The Laramie Project

Tonight I saw the final preview of The Laramie Project that my school is putting on. My first reaction was "amazing!" It was put on in the black box theatre, so it was really intimate. I don't think the actors were even wearing stage makeup. The way the audience was set up there were several rows of seating right in front of the performance space, and two rows on either side, so it was a bit of a half-assed theatre in the round. I was sitting in the front row stage right, so there were times when I was behind the actors, which was interesting.

(I realize I'm typing this somewhat like a school paper, but that's because I plan to use these first reactions as a reference in a paper I need to write about it.)

Anyway, the set was extremely minimal, consisting only of three levels of platforms and a few chairs and tables. This allowed the space to be used as any location necessary. The whole concept of the show was that they were reenacting interviews taken by the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming, right after the attack on Matthew Shepherd, so there were a lot of locations, but none of these locations were described in much detail. The lighting played a lot into setting the scene and pulling focus from one spot to another, and the only times when the space was entirely dark was at the ends of Acts one and two.

In an ensemble show like this where all of the actors play multiple characters, the actors did a good job in differentiating each of their characters to the audience. The mannerisms of each character distinguished them each from all of the others, in accordance with the subtle costume changes.

Afterword, there was a small talk-back session with the director, and it was really interesting to hear his comments on the show. Apparently, he was actually able to talk with the playwright and several of the other members of the theater company that conducted the interviews, and he got the playwrights permission to change a couple of the scenes that were meant to be held on the phone into in person confrontations. That was pretty cool to learn.

I actually started to cry a little during Dennis Shepherd's speech in Act three about how one of the guys that killed Matthew deserved to die, but he wanted him to live and remember what he did to his son. That was a really emotional moment, especially because the lighting was really low, and there was a blue light behind him that made everything seem more dramatic. Very intense.

Anyway, I have to get to bed or my roommate will probably kill me in the morning when she has to wake up for her 8 AM class and I get to sleep in.

Days until NaNo starts: 2