Download ThE LARAMiE PROJECT - Chalkdust Theatre Company

“Never forget, it’s someone’s life…”
THE LARAMIE PROJECT
A play by
MoisÉs Kaufman
and
The Members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by Jonathan Llewellyn
TEACHING NOTES
Produced by
Chalkdust Theatre Inc.
Riverside Theatre Parramatta, June 2010
Compiled BY
Henrietta Stathopoulos & JonAthan Llewellyn
© These notes are for
educational, RESEARCH
purposes only, and may
not be copied.
Contents
How to use these teaching notes
Who are ‘Chalkdust Theatre’?
Verbatim Theatre ➢ Board of Studies Rubric
➢ Some definitions
Before the show
Teaching the Laramie project in schools
Introduction to The Laramie Projec t- the play
Characters
Laramie Wyoming
The Laramie project 10 years on
Cast and Crew
Costume designs and decisions
Accents… how to…
Actor’s Notes
Directorial Vision - on directing ‘Laramie’
Use of Soundscape/music
Essays
Assessment Task
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Focus questions
References
How to use these teaching notes
These notes are a collection of various sources, that we have used to help us create this production
and you will find a large number of websites that are included for you to access, rather than just
cutting and pasting in material. In researching the play, to help the actors and director, a variety of
sources were found to be useful and these have been included, or sourced/referenced for you to
explore with your students.
The areas that are beneficial to Drama HSC students are the notes from the director and the actors
where they discuss their own exploration of the play, as well as some of the activities and essays.
Please feel free to contact me if you require any additional information at [email protected]
Henrietta Stathopoulos
MA BA Dip Ed Grad Cert Arts (Directing/Dramaturgy)
Drama / VET Entertainment Teacher
St Andrews College, Marayong
June 2010
Who are Chalkdust Theatre?
MISSION STATEMENT
To provide its members and audiences
with an opportunity to learn about and
engage in a variety of theatrical
experiences.
In 1993 drama teachers Peter Hazell and Matthew Barry decided to start Chalkdust Theatre as an
opportunity to perform and give other drama teachers an avenue to refine their own performance and
production skills. From humble beginnings the company has grown and developed into a semi
professional company that has firmly established itself in the Western Suburbs. In the last 16 years
has seen the company perform at the old Q theatre in Penrith and now Riverside Theatre, Parramatta
its home and has a solid membership base. In the last 16 years the company has continued to refine
its artistic choice, with its decision, under the then Artistic Director Henrietta Stathopoulos, to bring
to life HSC texts, Contemporary Australian texts, Feminist texts, Irish texts, English drawing rooms
comedy/farce and a musical to the theatre stages. As part of their mission they endeavour to provide
teaching notes to help teachers.
Actors and production crew are involved voluntarily, with all monies collected and banked to pay for
each production. Their services to the community were recognised with the awarding of a Volunteers
Award from Penrith City Council in the Year of the Volunteer.
They have managed to stay afloat where other companies have struggled or gone under, but only
through the generosity of its members and the Executive - with the giving of time, services – either
performance or technical based. Educational experiences are vital for all students not just from the
viewpoint of seeing a production of a performance they are studying, but also in extending their
cultural experiences. The more theatrical and local experiences we give our students is important to
the overall life education of students.
The current Executive is a mix of primary and secondary teachers. All have professional acting
training or experience or technical credentials (Cert III in Live theatre and Technical Operations).
Chalkdust Theatre endeavours to mount productions that are of a high standard, and give students a
theatrical experience, which they can refer to in performance essays, along with broadening their
cultural experiences.
Chalkdust Theatre Inc is one of the few local community theatre companies in NSW that specialises
in bringing to the stage at least one HSC drama text per year - enabling students the chance to see a
play they are studying in performance, as well as the opportunity to discuss with actors and the
director the performance, focusing on the Rubric written by the Board of Studies NSW. Under the
current artistic leadership of Nicole Bonfield and a core executive, the company performs in local
venues in the western suburbs to give the students of the west the opportunity to see theatre at a
reasonable cost. It engages prominent and promising directors, actors and designers to present an
annual artistic program that is razor-sharp, popular and stimulating.
Sell-out productions including Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and NUNSENSE have consolidated
Chalkdust Theatre’s position as one of Sydney’s acclaimed community theatre companies.
Executive 2010
President /Secretary
Artistic Director
Production Manager
Publicist
Treasurer
Catherine Simpson
Nicole Bonfield
John Baltaks
Sara Blackburn
Marnie Engel
Theatre through the kaleidoscope has all the elements of Story, Movement
Set, Characters Sound Action Lights, Costume and Makeup interlinked and
mixed up, constantly changing direction, patterns and hence reactions.
When Theatre is seen through the microscope it is often issues based with all elements - Story,
Movement, Set, Characters, Soundscapes, Action, Lights, Costume and Makeup pointing to the
issue(s)
(Reference: Andy Kempe (2002) The GSC Drama Coursebook 3rd Ed.
Published by Nelson Thornes.)
2014 HSC Verbatim Theatre
Topic 8: Verbatim Theatre
This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, plays written using the words of people interviewed about an issue
or event and the social context, which gave rise to these plays. Students consider notions of authenticity and authority
derived from direct testimony and community involvement. In particular, by engaging with the performance styles,
techniques and conventions of the plays, students will explore the tension between maintaining truth while creating
dramatic shape, theatricality and audience engagement.
TWO plays must be studied:
Compulsory text
Kaufman, Moisés, and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project 2001, The Laramie Project,
Vintage Books, Random House, New York.
AND EITHER
Brown, Paul 2001, Aftershocks, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
O’Connell, Terence 2004, Minefields and Miniskirts, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
Valentine, Alana 2007, Parramatta Girls, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
Valentine, Alana 2007, Run Rabbit Run, Currency Press, Sydney.
2015 HSC and Beyond
Approaches for the new HSC Using The Laramie Project
The new HSC topic list has The Laramie Project as a significant Theatre workwhich it is. It challenged the way actors explored a text, how a text was created
and the role of the community it presented.
It also explored the role of taking theatre back to the community it explored, and the potential
repercussions.
Theatre can reveal and can heal, and can sometimes ‘force’ or enable change.
Topic 8: Significant Plays of the 20th Century
This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, how significant theatrical works shifted and influenced the
theatrical paradigm of the 20th century. The study explores plays that were revolutionary in response to the place and
time of the original production, presented challenging content and reinvented or created new theatrical styles, structures
and forms. By engaging with the performance and narrative styles, issues, techniques, conventions and staging of the
plays, students will explore the impact and ways these plays broke new ground and sought to affect an audience in
dynamic and powerful ways.
TWO the following plays must be studied:
Chekov, Anton, The Cherry Orchard, Nick Hern Books, Currency Press, Sydney. ISBN 978-185459-412-9
Brecht, Bertholt 1995, ‘Mother Courage’, in Collected Plays 5, Methuen, London.
Ionesco, Eugene, The Bald Prima Donna (also known as The Bald Soprano), Samuel French, London. ISBN 978057302-013-1
Churchill, Caryl 1982, Top Girls, Samuel French, London.
Kaufman, Moisés, and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project 2001, The Laramie Project, Vintage Books, Random
House, New York.
The truth…
What is the truth in Verbatim Theatre?
Studying Verbatim Theatre is aksing of the audience to observe, react and investigate the maintain of truth along with
presenting this truth in a dramatic
Verbatim Theatre
Board of Studies Rubric
Stage 6 Drama Studies in Drama and Theatre
Topic 8: Verbatim Theatre
This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, plays written using the words of people
interviewed about an issue or event and the social context, which gave rise to these plays. Students
consider notions of authenticity and authority derived from direct testimony and community
involvement. In particular, by engaging with the performance styles, techniques and conventions of
the plays, students will explore the tension between maintaining truth while creating dramatic shape,
theatricality and audience engagement.
