There are some plays that are absolutely life changing. The sort of play that you watch and think, I want to be a part of this play someday. For me, that play was The Laramie Project. If you’re not familiar with The Laramie Project, it was a workshop play written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. It is composed of interviews and speeches given by the residents of Laramie, Wyoming, about the brutal murder of Matt Shepard, a young gay college student. The hate crime was committed in 1998, and the play written soon after, debuting in 2000. In 2002, HBO released a movie version of the play. It was pretty decent, but not like seeing it live.
I first saw The Laramie Project when I was in high school. I was maybe 15 or 16. At that point, there was an adult ensemble running at People’s Light, and one of my friends was in it (I knew a few of the others, too). As a young queer person, I was familiar with the event and had read the script. I thought I was prepared to see the show, but it blew me away. I cried through a good chunk of it. I was sitting next to my acting teacher, a gay man, and he cried through a good chunk of it, too. We were silent supports for each other, side by side as we watched the show.
That show never left me. When the show was over, I knew I had to act in that play someday. It was the most beautiful, emotional thing. I felt some intense connection to The Laramie Project, from the very first watching it on stage. I know part of it was me being queer. What happened to Matt Shepard is disturbing and tragic. Hate crimes are a harsh reality in the world some of us live in. My heart still aches just thinking about it. But that’s why we need to tell stories like this.
My junior year of college, I finally had the opportunity to satiate my need to be a part of The Laramie Project. The LGBTQ+ group on campus gave me the green light to put together and direct the show. I also got to act in it. I was completely ecstatic. I had help, of course. We found a stage manager, and some of the executive board of the group worked with me as well. We auditioned about 30 people, both students and staff, and thoughtfully assigned roles.
I lived and breathed Laramie then. I read the script over and over, spending ages photocopying before we had scripts and petitioning for all the support I could get. I read The Meaning of Matthew, a book written by Matt Shepard’s mother, and insisted my mom read it as well. I worked on lines for my roles and worked on the other side directing and planning. It was an experience.
It wasn’t easy. We lost a lot of actors due to various reasons. I had to learn a major role less than a week before the performances because a replacement actor dropped out as well. Our producer cancelled a show without consulting the rest of us. And the Westboro Baptist Church, a religious organization known for their hatred and would come out to protest shows like The Laramie Project said they were going to show up on the day of our show. The theatre department was doing RENT at the time, and WBC was threatening to protest them, too. My stage manager and I joked around that if our school ever tried to to Laramie again, someone would die.
But despite all that, we did something beautiful that night. First of all, a group had planned a major counter protest against WBC. I went outside between the matinee invited dress and the night show and the sidewalks were crowded with counter-protestors with messages of love. There were thousands of people out there, for my show. It was unbelievable. I cried when I saw it. Because this production of Laramie was my baby, and I was doing something to change the world.
Our production was out of this world. That night, we played to a full house. There were actually people standing in the back of the large room, and sitting in the booths lining the sides of the walls. The cast was so right on with everything. We were playing off each other like total pros, doing things that we had never even rehearsed, but were so right in that moment. I remember a shining moment…as my voice was failing me, I stood on top of a speaker, my (actor) adversary standing in front of me, the two of us creating a scene that would stick for ages. It was magical.
It was what I always wanted, from the time I had seen the play four or five years before. I was getting to be a part of a play that changed my life. And not just any play, The Laramie Project. I’ll never forget the moment when I realized that…it was the scene that I mentioned above. I looked into the lights, and I realized my dream had been fulfilled.
That night, I sat outside the Starbucks with the stage manager and one of our actors. I was losing my voice, so I guess it worked out that our show the next night had been unfairly cancelled. We were out there until at least midnight, and by that time, my voice was totally gone. But we knew. We all knew, that we had made our mark on the Universe with our production of The Laramie Project.
I would do it again in a heartbeat. For as intense and emotional and wonderful and tragic and scary that show is, it breathes something deep. My experience ranged so greatly, but there’s no way it couldn’t change my life. And if you ever get the chance to see or be involved in The Laramie Project, take that chance. Your world will be better for it.
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