Learning to love each other through "The Laramie Project"

Student actors tell their college community; "Hate is not an Assumption Value"

By Diana Wilkins

Eight college students and theater director Brian Tivnan are spreading the word that " Hate is not an Assumption value," through the production of " The Laramie Project" this month at Worcester's Assumption College. The "Laramie Project" will be open to the college community and to the general public through November 21-25.

Director Moises Kaufman came up with the original idea for 'The Laramie Project" after the tragic death of a gay college student, Matthew Shepard, in Laramie, Wyoming. Kaufman traveled to Laramie with the New York City's Tectonic Theater Group to interview Laramie residents about the event that ripped the small rural community apart in 1998.

It took the group over two years to create the play, conducting over 200 interviews during many trips back and forth. The play debuted in Denver, Colorado, in New York City and in Laramie in 2000. Kaufman said at the time that the play is one of "great sadness, great beauty, and, perhaps most important, great revelations -- about our ideas, about ourselves."

The heart of the play is the interviews done in Laramie. The cast is made up of eight interviewers who rotate from position of interviewer to interviewee over the course of the play. The play also functions primarily in moments rather than scenes. One moment does not mean a change in location, or an entrance or exit of characters, but rather a unit of theatrical time encapsulating the meaning of each interview.

The play moves easily due to the simplicity of the staging; props include a few chairs, a desk, a selection of props and all costume changes are always visible to the audience. This makes for a truthful recreation of what happened in Laramie, reducing the theatricality of the drama and allowing the hard cold facts of the story to stand alone.

The Assumption students are very effective conveying the stark reality of Shepard's tragic story even though college's theater, La Maison Francaise, is quite small. Director Tivnan makes the most of the theatre's limited size. Throughout the production, the actors move around the room in three distinct areas creating theatrical immediacy. The actors even become the audience at one point when they come together on a platform right in the center of the audience seating area.

The students also change from male to female characters throughout the play. Costumes are hung on three strategically placed coat racks and are visible to the eye. The constant shift from interviewer to resident of Laramie affects the audience dramatically. In one scene, the "out" college professor becomes the homophobic Reverend Phelps, both roles played by the same actor one right after the other. Another effective device is the disembodied voice of a Laramie resident heard throughout the theatre saying, "You like to think that we don't grow children like that here in Laramie, well it's apparent that we do."

The somberness, the awful reality, and yet the love that is written into the structure of this play, is evident in Tivnan's innovative direction and in the talented performances by student actors. Each student plays several different roles. Gender is also not taken into consideration -- the male members of the company sometimes play females and vice versa.

The actors are students Meghan Corcoran, J.D. Killoran, May Booth, Pat Bolgar, Adam Hardenbrook, Denise Laford, Nick Bernier, Maragarita Pignataro and Tivnan, formerly director of Worcester's well-known Forum Theatre.

Through the Laramie Project the actors hope to increase awareness of the hate crimes that continue to plague many American communities. The play also opens up "the gay issue" for the Assumption community, instead of letting it fester which could result in tragedy - as it did in Laramie.

The production of such a play has had an affect on the college community, as well as on the individual actors, because Assumption is a Catholic college seeking to educate students in a traditional Christian, liberal arts manner, promoting so-called Christian living. However, the theatre's director says the Laramie Project has created a positive vibe within the college community.

"Students are more tolerant than I thought they would be -- in essence, this is an anti-hate crime play," says Tivnan, pointing out however that the issue of homophobia does exist and was taken into consideration with the production of the play.

"Everyone is going to relate to one character, whether it is positive or negative," says company member Margarita Pignataro. Another actor May Booth agrees, saying "It is good because...not just one view is being portrayed."

The controversial characters in the play are based on real people who were involved in the Laramie tragedy and the members of the company take them on with considerable ability. The constant switch of character and moment makes this story very effective. "The people in Laramie are characters, that's what they are -- the audience must fall in love with you all," Tivnan tells his actors at a recent rehearsal.

The members of the theater department at Assumption College hope to bring Laramie, and its motto, "Live and let Live" to life. May Booth says, "We've been lucky to fill half the room during performances, but now everyone I've talked to is coming. This is different. Some people don't even know who Matthew Shepard is, and then you say 'the gay kid in Wyoming who was murdered,' and they say, 'oh yeah.' You don't hear about something like this until it is talked about and that is what we are here to do, to talk about it and to make people aware of hate crimes and the ignorance that exists within this world."

Special Laramie Project workshops to be held

There will also be discussion workshops after two matinee performances of Assumption College's "The Laramie Project" following matinee performances on Saturday, November 23 and Sunday, November 24. The discussions will include the members of the play's company in character, as well as members from local organizations supporting human rights issues. To respond to audience members who have homophobic feelings or who are uneasy about the play's subject matter, the company will try and respond in character to try and facilitate a fair and open exchange of ideas.