TWO plays must be studied:
Compulsory text
Kaufman, Moses, and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project 2001, The Laramie Project,
Vintage Books, Random House, New York.
AND EITHER
Brown, Paul 2001, Aftershocks, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
O’Connell, Terence 2004, Minefields and Miniskirts, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
Valentine, Alana 2007, Parramatta Girls, Currency Press, Sydney.
OR
Valentine, Alana 2007, Run Rabbit Run, Currency Press, Sydney.
Outcomes:
The student:
❑ H1.1 uses acting skills to adopt and sustain a variety of characters and roles
❑ H1.2 uses performance skills to interpret and perform scripted and other material
❑ H1.3 uses knowledge and experience of dramatic and theatrical forms, styles and theories
inform and enhance individual and group-devised works
❑ H1.5 demonstrates directorial skills
❑ H1.7 demonstrates skills in using the elements of production
❑ H1.9 values innovation and originality in group and individual work
❑ H2.3 demonstrates directorial skills for theatre and other media
❑ H2.4 appreciates the dynamics of drama as a performing art
❑ H3.1 critically applies understanding of the cultural, historical and political contexts that
have influenced specific drama and theatre practitioners, styles and movements
❑ H3.2 analyses, synthesises and organises knowledge, information and opinion in coherent,
informed oral and written responses
❑ H3.3 demonstrates understanding of the actor-audience relationship in various dramatic and
theatrical styles and movements
❑ H3.4 appreciates and values drama and theatre as significant cultural expressions of
issues and concerns in Australian and other societies
❑ H3.5 appreciates the role of the audience in various dramatic and theatrical styles and
movements.
Board of Studies
Studies in Drama and Theatre
Students will be required to select ONE topic from a choice of SEVEN. This topic will focus on
drama and theatre in societies and cultures in the world, including Australia.
Learning experiences should be both experiential and theoretical including workshops and
presentations, focusing on relevant acting techniques, characterisation, performance styles and
spaces, themes, issues and historical and social perspectives relevant to the set topic.
For the written examination, students will discuss only ONE topic when answering an extended
response essay. Students should write from a dramatic perspective rather than using a literary
approach that might be more suitable in an English examination.
Topics in this section will be published separately and may be changed in part every two years.
Criteria for examining the written examination for both Australian Drama and Theatre and
Studies in Drama and Theatre
• Knowledge and understanding of the topic and text(s).
• Ability to use this knowledge and understanding to answer the question.
• Organisation of information and suitability of the supporting evidence.
• Understanding of dramatic and theatrical concepts.
• Clarity of written expression and style.
Content
In Studies in Drama and Theatre students learn through theoretical study about the themes and issues,
the historical, social, cultural and political contexts of particular forms, styles, movements or
traditions of theatre, or the work of a specific artist, practitioner, group or company. They learn about
dramatic and theatrical structures, forms, styles and conventions and gain practical experience of
them through workshops culminating in presentations and performances using relevant acting
techniques, characterisation, performance styles and spaces. Students learn to analyse, interpret and
synthesise their research through discussion and debate, and through structuring their opinions in
written responses.
Studies in Drama and Theatre involves students learning about aspects of drama and theatre in
societies and cultures, past and present. Productions and works for this topic may be drawn from
Australian and non-Australian material. The topics will be published separately. Students are to
study ONE of seven topics.
The NSW Dept of Education and Training have written a good set of Teacher’s notes on
Topic 8: Verbatim Theatre (Curriculum K-12)
Some definitions
Verbatim theatre/docudrama
Verbatim - (Latin) term for ‘word for word’
It consists of real monologues or dialogues of ordinary people which are voiced by actors.
Verbatim Theatre has grown and developed ion Europe (especially UK) and Nth America since the
1990’s, and post 9/11, it has become increasingly visible on both the mainstream and fringe stages
In the last 10 years it has occupied the political ‘stage’ in Britain (especially the UK) and Europe
where contentious international and national issues are aired and interrogated.
In Australia-Paul Brown with Aftershocks-about the Newcastle Earthquake- was when Verbatim
Theatre was seen on stage.
Other examples include
Parramatta Girls Alana Valentine
Run Rabbit Run Alana Valentine
Minefields and Miniskirts Terence O’Connell
It is important to analyse the different ways these playwrights utilise the idea of Verbatim Theatre.
The following is a summary of SOURCE: Hammons, W &
Steward, D (2008) Verbatim Verbatim; Contemporary
Documentary Theatre Oberon:UK
‘The arts are more than mere entertainment. In my view they should also be the vessel which houses
the conscience of a nation; they should ask the difficult questions others would rather leave
unasked…the normal channels of reportage, wherein we expect some degree of responsibility and
truth, are no longer reliable. Only in the arts is the study of the human condition considered more
important than ambition or money, so it is left to artists to ask the relevant questions.”
- Robin Soan
Chekhov stated:
“The purpose of the theatre is not to provide the solutions, but to state the problems more clearly.”
‘The audience for a verbatim play will enter the theatre with the understanding that they’re not going
to be lied to. They may be unsettled by the unusual way the play is constructed, but they will be
compensated for the lack of convention by the assumption that what they are looking at and listening
to is revelatory and truthful.
In verbatim theatre 10% of the time is spent interacting with fellow actors and 90% has your attention
directed at the audience. The audience becomes a key, if silent, character in the performance.
The quintessence of verbatim theatre is a group of actors sitting on chairs, or cardboard boxes or sofa,
talking to the audience, simply telling stories. The principle skill required of the actor remains that of
storyteller, and his or her key relationship is with the audience. The audience assumes an active rather
than a passive role.
Transferring a deeply personal conversation onto the stage confers a responsibility on the audience a responsibility which most enjoy and this leads to and accounts for their increased intensity of their
listening (hence the ‘you could hear a pin drop’ kind of feeling for the actor).
By encouraging the audience’s involvement enables the audience to develop a care for the characters.
Once a writer has convinced the audience they they’re privy to an actual conversation, the audience
will be more willing to embark on the emotional or philosophical journey of the play - especially if
they already fell that they’re being addressed personally.
It is important for the audience at a verbatim play to want to know what happens next as it is in any
other play. No matter how compelling the speeches are in terms of truthfulness and revelation in their
own right, the verbatim play must be more than a random collection of monologues if it is to sustain
interest over a whole evening.
Verbatim theatre should be built around a narrative, and it must still set up dramatic conflicts and
attempt to resolve them. Characters should be shown to undertake journeys of discovery of some
kind, even if these journey’s take place while the character is sat in a chair, talking.
Verbatim theatre literally allows people to speak for themselves. We can never understand the human
condition if we listen solely to those looking to protect their own interests.
The question then needs to be asked, what makes one person interesting and the other dull? For a
character to work – a ‘someone/person’ needs to widen our knowledge of the complexity of the
human condition, and bring fresh insight into the situation being explored.
The vision of the play is where the playwright decides what parts of the material are those which
embody that vision clearly. This occurs during the editing as all the strands come together to establish
the tone, themes and story so they coalesce and the shape of the drama become clear.
A criticism of verbatim is that it is exploitative. It’s important that the verbatim theatre playwright:
“Never forget, it’s someone’s life”.
You want the audience to care.
There is a temptation (and sometimes a necessity arises) that when a tension between being truthful
to the interviewees and creating something that is known to work theatrically is better - some kind of
cheating may happen. It all depends on what is being truthful: Literal truth or truth in spirit?
Should we keep all the ‘ums & ‘ahs’, emotional breakdowns in dialogue? Depends on the subject
being discussed, the time of the moment, how the pace is going etc. There are a lot of subjective
moments from the point of view of the playwright/actor. No form should become formulaic or static.
There are no rules for verbatim theatre!
Researching the topic is important for some verbatim theatre director/writers. It is to some degree
research onstage - in the raw, not highly refined or produced. Some may say ‘fresh’.
