Play coming to Manchester Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
NORTH MANCHESTER – On the night of Oct. 6, 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was robbed, pistol-whipped, tortured and tied to a fence, left alone. He died Oct. 12, 1998, from his injuries. Fifteen years later, “The Laramie Project,” a play about the town of Laramie dealing with the gay student’s murder and its aftermath, is hitting the Manchester University stage. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Wampler Auditorium. Tickets are general admission, and are $7 for the public, free for students. In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Director Joel Froomkin spoke about directing the play, the emotions it still evokes today and its importance. He did not choose the play but it was chosen before he joined the staff at Manchester. “It was very interesting as I was brought in as the new director of the theater for the university. When I interviewed this was the play they had penciled in. I was thrilled,” Froomkin stated. When the university told him what they wanted him to direct, he said it made him realize what a great place Manchester University would be to work at, and it has been great. Froomkin saw the original production of “The Laramie Project” with the original cast in New York in 2000. He found it exciting, moving and a thoughtful experience. “It’s one of the plays I always wanted to do if given the chance,” he remarked. “They told me I could change it if I wanted to, but I was delighted.” Eight actors make up the cast of the play, taking on 82 different roles of townspeople. There are about 52 scene changes, and 400 lighting cues. Five of the cast members are Manchester students, ranging from freshmen to seniors. There also are community members and faculty family members in the cast. The actors range in ages, which Froomkin said he was “very pleased” about. “The Laramie Project” is not one viewpoint of one section of society, he said. “It’s a completely broad, encompassing mindset of a community, a very small community,” he noted. Even in a small community such as Laramie, Froomkin said outlooks can be very different from person to person. Even 15 years later, controversy about the play and Shepard’s murder still lingers. Earlier this month, more than a dozen Ole Miss students, the majority of whom were football players, were accused of heckling and using slurs as student actors performed the play. The Westboro Baptist Church, also known for protesting veterans’ funerals, still protests stagings of the play. A recent book also attempted to rewrite the facts of the case. “It is still remarkably current,” Froomkin acknowledged. The arc of the play goes beyond just one kind of prejudice, he said. It speaks to intolerance and hatred of any type. “I think it’s very, very powerful because there’s no author’s opinion pasted upon it,” Froomkin stated. The voices presented in the show are the voices of the actual townspeople of Laramie. “We’ve been very careful to honor that. We’ve tried not to judge the characters ourselves,” he said. “The Laramie Project” is a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder. 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. During rehearsals, the cast has had strong reactions to the play. Froomkin said it’s been a very joyful experience because they feel it’s a very worthy piece to put a lot of work into. In terms of the play itself, he said people have had to leave rehearsals because of the emotions evoked by the story. One of the hardest days was when Froomkin told the cast about how police found multiple blood splatters 50 feet from Shepard’s body. Some people have tried to rewrite the history of the case, but you can’t rewrite the history of what actually happened, he said. The main thing, however, is that whatever happened, it was either hatred toward a stranger for who they were or toward someone they knew for who they were. “It’s very clearly a hate crime or indicative of someone’s fear and prejudice. One thing I want to make clear is that the murder is never shown. The audience never meets Matthew Shepard. It’s not a gay play. It’s all spoken about the event,” Froomkin explained. The younger actors in the company didn’t have a visceral idea of the murder or its impact, he said. It galvanized people to act and bring awareness about hate crimes. It banded people together. “It was a big deal. This is for many people like a 9/11. You remember it that strongly. I certainly do,” he said. As of Tuesday, Froomkin said they haven’t had or heard about any protests. It has caused a great deal of conversation, which is what the creators of the show wanted. The family of one cast member, who came to all the productions the actor was in, told the actor they wouldn’t come to this show. That told the whole company how important the play is. The staging of the show was a huge challenge, and it’s being done in-the-round. Cast members who are naturally talented have found the play to be a challenge. A female cast member trained in New York even expressed to Froomkin that the play was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. “It’s a beast,” he acknowledged, stating that they made it more difficult to stage than it is. “We’ve made it very visually engrossing. It’s a huge set. The cast is close to the audience,” he said. “It’s by far the most complicated show the campus has ever attempted, but it looks beautiful,” Froomkin added. Even if someone doesn’t like the message, Froomkin said he hopes they are entertained.
