'Laramie Project' festival opens Corn Stock winter season
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 26 September 2012 12:54
- Written by Paul Gordon
Plays about the hate crime murder of Matthew Shepard and the effects on a small college town are featured
"The Laramie Project" and "The Laramie Project 10 Years Later" will open Corn Stock Theatre's 2012-2013 Winter Playhouse season on Friday.
To be presented in repertoire, with four performances of each show, it tells the story and the aftermath of the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was tied to a fence and beaten because he was gay. The incident eventually led to federal anti-hate crime legislation.
Ask people if they have heard of the play "The Laramie Project" and most of them these days will simply ask what it's about.
Tell them it's about the Matthew Shepard murder and most will nod knowingly and respond with something like, "Oh yeah, the college kid beaten to death because he was gay."
It is, said Tim Wyman, a case that people will always remember in part or in whole because of its horrifying nature when it occurred in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998. And while it did pave the way for federal hate crime legislation, it largely shined light on a national problem that is a long way from being resolved, that of the lack of gay rights.
Still, when Corn Stock Theatre presents "The Laramie Project" and its sequel "The Laramie Project 10 Years Later" starting Friday night at its Winter Playhouse, that problem is secondary to the message that hate harms and often kills.
"This show is about hate and how it affects all of us," said Wyman, who is director of the Corn Stock productions that will be shown in repertoire fashion. "Some plays are subtle with their themes. This one is in your face with its themes and with its messages that we should all stand up for each other, practice tolerance and acceptance of one another regardless of who we are or our sexual preferences or whatever. We're all equal."
Wyman equated the gay rights issue ongoing now with the civil rights movement in the 1960s as gays strive to overcome the prejudices against them to gain the same rights as everbody else. He acknowledges, however, that having rights does not automatically end intolerance or even hate. "It also shows how many people won't stand up and doing anything when they see an injustice being committed. That to me is as big of a crime as the intolerance itself," he said.
Wyman said "The Laramie Project," which he also directed at Corn Stock in 2003, has always spoken to him. "I was bullied in grade school and I have had to watch my daughter be bullied physically and emotionally. It is wrong, just wrong. And people need to be aware that it exists every bit as much today as it ever did," he said.
"The Laramie Project" refers to the decision by playwright Moises Kaufman and others in his company to chronicle the Matthew Shepard case and present it as told to them by the residents of the town who lived through it and its aftermath, including the unfavorable spotlight shone on the town by the media.
"The Laramie Project 10 Years Later" is what the title suggests, a retrospective of the crime and how the town and its residents dealt with it in the decade since it occurred.
Wyman was asked by Corn Stock to direct "The Laramie Project 10 Years Later" to open the Winter Playhouse's 2012-2013 season. He asked if he could do both shows in repertoire to give each a more proper perspective. Because of the suggestions made in the subsequent play that perhaps it wasn't as cut-and-dry of a hate crime as first shown, Wyman said, "I felt it was important to show audiences both shows, if nothing else than to give them a reminder of what it was about from the beginning."
Repertoire means that the two shows will be presented on subsequent nights. "The Laramie Project" will be presented Friday, followed by "10 Years Later" on Saturday. Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m.
On Sunday, they will be shown back-to-back, with about a 30 minute break in between, starting at 2:30 p.m.
Next week, "The Laramie Project" will be presented Wednesday and Friday nights and "The Laramie Project 10 Years Later" will be presented Thursday and Saturday nights. Show times all are 7:30 p.m.
Wyman said Corn Stock is the first theatre in the country to show the two plays in repertoire.
Tickets are $10 for adults and a special price of $2 for students, with a 50 percent discount available for adults for the second show if they purchase a ticket for the other, including for the Sunday shows.
As part of "The Laramie Project" event, a special showing of the HBO film about the play will be presented next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Winter Playhouse theatre. It is free to the public.
Each showing of the plays will be followed by a talk back for the audiences to talk with Wyman and the actors as well as some special guests. On Friday and Saturday nights the guest will be Susan Burk, Laramie Project coordinator for the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
After the Wednesday, Oct. 3 show members of the Bradley University Common Ground Students organization will lead the talk-back discussion.
On Thursday, Oct. 4 discussion will be with Chris Leasor, a member of the Corn Stock cast who was a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie when the Shepard murder occurred and knows many of the people portrayed in the plays.
On Friday Oct. 5, Peoria psychologist Dr. Tim Drew will discuss "The Psychology of Murderers."
Wyman said "The Laramie Project" remains an important piece of theatre because it brings the debate about hate "into a complete context and show how things can go terribly wrong."
He was referring to the fact that the two young men convicted of murdering Shepard — Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, both of whom were sentenced to life in prison — started out to rob him. They told police the beating occurred when Shepard tried to touch McKinney sexually.
"They robbed this kid in 20 seconds, then spent the next hour beating and torturing him because he was gay. That is a hate crime," Wyman said.
Wyman said the cast he assembled for the two shows has had to learn twice the number of lines as usual but have been up to the task. "They have worked very hard, not only on the lines but on bringing these characters to the stage in a way the audiences will understand what happened. It's a very talented cast with a nice picture of veterans and Corn Stock rookies," he said.
Leasor is now a Peoria resident and a prosecuting attorney. He was a theater student in Laramie when the murder occurred and held one end of a banner in Shepard's memory while marching in a University of Wyoming homecoming parade that year. He has appeared in several Corn Stock productions the last several years.
Other veterans include Dave Cook, Jack Duffy, Helen Engelbrecht, Victoria Kapanje, Bill Liesse, Mollie Huisman, Justin Leuba and Nathan Irwin, who narrates both productions. Newcomers to the Corn Stock stage include Doug Luman, Tim Drury and Justice Parker, who is appearing in her first play of any type.
Wyman said he hopes audiences will leave the Winter Playhouse after seeing the shows feeling challenged. "This plays do that; they challenge people to think about what they've seen and to examine or reexamine their feelings about more than one subject. That's what good theatre will do," he said.
To order tickets in advance call the Corn Stock ticket office at 676-2196.
Paul Gordon is editor of The Peorian. He can be reached at 692-7880 or editor@thepeorian.com