The overwhelming question about verbatim theatre is not necessarily what the play is about (eg. about
AIDS or privatisation of an industry), but how much of this had to happen and how much could have
been prevented? All playwrights address the same thing - wanting to create something in the space
between what the audience is feeling and what’s going on stage. What all playwrights address is the
event between the stage and the audience, ie. the unspoken stuff that’s going on in the theatre. That’s
the point of theatre: there’s a whole lot of unspoken stuff that’s going on in the air.
The audience needs to be lead in a certain way through the material. There has to be a metaphor. It is
NOT just about presenting a load of facts on the stage.
Some documentary theatre purely address the audience (direct address), and there is no real
interaction between the actors. Actors feel a real possession and protectiveness about their characters,
because their version of them is what is played. It is not about impersonating the people, but capturing
their spirit.
There is a potential for exploitation but also a sense of honour. Verbatim theatre raises moral
questions. Verbatim theatre is a recontextualising process. Rather than being any one thing, it inhabits
a spectrum - a spectrum between reality and fiction.
The big question is - How does a community react to an event?
A challenge for the verbatim playwright is how to incorporate dialogue into a verbatim play, rather
than relying purely on monologues, and how to escape the confines of retrospective storytelling and
include some of the action that takes place in the present.
Interviewing people often means you get characters thoughts and opinions but they lack emotional
colour because they present themselves as they want to be seen when a microphone is placed in front
of them. It is also good to try and capture moments of live exchanges between people, as you see a
more rounded individual (as others see them also).
The competing demands of truth and drama can sometimes mean fictional scenes are added. This
poses a problem for the playwright.
Like any form of theatre, verbatim needs to keep reinventing itself in order for it to keep thriving.
The challenge is to try and marry the gorgeously unwieldly nature of real speech to the dramatic
needs of the story without losing the very thing that makes verbatim so magical, its life of its own.
Some people have said that because verbatim theatre has a specific agenda, it takes a simplified
approach to complex issues. Verbatim theatre’s always going to be simplified because it is only a
number of views - it can never be the whole picture. It’s political theatre and its’ engaging with
contemporary society, and dealing with incredible complex issues.
The question remains - are plays that combine verbatim text with invented dialogue or scenarios?
Some people find that form slightly dishonest, as you are leading the audience into believing that
someone said something they didn’t actually say. The strength of verbatim theatre is that is it
absolutely truthful, it’s exactly what someone said.
For actors it’s not like being in an ordinary play. They know they’re taking part in something that is
to some extent ‘history’ so they come with such commitment to the truth and the project.
A summary of ‘docudrama’ the Laramie project
The following notes are from
SOURCE: Drama for students © 1997-2006; © 2006 Thomson Gale
The docudrama is a fact-based representation of real events. Unlike other forms of drama, the
docudrama tries to represent the truth of an event that really happened. To think of it in another way,
you might say that a docudrama is a nonfiction play.
The Laramie Project is a docudrama. It was written as if it were an actual documentary. Moisés
Kaufman took his group, Tectonic Theater Project, to Laramie, Wyoming, to gather interviews
concerning the murder of Matthew Shepard. This was a real event, and the interviews were given by
real citizens of Laramie, where the murder occurred. The point of the play was to present the reactions
of the people of Laramie to this horrendous crime. Kaufman believed that a reflection of this event
by the people involved would provide a vehicle for discussion about homosexuality and hate crimes
around the world. In order to present the information that he and his troupe had gathered as closely
as possible to the truth, Kaufman created the illusion of reality by formatting his play, not as a fictional
story, but rather as a re-enactment of those interviews. The fictional part, or artistic part, of the play
was in how Kaufman pulled all this information together and made it tell a story. There were few
props in the play, and only a handful of actors to play the multiple roles. The material was grouped
according to themes that were used to build up the tension in the play. In a few cases, some of the
Laramie residents asked that their names not be used, but overall, real names were used. And much
of the dialogue came from the recorded interviews.
Structural Patterns
The format of the play followed a regular pattern, broken down into three different shapes. The first
shape was called a “Moment.” These were interspersed throughout the play and provided the audience
with a more focused look at specific parts of the drama. Often, the Moments were reflections by
Tectonic Theater Project members as they thought about their reactions to being in Laramie and
having to face the comments and emotions of Laramie residents. At other times, the Moment sections
were used to explore the reactions and emotions of specific residents in order to give the audience a
deeper appreciation of some of the people’s fears or beliefs.
In between the Moments sections, the play used short segments of interviews. Sometimes a person’s
comments would be interrupted by the comments of someone else, who either agreed or disagreed
with them, offering the audience a balanced approach to the reactions to the murder. The interview
segments were loosely structured to provide a sort of timeline to the events that lead up to the crime,
as well as to those that took place afterwards.
The interviews were also used to provide background information on the town of Laramie and the
culture of the people who lived there. The third portion of the pattern were direct announcements or
speeches that were longer than the comments offered in interviews. For example, there are
announcements made by the medical staff at the hospital where Matthew Shepard fought for his life.
There were statements from the press, supposedly taken from actual news accounts. There was also
the speech that Matthew’s father presented in the courtroom.
Contrast and Juxtaposition
The snippets of conversations that were held between the members of Tectonic Theater Project and
the residents of Laramie are arranged in such a way in the presentation of the play that the audience
feels the emotions of the people who felt them. In order to do this, Kaufman has placed actual
statements in positions of contrast or juxtaposition — either against one another or complimenting
one another. For example, in one section of the play there are a series of comments offered by various
religious leaders of the town. Some of these leaders are very much against homosexuality, while
others have more open minds concerning this lifestyle. While one interviewee speaks of Biblical
passages that provide the right to hate homosexuals, another religious person denies this, offering a
counter-interpretation. Another example is provided when the interviews focus on the accused
murderers. The people of Laramie cannot understand how two of their children could have committed
such an awful crime. In order to present the emotions they are feeling, or to further enhance these
emotions, Kaufman offers the audience not only a discussion of the crime and its hideous details, not
only the scene in which it is noted that
Matthew’s face was washed in his tears, not only the transcript of McKinney’s confession of the
crime, but also comments by people who remember what a sweet child McKinney was. Another
example is the various comments by people of the town who claim that the overall atmosphere of the
people was a “live and let live” attitude. There are claims made that most people do not mind that one
person or another might be a homosexual. It is nobody’s business but their own. But in contrast to
that opinion are the comments offered by gay members of the community, who express their fear for
their own lives.
Additional sources on
verbatim/docudrama theatre
1.Lee Brien, D “Based on a true story’. The problem of the perception of biographical truth in
narratives based on the real lives.
http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct09/brien/htm
2.Stinson,m & Wall, D Dramaactive 2
3. Schweitzer, P (2007) Reminiscence Theatre:Making theatre from memories. Jessica Kingsley
Publishers ;London
4.Wilkinson, L Creating Verbatim Theatre (2007)
5. Documentary Drama for the Classroom http://www.thedramateacher.com/documentary-dramafor-the-classroom
Before the Show
Think about the following questions:
What do you know about the playwright Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project? Find out
what you can about his life, his plays and the company.
Analyse the flyer and poster for this production. Does it give the audience any idea as to what the
play might be about ?
Teaching the Laramie project in
schools
These are two excellent websites that summarise why this play (and film) should be taught in
schools. Some excellent activities also where students can create their own “Laramie Project”.
www.hbo.com/hate
An exploration of Internet hate, with personal stories and ideas for promoting tolerance .
w w w. t i m e c l a s s ro o m . c o m / l a r a m i e
Pincus Marsha. R “Learning from Laramie: Urban High School students Read, Research,
and Reenact The Laramie Project.”
From Going Public with Our Teaching: An anthology of Practice. 2005
Introduction to The Laramie Project the play
SOURCES: Study guide notes include:
Yohnk, Dr Dean (Dec 2007) “A reading and Research guide The Laramie Project” University of
Wisconsin Parkside Theatre Arts Department.
