The Laramie Project

As their final performance project of the year, the Acting 11 & 12 class recently staged The Laramie Project in the Hugh Wilkinson Studio Theatre. Working from an exceptionally intelligent script, the students turned in outstanding and varied performances to deliver a memorable and moving evening of theatre. Based on the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, the play explores complex attitudes toward homosexuality, violence, and justice in small-town Wyoming. In the hands of less capable writers, the script may have been reactionary or didactic. Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, however, let the townspeople tell the story in their own voices, revealing layers of irony and ambivalence at the core of our experience with “difference.”

The play offers significant challenges for student actors, as many students played multiple roles. As one student said, “The challenge was to make your characters different and believable.” It would be unfair to single out the performance of any individual in the play, but it is accurate to say that each cast member enjoyed shining moments on stage. The audience left the theatre impressed by the strength of our student actors and moved by a play designed to make each of us consider the prejudices that may linger beneath the surface of our lives. Kudos to acting teacher Morgan McLeod for another rich theatrical experience.
 

– Jay Connolly