“If you
would have asked me before, I would have told you, Laramie is a beautiful town,
secluded enough that you can have your own identity … A own with a strong sense
of community – everyone knows everyone … A town with a personality that most
larger cities are stripped of. Now,
after Matthew, I would say that Laramie is a town defined by an accident, a
crime. We’ve become Waco, we’ve become
Jasper. We’re a noun, a definition, a
sign. We may be able to get rid of that …
but it will sure take a while.” -
JEBADIAH SCHULTZ
Matthew Shepard was kidnapped,
beaten within an inch of his life, tied to a pole in the middle of a field and left
to die by two boys – Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney.
The reasoning for this crime –
Matthew was gay.
The Laramie Project was
written by Moises Kaufman and the Members of the ‘Tectonic Theatre Project’.
It explores the hate/homosexual crime of Matthew Shepard in Laramie,
Wyoming in 1998. 8 Actors portray 67 Characters in this ruthless
re-telling of the true crime that shocked not only a small town, but the
entirety of the USA.
Over a year and a half and six
visits in 1998 and 1999, the members of the ‘Tectonic Theatre Project’
conducted over 200 interviews with people closely related to the crime and
those who were living in Laramie at the time – whether they were long term residents
or students at the University of Wyoming who knew Shepard.
This allows an overall breakdown of
the events leading up to the kidnapping and subsequent murder, the crime itself
and the aftermath that was bought down onto the town and its inhabitants.
Broken down into ‘moments’ not
scenes, Kaufman explains the reasoning behind this:
“When
writing this play, we used a technique I developed called ‘moment work’. It is a method to create and analyse theatre
from a structuralist (or tectonic) perspective.
For that reason, there are no ‘scenes’ in this play only ‘moments’. A ‘moment’ does not mean a change of locale,
or an entrance or exit of actors or characters.
It is simply a unit of theatrical time, which is then juxtaposed with
other units to convey meaning.”
All of the moments in the script allude
to the content that will be delivered on the stage. Moments such as:
·
Journal Entries (of the Tectonic Theatre Project)
·
Alison and Marge
·
The Word
·
The Essential Facts
·
E-mail
·
Medical Update
Allow the audience to easily grasp the
situation and the types of ‘characters’ that are going to be on stage. (I use ‘characters’ in this form as they are all
real life people, recalling real life events)
You could break down the events in
the script even further and give sections ‘Chapters’ of meanings. (I learnt this from Director Leticia Caceres as
a good way to conduct rehearsals – You and the cast section out the script into
these chapters and give them a simple title so everyone is on the same page
when you are rehearsing a specific section and not have to use archaic phrases
eg: “Today were going to work on pages 20-34.”
Instead you can create much more meaning into the phrase “Today we are
going to be working on the Vigils.”)
The chapters that I have created for
this play are as follows (This will give you a good breakdown of the structure of the play, which is very important to the flow of the production):
1. Laramie
2. Personality
3. Religion
4. Crime
5. Realisation
6. Deposition
7. News reports
8. Definitive Recognition
and Repercussion
9. Vigils
10. Contrast
11. Death
12. Funeral
13. Court (Henderson)
14. After
15. Court (McKinney)
16. Statement
17. Epilogue
Since each actor has to portray 6 to
12 ‘characters’ (and in the original staged production, portraying themselves
in some instances) each character has to change on stage. It is therefore specified in the script that
the characters need only define themselves by a hat, shirt, a pair of glasses. All costume items can either be left onstage
so actors can remain onstage for the entirety of the production.
“So how
could it not be a town where this kind of thing happens? Like, that’s just totally – like, it’s just
totally like circular logic, like how can you even say that? And we have to mourn this and we have to be
sad that we live in a town, a state, a country where shit like this
happens. I mean, these are people trying
to distance themselves from this crime.
And we need to own this crime. I
feel. Everyone needs to own it. We are like this. We ARE like this. WE are LIKE this.” – ZUBAIDA ULA
You can find
out more about the show from the following websites:
Next Week: 'Philadelphia, Here I Come!' by Brian Friel
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