Enotes.com Laramie Project
Answers.com The Laramie Project
Plot summary
The following notes are from
SOURCE: Drama for students © 1997-2006; © 2006 Thomson Gale
LOT SUMMARY
Act 1
The Laramie Project begins with what is titled, “Moment.” It is in this brief section (which is repeated
throughout the play) that the members of Tectonic Theater Project read entries from the journals they
have kept during the process of interviewing the people of Laramie. This repeated section also affords
special characters a chance to deliver longer monologues than those given in the rest of the play,
which is set up as interviews. After an opening comment by the narrator, one of Laramie’s long-time
residents provides a bit of personal history about living in Laramie. Through this narration, the
audience also gains some insights into the history of the town. Other people join in: some are
newcomers to the town; others have lived in Laramie for a long time. All of them provide background
information on what it is like, in general, to be involved in the culture of the town. This sets up the
atmosphere of the play. It gives the audience an idea of what life was like before the murder of Matt
Shepard.
The tension of the plays turns when Jedadiah Schultz begins to talk. This is the first time that there is
an allusion to the fact that something seriously wrong has happened to Laramie—that the town has
changed. Jedadiah begins with the statement: “It’s hard to talk about Laramie now.” Then he
continues: “If you would have asked me before, I would have told you Laramie is a beautiful town.”
Things have obviously changed. Another “Moment” is provided. In this one, Rebecca Hilliker, a
college professor, offers her opinions of the students. They are different from ones she has taught
before in other towns, in other states. They speak their mind. They have strong opinions, which
Hilliker likes because this creates a “dynamic in education.” The “Moment” next changes focus,
returning to the thoughts of Jedadiah, who relates the story of how he won a scholarship to the
University by performing a scene from the play about homosexuality, Angels in America. He
concludes by stating that his parents were opposed to his doing this and did not show up for his
performance. His statements begin to demonstrate the chasm in the community between those who
are open-minded about homosexuality and those who are not.
The play returns to the interview format, with several more community members giving their views
of the town. They provide more history, such as the presence and influence of the railroads. Marge
Murray discusses the class distinction that she feels between those who are educated and those who
are not. But overall, Marge believes that the general sentiment of the people is “live and let live.”
However, when Marge is told that what she is saying will eventually end up in a play, she decides
that she had better not tell the interviewer everything that she knows. In the next “Moment,” Andy
Paris, a member of Tectonic Theater Project, reveals that they have finally come across someone who
really knew Matthew Shepard. This person is Doc O’Connor, a limousine driver who befriended
Shepard. Doc provides a description of Shepard, depicting him as a slightly built young man, who
was not afraid of speaking his mind. The next few people who are interviewed continue with a
description of Shepard. They talk about how friendly he was despite his initial shyness.
Doc reappears, and he provides more background information about the people of Laramie, stating
that Shepard was by far not the only gay person in town. Most gay people of the town will not make
this information public, Doc believes, but that does not mean that they do not exist. Doc also believes
that the overall belief that underlies the community is that of “live and let live.” Next, the interviews
switch to a variety of religious opinions. A Baptist minister appears; his message from the pulpit is
that the Bible does not condone homosexuality. A representative of the Mormon Church reinforces
this statement. A member of the Unitarian Church speaks next; this person is open-minded about
homosexuality. Then a young Muslim woman is interviewed. She talks about how difficult she found
it to wear a scarf, a symbol of her religion’s prescribed modesty. She believes that people in the
community challenged her right to wear it. The scene changes to that of the Fireside Bar, the last
place that Shepard was seen alive. The owner and the bartender are interviewed. Matt Galloway, the
bartender, relates what happened in the bar on the night that Shepard was killed. It was in the bar that
the accused murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, go over to Shepard, talk to him,
and later leave with him. In the next section there is a discussion about McKinney and Henderson.
Residents give their opinions about the young men, most of them talking about how nice the two boys
are. Henderson, they say, was an Eagle Scout. McKinney was a “good kid.” The last section of the
first act provides the description of how Aaron Kreifels finds Shepard after he was beaten and left for
dead. There is also a statement from Reggie Fluty, the first police officer on the scene, and from Dr.
Cantway, the emergency room doctor who treats Shepard upon his arrival at the hospital.
Act 2
Act 2 begins with an account of how the media arrived in Laramie after the news story about Shepard
was released. There are also comments from the people of Laramie about how they responded to the
media, as well as how they responded to the news. There is disbelief, anger, and fear. At the
arraignment, most of the people who witnessed it broke down in tears. There are discussions that
question how such a thing could have happened in Laramie. Interspersed between various interviews
are medical updates on the physical condition of Shepard, who had fallen into a coma. Meanwhile,
both McKinney and Henderson plead not guilty to the charges. Citizens reflect on how they might
have prevented this from happening. The bartender, Matt Galloway, believes he should have stepped
in and stopped Shepard from driving away with McKinney and Henderson, sensing that the two
young men were looking for trouble. Reggie Fluty tells her story about finding Shepard. She also
relates the fear she has of having contacted AIDS from having handled Shepard’s bloody body
without gloves. She must go through a series of tests to see if she is infected. Jedadiah reflects on
Shepard’s beating and questions his minister’s belief that it is wrong to be a homosexual. Several
other residents keep hammering home their concepts that homosexuality is against God’s wishes.
There is a vigil, organized by the Catholic priest. But none of the other ministers will attend. During
the homecoming parade, a large group of Laramie residents come together, marching behind a banner
for Shepard. As the parade winds around town, the group keeps growing in size. There is another
medical update. Shepard has died.
Act 3
A funeral is arranged for Shepard. It is held in the Catholic Church. Not attending is Reverend Fred
Phelps, who makes a statement that even God has hate. And the Reverend believes it is his job to
preach God’s hate. “WE [sic] love that attribute of God, and we’re going to preach it. Because God’s
hatred is pure.” The Reverend adds: “If God doesn’t hate fags, why does he put ’em in hell?” This
causes a reaction in Romaine Patterson; she organizes a group of friends who decide to dress up as
angels after they hear that the Reverend is coming to Laramie for Henderson’s trial. “There’ll be ten
to twenty of us that are angels— and what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna encircle Phelps . . . and
because of our big wings—we are gonna com-plete-ly block him.” There is the jury selection scene
and then a scene in which Henderson changes his plea from not guilty to guilty. Henderson makes a
statement that he is sorry. The judge, however, does not believe Henderson is truly remorseful and
sentences him to life in prison. A year later, McKinney is put on trial. During the trial, a tape of his
confession is heard. The details of the beating are related. The jury finds him guilty of felony murder,
which means he could have been given the death sentence. Shepard’s father, however, asks that he
be given life in prison instead. “I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney.
However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to
show any mercy. Mr. McKinney, I am going to grant you life, as hard as it is for me to do so,
because of Matthew.”
The Laramie Project
MEDIA ADAPTATIONS
• The Laramie Project was adapted as a film by HBO in 2001. It stared Christina Ricci, Steve
Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Janeane Garofalo, Dylan Baker, Amy Madigan, and many others.
There are numerous reviews, teaching notes and comments on this film. It is a good start for the
textual study, but students need to be careful not to confuse the images in the film as opposed to
what is in the text.
SOURCE: http://www.lariat.org/AtTheMovies/lprojectfilm.html
The Laramie Project
The following notes are from
SOURCE: Drama for students © 1997-2006; © 2006 Thomson Gale
Research for the The Laramie Project, Moisés Kaufman’s internationally successful play, began one
month after a horrific crime occurred in the city of Laramie, Wyoming. Members of Kaufman’s
theatrical group, Tectonic Theater Project, volunteered to travel with their director from New York
City to the wide-open ranges of the West in order to gather in-person interviews from Laramie’s
populace. The idea was to capture the emotions, reflections, and reactions of the people who were
most closely related to the crime—a brutal beating and subsequent death of a young college student.
