are portrayed in the play picketing Matthew Shepard's funeral as they did in real life.[9][10] Though the play has been produced worldwide, it still generates controversy.[11]

Productions involving high-school students have generated controversy.[12]

A performance is going to be put on out in Coronado, CA with a combination of students from Coronado High School (CHS), Coronado Middle School (CMS), Palm Academy, and the Coronado School of Arts (CoSA). The plans to put on this play reached the superintendent of Coronado Schools who was excited enough to make it mandatory for all Coronado High School, and some students from Palm, to see it. The new views brought to the "island", as they like to call Coronado, will be controversial but "well worth the effort", says one of the English teachers at CHS. The performance has a large support network. The performances are in early January 2010 and rehearsals began in late November of 2010.

The current[when?] holder of the royalties/rights to the play is Dramatists Play Service, Inc.[13]

Actors

Notable actors/actresses who have performed in The Laramie Project include:

Actor/Actress Dramatic Appearance Character in Dramatic Appearance
Van Hansis As the World Turns Luke Snyder
Mary Beth Peil The Good Wife Jackie Florrick
Jenna Ushkowitz Glee Tina Cohen-Chang
Laura Linney Love Actually Sarah
James Murtaugh Two Weeks Jim Cranston
Joshua Jackson Fringe Peter Bishop
Stephanie March Law & Order SVU Alex Cabot
Peter Hermann Law & Order SVU Trevor Langan
Peter Fonda The Wild Angels Heavenly Blues
Camryn Manheim The Practice Ellenor Frutt
Cyndi Lauper Mad About You Marianne Lugasso
Clea DuVall 21 Grams Claudia
Christina Ricci The Addams Family Wednesday Addams
Judith Light Ugly Betty Claire Meade
Terry Kinney The Mentalist Sam Bosco
Frances Sternhagen The Closer Willy Ray Johnson
Brian Kerwin One Life to Live Charlie Banks
Robert Desiderio One Life to Live Steve Piermont
Chad Allen Save Me Mark
Stockard Channing West Wing Abbey Bartlet
Andrew Garfield The Social Network Eduardo Saverin

Combatting homophobia

The Laramie Project is often used as a method to teach about prejudice and tolerance in personal, social, and health education and citizenship in schools, and it has also been used in the UK as a General Certificate of Secondary Education text for English literature.

The play has also inspired grassroots efforts to combat homophobia. After seeing the play, New Jersey resident Dean Walton was inspired to donate more than 500 books and other media to the University of Wyoming's Rainbow Resource Center. Today, that campus office houses one of the largest LGBT libraries in the state of Wyoming.

Film

As a result of the play's success, HBO commissioned a 2002 film of The Laramie Project, also written and directed by Kaufman.

Return to Laramie

Ten years after Shepard's murder, members of the Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie to conduct follow-up interviews with residents featured in the play. Those interviews were turned into a companion piece, entitled The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. The play debuted as a reading at nearly 150 theatres across the US and internationally on October 12, 2009 - the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, most whose opening was linked by webcam to the New York City where Judy Shepard and the play's producers and writers gave an opening speech, followed by an address by Glenn Close.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Tectonic Theater Project
  2. ^ "Murder charges planned in beating death of gay student". CNN. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
  3. ^ The Laramie Project, A CurtainUp Review
  4. ^ Laramie Theater Scope: The Laramie Project
  5. ^ THEATER REVIEW; A Brutal Act Alters a Town
  6. ^ Moises Kaufman's 'The Laramie Project'
  7. ^ Jennifer Fenn Lefferts (November 1, 2007). "Parents, others protest 'Laramie' at high school". The Boston Globe.
  8. ^ THE LARAMIE PROJECT
  9. ^ Westboro Baptist Church announces first anti-homosexuality picket in Britain
  10. ^ About Fred Phelps
  11. ^ The Laramie Project Controversy
  12. ^ http://thefastertimes.com/theatertalk/2009/11/12/this-las-vegas-judge-rules/ | A report about the parents who tried to block a production of The Laramie Project in Las Vegas in 2009.
  13. ^ The Laramie Project
  14. ^ Remembering a Cruel Murder: Laramie Revisited
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Laramie_Project&oldid=401991409"