Was this a hate crime? Or was it a random, senseless assault and robbery? No matter which,
Kaufman’s objective was to learn through the town folks’ raw responses how the issues of
homosexuality, religion, class, economics, education, and nontraditional lifestyles were reflected
through this crime. How did this crime define the culture, not just of this Western town, but of the
entire United States?
In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one-year old gay student registered at the University of
Wyoming, was tied to a cattle fence, beaten about the head, robbed, and left to die on a bitterly cold
night in October. Eighteen hours later, he was accidentally discovered by a biker, who had trouble
believing that the figure he saw attached to the fence was human. Police and ambulances were
dispatched, and Shepard was taken to a local hospital; but this was all done to no avail. Shepard was
beyond recovery. He never regained consciousness and died several days later due to his head injuries.
Two local young men were charged with the crime.
The play is based on over 400 interviews with about 100 Laramie residents, as well as journal entries
from the members of Tectonic Theater Project and Kaufman, as they reflect on their own reactions to
the crime and to the interviews they carried out. It is structured as if it were a documentary as it
attempts to re-enact the events that occurred on that fateful night.
The play opened at the Denver Theater Center in March 2000 and two months later moved to Union
Square Theater in New York, where it ran for five months. Later, HBO, working with the Sundance
Theater Lab, turned the play into a film, which Kaufman
also directed. It was presented as the opening night film at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, with
Robert Redford, the founder of Sundance, making a special appearance to introduce the movie. For
his work, Kaufman received two Emmy Award nominations
for director and writer of the film.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Moisés Kaufman is an award-winning director and playwright, whose plays have engrossed audiences
around the world. He is also the founder and artistic director of the New York-based Tectonic Theater
Project, the group that traveled to Wyoming with Kaufman to help research the play The Laramie
Project (2000).
Kaufman was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. He attended a business school for a
While, but soon grew bored with that subject and joined a local dramatic group, Thespis. At the age
of twenty-three, Kaufman decided he wanted to become a director. It was around this same time,
writes Don Shewey for American Theatre, that Kaufman also came “to grips with his homosexuality”
and decided to move to New York. While in the States, Kaufman continued to study his dramatic art
at New York University.
Kaufman’s homeland, however, has not forgotten him. Venezuela demonstrated its pride for its native
son by presenting a retrospective of his work at the Consulate General of Venezuela in 1993. In 1999,
Venezuela once again honored him with the Artist of the Year Award, presented by the Casa del
Artista. Kaufman’s adopted home, the United States, has also celebrated Kaufman’s creative genius
by bestowing him with several prestigious awards. He won the Joe A. Callaway Award as writer and
director of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, a play that ran for over 600
performances in New York City alone. First published in 1997, the play went on to win many other
prizes, including the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Garland Award, and
the GLAAD Media Award. This play, which explores what Victorian men and women thought about
such topics as homosexuality, class, religion, and the British monarchy, also won the Lambda Book
Award when the play was published as a book in 1998. It was the money made from the production
of Gross Indecency that would finance Kaufman’s subsequent and also extremely successful venture,
The Laramie Project.
Kaufman directed the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own
Wife, a story about a German transvestite. In addition to his roles as director and writer, Kaufman has
taught the art of direction at the 42nd Street Collective in New York. As of 2005, he was working on
an original piece called 33 Variations, a story inspired by Beethovan’s Diabelli Variations.
Characters
Moisés Kaufman Photo by George De Sota. Getty Images
Sherry Aanenson
Sherry is Russell Henderson’s (one of the men convicted of Matt Shepard’s death) landlord. She
found Russell to be “so sweet.”
Baptist Minister
The Baptist Minister (who does not want his name used) believes that it is stated in the Bible that
homosexuality is wrong.
Stephen Belber
Stephen is one of the members of Tectonic Theater Project who traveled to Laramie, conducted
interviews, helped to write the play, and played himself, as well as several other characters in the
play.
Dr. Cantway
Dr. Cantway is an emergency room doctor at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie. He helps try to
save Matt Shepard’s life. He describes Matt’s injuries as looking as if he had been in an accident in a
car going “eighty miles an hour.”
Catherine Connolly
Catherine is a professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and she considers herself to be the
“first ‘out’ lesbian or gay faculty member on campus.” She feels fear grip her after the death of Matt
Shepard and is afraid to walk down the street.
Rob DeBree
Rob is a detective sergeant for the Albany County Sheriff’s Department in Laramie. He is the chief
investigator of Matt Shepard’s murder.
Philip Dubois
Philip is the president of the University of Wyoming. He is a relative newcomer to Wyoming but
prefers it to big-city life. He used to feel that Laramie was a safe place to raise children.
Tiffany Edwards
Tiffany is a local Laramie reporter. She describes the outside media that descend on Laramie after
the news of Matt Shepard’s death is broadcast as “predators.”
Reggie Fluty
Reggie is the policewoman who responds to the 911 call and has to be tested for HIV after attempting
to save Matt Shepard’s life. She is the first police official on the scene.
Leigh Fondakowski
Leigh is a member of Tectonic Theater Project who traveled to Laramie to conduct interviews. She
is a character in the play but does not play herself or any other characters.
Matt Galloway
Matt was the bartender at the Fireside bar. He was also a student at the University of Wyoming. He
witnessed Matt Shepard leaving with Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney on the night of the
murder. He later regretted not having done something to prevent the events that happened later that
night. He disbelieves that Shepard would have approached these two men as some other people
believed.
Jim Geringer
Jim is the governor of Wyoming. He makes a statement against the “heinous crime,” but falls short
of calling it a hate crime. He is challenged by a reporter who asks him why he has not pushed for hate
crime legislation.
Amanda Gronich
Amanda is a member of Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie and conducted interviews.
She plays herself and several other characters in the play.
Russell Henderson
Russell is twenty-one years old when he offers Matt Shepard a ride home, then beats and robs him
and leaves him to die. He later changes his plea from not guilt to guilty of the crime and is sentenced
to life in prison.
Rebecca Hilliker
Rebecca is the head of the theater department at the University of Wyoming. She has recently moved
to Wyoming and found the people there to be generally nice to one another. She states that she likes
the fact that her students are such “free thinkers,” unlike
other students she has had. “You may not like their opinions,” she says, “but they are honest.”
Sergeant Hing
Hing is a detective at the Laramie Police Department and third generation resident. He offers a history
of Laramie in the beginning of the play.
Sherry Johnson
Sherry was an administrative assistant at the University of Wyoming. She is a bit disheartened by the
news coverage that the death of Matt Shepard has received, while the death of a Laramie policeman
receives no attention at all.
Aaron Kreifels
Aaron is a student at the University of Wyoming. He was riding his bike the day after Matt Shepard
was attacked. He found Matt tied to the fence and called an ambulance. He felt that God had wanted
him to find Matt and that is why he took a different route on his bike.
Doug Laws
Doug is the leader of the Mormon Church in Laramie. He believes that the word of God proclaims
that “a family is defined as one woman and one man and children.”
Aaron McKinney
Aaron is one of the young men who offered to drive Matt Shepard home on the night he was murdered.
He is put on trial and found guilty.
Bill McKinney
Bill is the father of Aaron McKinney. He makes the statement that if this had been a murder of a
heterosexual man, “this never would have made the national news.” He is concerned that his son will
be proven guilty before he even gets a trial.
Matt Mickelson
Matt is the owner of the Fireside Bar, the place where Matt Shepard was last seen. He offers some
history of the place.
Marge Murray
Marge is mother to Reggie Fluty. She was very worried about the possibility of Reggie contacting
AIDS from Matt Shepard after Reggie administered medical services to him. Marge has lived in
Laramie all her life and knows just about everyone. She offers a cultural history of the place, but
when she finds out that all this information might be used in a play, she decides not to tell her
interviewers all that she knows.
Doc O’Connor
Doc was a limousine driver and had driven Matt Shepard to Colorado on occasion. He is from the
East Coast, originally, but has lived in Wyoming for quite some time. He offers his reflections on the
type of people who live in Laramie. He says that he liked Matt Shepard “‘cause he was
straightforward.”
Andy Paris
Andy was a member of Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie to conduct interviews and to
help write the play. Andy plays himself as well as several other characters in the play.
Romaine Patterson
Romaine is a close friend of Matt Shepard’s. She says she used to call him “Choo-choo.” What she
remembers most of him is his “beaming smile.” He was friendly with everyone, she says. At his
funeral, she and a group of her friends dress up in angel costumes in order to block the Fred Phelps’
group of protestors.
Jon Peacock
Jon, a professor of political science, was Matt Shepard’s academic advisor at the University of
Wyoming. He helped Matt open up when he first came to Laramie. Matt wanted to work on issues of
human rights, Jon states. And when Matt figured this out, he was excited by it.
Reverend Fred Phelps
Fred is a minister from Texas who comes to Laramie. He is extremely anti-gay and comes to the
funeral with a group of people to protest. He is concerned that everyone is making “Matthew Shepard
into a poster boy for the gay lifestyle.”
Greg Pierotti
Greg is a member of Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie to collect interviews and help
with the writing of the play. Greg plays himself as well as several other characters in the play.
Barbara Pitts
Barbara is a member of Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie to collect interviews and help
with the writing of the play. She played herself as well as several other characters in the play. She
records the words of a sign she sees upon entering Laramie. It reads: “Hate is not a Laramie value.”
Father Roger Schmit
Roger is a very outspoken Catholic priest in Laramie. He sets up a vigil as Matt lies dying in the
hospital. He is disappointed when other ministers in the town will not become involved.
Jedadiah Schultz
Jedadiah is a student at the University of Wyoming. He used to love Laramie, but after Matt Shepard’s
death, he’s afraid that everyone in the world will look at Laramie as another Waco—a place of a
violent crime. Jedadiah won a scholarship to the University based on a performance he did, a scene
from the play Angels in America, which deals with homosexuality. His parents refused to come to
see the play. Later, despite his minister’s statements that homosexuality is wrong, Jedadiah comes to
his own conclusions.
Dennis Shepard
Dennis is the father of Matt Shepard. He makes a very emotional statement at the trial of Henderson,
stating that he would not seek the death penalty.
Lucy Thompson
Lucy is Russell Henderson’s grandmother. She makes a plea for his life at his trial.
Harry Woods
Harry is an older man who lives in the heart of Laramie. He offers the information that he is a
homosexual and he secretly celebrates the addition of hundreds of people who join the homecoming
parade in honour of Matt Shepard.
Memorial message for Matthew Shepard written on a rock at the site of his attack
© Adam Mastoon/Corbis
Laramie Wyoming
It is important that students gain some insight into where Laramie actually is in relation to the USA.
Show the students maps (use Maps of the World.com) from a Wyoming State map and for a USA
map.
Wyoming
Ancient tribes lived in Wyoming at least 12,000 years ago. Remnants of this old culture can still be
seen at places like Medicine Wheel, outside of Lovell. More modern tribes, like the Sioux, Shoshone,
and Cheyenne were cultivating the land when the first white explorer, John Colter, arrived in 1807.
Fur trappers soon followed and included such legendary names as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith.
When gold was discovered in California, more and more settlers drove their wagon trains through
Wyoming, creating a need for re-stocking stations and military forts. Fort Laramie was one of the
most important military installations in Wyoming. More people streamed through the state, and many
of them decided to settle there, creating some of the first cattle ranches, where huge herds of buffalo
once roamed. Wyoming is known as the Equity State, being one of the first states in the Union to
recognise the rights of women. In 1869, Wyoming was the first government in the world to give the
right to vote to women. One year later, Ester Hobart Morris became the first woman appointed as a
justice of the peace. In 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected the first female governor in the United
States.
Laramie, named for the trapper Jacques LaRamee, was first established by the confluence
of a small settlement building around a military fort (Fort Buford) and a later need by the railroad,
which was being built across the West, for a place to maintain the trains. Two things that made
Laramie a good site were the abundance of fresh water, the Laramie River, and a nearby forest of
trees in the Medicine Bow Mountains. But by the end of the nineteenth century, two more additions
to the town—the University of Wyoming and the
Wyoming Territorial Prison, provided economic stability. The finding of gold and silver in the
mountains at the turn of the century was also a welcomed boost.
Today, Laramie is a small town of less than 30,000 residents that enjoys relatively mild
weather, a low cost of living, and below-national average unemployment. The town sits in the
southeastern corner of the state on Interstate 80, about forty miles northwest of Cheyenne. The town
is more than a mile high and is surrounded by national forests. The Laramie River runs through the
town. It is interesting to note that many websites for the town make reference to Matthew Shepard.
Peace vigil for Matthew Shepard © Liss Steve/Corbis Sygma
The Laramie project 10 years on
The best references for this are:
HBO Time warner and tectonic theater project
Audience guide part 4 :lessons from Laramie AND A NUMBER OF
REVIEWS EASILY FOUND ON THE INTERNET
Cast and Crew
chalkdust Theatre production 2010
CAST
Artin Ayvazian (ABSENT)
John Baltaks
Sara Blackburn
Nicole Bonfield
Trent Gardiner
Peter Heward
Leanne Sills
Catherine Simpson
Belinda Wright
Jonathan Llewellyn (Director)
sDirector
Jonathan Llewellyn
Stage Manager
Dialect Coach
Voice Coach
Dramaturg
Marnie Engel
Nick Curnow
Kym Parrish
Henrietta Stathopoulos
Rehearsing The Laramie Project
Have a look at the following rehearsal photos from The Laramie Project.
Commented [1]:
What photos?
If you haven’t read the play think about who these characters might be and what they might be
doing in the scene. Describe the expression on the actors’ faces. What sort of mood do you imagine
the scene to have?
If you have read the play, can you guess which scenes these are? Which characters are in the
photographs?
Set & Costume designs and the
decisions behind them
1) Draw or describe the set as you remember it. Do you remember your first impression when you
walked into the theatre? How would you describe the colour of the set? What atmosphere does
the colour create?
2) Have a look through a copy of the script of The Laramie Project. What are some of the plot
actions that the designer would have had to take into consideration when designing the set and
how the actors would use the props?
3) Draw or describe the costume that appealed to you most. How would you describe the style of
the costumes in The Laramie Project?
Accents…
Some comments on accent work for The Laramie Project from a variety of people from Wyoming.
The comments are copied as written (ie. SIC) hence the spelling and grammatical errors.
“I know this may shock you, but most Wyomingites actually speak like the rest of the United States.
Sure, the real cowboys and ranchers have a little bit more of a twang and mumble more than they
enunciate, but for the most part, there really isn't much of an accent here. Or slang.
HOWEVER: There are immigrants from Washington/the Dakotas/Michigan, who have pushed a
different version of "ar" sounds into the vocabulary. Washington, as said commonly, becomes
Warshington. The same goes for "Wash-->Warsh" etc.
Other Wyoming info I can offer you?
We have no big towns. The only escalator in the entire state is located in Cheyenne (and no, I'm not
kidding). Medium sized towns (and there aren't many of them) include Casper (bigger), Sheridan,
Jackson Hole, Cody, and Gillette. A large percentage of this state has population 100 sized towns -there aren't a lot of people here.
It's interesting, really -- this state isn't as "Wild West" as people think it is. Sure, there are some
huge distinctions I've noticed now that I've moved here -- there are more trucks in Wyoming than a
large percentage of states, and that you can immeadiately identify a real rancho-boy/girl from a
normal "in town" kid by a: the truck they're driving, b: the jeans they're wearing (rancho usually
wear tighter, slim-leg jeans, including the guys) and c: the cowboy boots -- but for the most part,
people seem...normal.
http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_atlas.php -
“I've lived in wyoming for my whole life. Im 17. It's really not to(sic) different from other places.
Where I live its only 45 min to any town so its not to bad. If we get sick of cheyenne we just drive to
fort collins or denver. drinking is a problem(sic) here i would say. we can get away with it 9/10
times. i wouldnt say we dont like locals but if you live in cheyenne, frontier days can get old after
awhile just because of the huge amounts of people that come and take over the town. we hs kids use
basically all the same words as anyone else though”
“I’m a 16 year old girl from a small town in green river wyoming. the older generation uses very
inproper English(sic) almost like a southern family but not as twangy and without the ya'll. we use
average slang that most american teenagers use.
we have a midwestern accent we over exaggerate our vowels if you have anymore questions email
mem at [email protected]”
1. Speech Accent Archive | MetaFilter
14 Aug 2003 ... The Speech Accent Archive,with 264 audio clips of native and non-native .... call
centers being located there, and in neighboring Wyoming. ...
www.metafilter.com/27659/Speech-Accent-Archive - Cached - Similar
“Yes, Wyoming speaks basically standard Midwestern American English.
There's also a linguistic division in Wyoming- the northern part was settled primarily by ranchereasterners and immigrants, the southern half by southerners when the railroad was built, so you
find a little of the classic dinner/supper, couch/sofa dichotomy.
Lots of boomtowns-Oilfield workers in the middle and south, (Red Desert) coal etc mines in the
southwest and northeast, a lot of ranching, some farming (powder River and Big Horn Basins)inthe
northern part, also methane gas right now in the northeast. The economy is very regionalized,
boom/bust cycles are common.
And, the Big Horn Basin tends to have a slightly different slang, due to influence from German,
Basque, and relocated Japanese. Hart Mountain was a documentary and a book that might help
you there. There's a large Mormon population in the southwestern part, so anything you've seen on
Utah Mormons will give you clues, too.
Other than that, people are notably stubborn, independent, conservative, hard drinking, hospitable.
Like most rural areas, kids learn to drive early, usually about fourteen.
People drive a lot- distances are long, and there's NO public transportation. Not uncommon to
drive 100+ miles for shopping, concerts, movies, even dinner!
I wouldn't trust the Laramie Project much- it's a college town, and most interviewees weren't local.
Try watching some rodeo interviewees, Gretel Erlich wrote Wyoming Spaces, with some good
snippets of dialogue- there are also quite a few Cowboy Poets and comedians you can check out.
Based on growing up in Wyoming- fashions, including slang, tend to run a few years behind the
times, and certain words- like shee-yit! have an extra syllable.
:) Good luck!”
****Listen to a broadcast of Romaine Patterson's radio show.
Accents how to… Nick Curnow
Actor’s Notes
Artin Ayvazian
" A criticism of Verbatim is that it is exploitative. It's important that the verbatim theatre
playwright:
'Never forget, it's someone's life' "
I think that this is very important, as the way an individual is perceived in the play can have huge
consequences for that person (whether positive or negative). However it is also the responsibility
of the playwright to be truthful and 'say it correct.'
"Verbatim theatre should be built around a narrative, and it must still set up dramatic
conflicts and attempt to resolve them. Characters should be shown to undertake journeys' of
discovery of some kind, even if these journeys take place while the character is sat in a chair
talking"
These things are essential to any theatre piece. If these things are not included it will just be a
couple of monologues, and could leave the audience confused and disengaged.
How do you feel The Laramie Project engages the audience? Do you agree that the audience
becomes a key if silent character in the performance, since 10% of Verbatim is spent
interacting with the actors and 90% with the audience.
Are the audience active or passive and what impact does this have on the actors?
The Laramie Project presents an event that has occurred and then gives different perspectives from
people who were affected and how they felt about it. The audience does interact on an active level
as they are reacting to what is being said. They are not told how they should feel, but are given the
information of the story and are left to decide themselves. The play asks a lot of questions: Views
and feelings about Homosexuality, was the murder of Matthew Shepard really a hate crime? W ho
was responsible? How could this be prevented in the future?
The actors do interact with the audience and there is some spontaneity which comes from that, and
it could influence the actor’s performance, but it shouldn't deter what the actor is trying to
communicate.
1.As an actor for the play what kind of preparation have you done to prepare for this play?
Reading through the play countless times and understanding characters points of view and
circumstances during their interview, learning the accents required for the play, finding differences
for the characters both physically, vocally and emotionally. Researching the town and the
characters. Researching event and impact it had on the town, country, world.
2. Discuss the vocal challenges faced by an actor with this play.
The vocal challenges included the numerous accents which were involved (Wyoming, American,
Mexican). Apart from accents it was important to differentiate the characters vocally (pitch,
resonance, tempo and vocal quality). Also becoming comfortable in speaking in a way which is
different from how you would normally speak (Changing Vocal habits).
3.How did you see the play at first reading and has this changed?
At the first reading, the play came across as moving and controversial. I had never heard of
Matthew Shepard and was not aware of the event and the impact it had on the world. This has
changed as I know a lot about the event and the importance of the hate crime movement.
4.What additional research did you do to help your prepare?
Research included: Accent books and websites, researching the town of Laramie, researching and
watching footage of some of the characters (The Laramie Project - 10 years on), Watching 20/20
interview with Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson, Reading the book The Meaning of
Matthew Judy Shepard.
5.Which is your favourite character that you play and why?
Andrew Gomez: He offered the most challenging work vocally. He is also a character that stands
out from the other characters due to the accent change. He also shows the audience the reality and
seriousness of the life Aaron and Russell are facing.
6.What line(s) do you think best represent how you see the play?
The line by the Catholic Priest" You must say it correct." Without this the play is not truthful and
loses its value.
7.Do you think the play is about hate crime only?
The play is an examination of one town and the people which inhabit that town. A lot of the
characters are quite universal and each character has a different perspective which helps the
audience identify with the particular characters, but at the end of the day the play about the town of
Laramie (The Laramie Project) thus being more than just about hate crime.
8.Why did you want to be in this play?
T he play offered challenges as an actor which I had not encountered before. Changing characters
and the vocal and physical challenges which were faced. I felt that the play was a story which was
worth telling.
9.Is this play relevant to an Australian Audience? Why?
I think any play which promotes equality and unity is relevant for any audience.
10. How did you adapt to the direct address style of acting?
Having performed in another verbatim piece I understand the style in terms of format. The direct
address is very much like talking to someone else, a lot of the characters are recounting what has
occurred and their experiences.
11. How did you find this style of play to perform in as opposed to 'Fictional drama'?
I found the style challenging and interesting. The approach to the characters was the same as the
approach to fictional characters, but the fact that the characters and play are real there was added
responsibility to be truthful.
John Baltaks
1.As an actor for the play what kind of preparation have you done to prepare for this play?
Reading and thinking about the characters as individuals and constructing a backstory. Accent work
would be linked to where they may have originated and where they were educated.
I write out cue sheets with important information to get straight – enables remembering lines and cues
but also to identify places where different choices could be made.
2. Discuss the vocal challenges faced by an actor with this play
Differentiating between characters using accent, timing/phrasing and timbre, and then pulling back
to generate something that is believable and natural.
3.How did you see the play at first reading and has this changed?
The careful structure of the play was not evident at first but rather seemed like a random selection of
voice-bites from ‘townsfolk’. The shape emerged for me only after a lot of rehearsals with the
director’s staging and interacting with and listening to the other characters.
4.What additional research did you do to help your prepare?
A lot of internet material. Studying the geography and history of Wyoming and surrounds.
Listening carefully to accents of ‘actuals’ – people from regions. What was interesting for me was
the way that many supposedly regional accents have flattened out over time to a standard American
with only traces of the original accent left. Moisés Kaufman was a New Yorker who was originally
from Venezuela so the choice had to be made as to how much Venezuelan remained. His actual accent
in Youtube clips of speeches he has made had some pronounced Latino tones but the choice was
made to make it more New York to help with the Tectonic Theatre Project ensemble that came from
New York.
5.Which is your favourite character that you play and why?
No favourites really. Some were easier to inhabit than others because of familiarity (Jon Peacock,
Stephen Mead Johnson). Each character developed its own distinct colour to help create this theatrical
depiction of a community. Murdock Cooper I found to be the most surprising – probably gay himself
and blaming Matt for causing this tragedy.
6.What line(s) do you think best represent how you see the play?
·
·
‘We do grow people like that here.’
‘There’s more gay people here than what you think.’
·
·
‘You must do your best to say it properly.’
‘Now how’s he gonna use that in his play?’
7.Do you think the play is about hate crime only?
It’s also about resilience.
It’s also about the society you as an audience member are part of – a kind of mirror being held up to
see if you like what you see.
Because this is real people being quoted, there is scope for it to be about a great number of things,
depending on the experience and context of the individual audience member. It could be about raising
kids/ education for instance. Or religion. Or theatre itself.
8.Why did you want to be in this play?
Challenge of verbatim theatre – flexibility, virtuosity, the ultimate ensemble challenge.
Working with a group that I have confidence in, and I’m easily bored, and always forget how much
work is involved in putting on productions.
9.Is this play relevant to an Australian Audience? Why?
Very relevant. Not just because of the crime but also because the ‘event’ throws up the true colours
of several familiar groupings in society. In this play we are given a particular crisis and we (almost)
scientifically observe how they react. Take away the cultivated positive spin/ mask that everyone
inevitably projects and you get to see something interesting. It’s been done many times in a
fictionalised context (Twelve Angry Men for instance) but the verbatim nature of this play adds an
edge, especially with the composers participating and making themselves vulnerable as well.
10. How did you adapt to the direct address style of acting?
It came naturally for me. It seemed natural in the context of every character feeling the need to tell
their perspective to whoever is listening.
11. How did you find this style of play to perform in as opposed to 'Fictional drama'
Far more complex in terms of staging. The choreography of props and costume required a lot of focus
and preparation. Especially the seeming randomness of the sequence of ‘events’. Rehearsal time
running through these transitions and making them flow was a challenge.
The ‘script’ being true to the individuals’ speech, contained some bizarre turns of phrase that took a
little getting used to. Each character had some quirk of their own such as an unusual preposition – do
you take something on a trip or in a trip? For instance,
getting these down did help define the character.
Nicole Bonfield
1.As an actor for the play what kind of preparation have you done to prepare for this play?
Rehearsing was a little different, in that the play is mainly direct address to the audience. I have a
couple of scenes where I am actually conversing with another character on stage with me, but mostly
it is almost like a monologue. That meant more ‘one on one’ work with the director in the beginning
of the process to create character, and after that more whole cast rehearsals with focus on blocking
and timing with cues.
We were encouraged to use Laban’s methods in creating the physicality for each character, which
enabled clearer distinction between roles. With a play like this, the sooner you make choices with
voice and movement to create character, the easier it is to grow in that character, because body
memory kicks in. This also helps greatly when having to quickly slip in and out of characters in front
of an audience.
The work done by the dramaturg in terms of research for the play, was invaluable preparation for me.
She sourced footage of a couple of my main characters, which was a gift when trying to create small
distinct traits to differentiate between roles. Having a dialect coach to work with was also fantastic.
He enabled us all to clearly define our roles vocally, which makes it all so much easier for both the
actors and the audience.
2. Discuss the vocal challenges faced by an actor with this play
The obvious challenge is to have clarity between roles in terms of voice. To do this, variations in
pitch, pace, timing and dynamics in delivery is crucial. Adding dialects into the mix certainly
increases that challenge, but it also helps in character differentiation. The biggest challenge for quite
a few of us was preventing our Wyoming dialects from straying too far south!
3.How did you see the play at first reading and has this changed?
I have always been a fan of this script. But, as with any play you perform in, once you start delving
deeply into the text and develop character, your understanding and appreciation of the play grows.
4.What additional research did you do to help you prepare?
See preparation answer.
5.Which is your favourite character that you play and why?
I love Reggie Fluty. She is a gutsy, no-nonsense woman with a great sense of humour. I love the
relationship she has with her mother, I love the way she fought for Matthew at the fence, I love the
way she celebrated her HIV-free status!
6.What line(s) do you think best represent how you see the play?
One of my characters, Rebecca Hilliker, has the line “…how do we reach a whole state where there
is some really deep-seated hostility toward gays? How do you reach them? This is the beginning.”
While there has been such change in the last 12 years since this awful thing happened, there is still
more to do, and we all need to be advocates of change for the better.
7.Do you think the play is about hate crime only?
Definitely not. It’s about ordinary people, and how a community is affected by such an awful crime.
The play is about love and compassion and acceptance overcoming hate. It’s a plea to everyone who
sees it to have more love, compassion and acceptance for everyone else around them.
8.Why did you want to be in this play?
I wanted to be a part of a very important piece of theatre that has the capacity to facilitate change for
the better. We live in a world where so many people are still ruled by fear, and fear of those who are
different is what led to this crime and others like it.
9.Is this play relevant to an Australian Audience? Why?
Yes, it is. It is relevant to any audience in any country. Crimes like this can, and do, happen anywhere.
Nationality is irrelevant, it is important to open people’s eyes with this story, no matter where they
live.
10. How did you adapt to the direct address style of acting?
The direct address was not a difficult thing for me to adapt to. It makes the audience another character
to talk to. Some audience members may find it confronting not having the barrier of the fourth wall
between themselves and the characters, but if used well, the direct address can be very engaging.
11. How did you find this style of play to perform in as opposed to 'Fictional drama'?
In the beginning, I was very aware that the characters I was playing were real people and so focused
on ‘saying it correct’, wanting almost to impersonate them. As rehearsals progressed, the theatricality
of the piece grew and so did the freedom to further explore characterisations. It was interesting
learning the lines, which often were not grammatically correct, and as such were sometimes difficult
to get ‘word perfect’.
While there is a still a journey within the piece, and conflict within individual characters, there are
few moments with dialogue between characters, which certainly makes for a different experience for
both actor and audience.
Leanne sills
I found the process very challenging. It is not like other plays, as it was often hard to find the through
line.
The most difficult thing has been the immediate jumping into character and of course remembering
where you are in the play...the cues.
It is an extremely long play but an important one so it is difficult giving weight to the stories and
relaying those stories yet maintaining a certain pace and rhythm and not putting everyone to sleep.
The audience plays a crucial part in the story telling and it is difficult as you cannot rehearse this.
Most of the time characters break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience. Many of the
characters pop in and then out again.
Being aware of some of the characters journeys throughout the play has also been challenging.
The whole dynamic of the production will change when we are met with an audience.
Catherine Simpson
How do you feel The Laramie Project engages the audience? Do you agree
that the audience becomes a key if silent character in the performance,
since 10% if Verbatim is spent interacting with the actors and 90% with
the audience?
I would like to think that the audience is engaged, especially an audience that one assumes will be
mostly familiar with the text. A lot of the dialogue is directed at them and particularly for a student
audience we won’t be surprised if some of them actually answer the questions we ask
out loud.
Are the audience active or passive and what impact does this have on the
actors?
Since we have all done so much personal research for this play and are all very passionate about the
subject matter and the horror of what happened also hard not to assume that our audience actively
agrees with us. It will be interesting if any audience is vocal and controversial. Although it is
unlikely any narrow minded folk would choose this play for an evenings’ entertainment but some
unsuspecting souls may sneak in.
1.As an actor for the play what kind of preparation have you done to
prepare for this play?
A lot of on line research finding out about the various characters, and various interpretations of
Matthew's story including Moisés's Laramie Project movie, The Matthew Shepherd Story, and the
news piece "HardCopy 20/20" that the Dramaturg provided. Reading Judy Shephard's book was
also great for further insight.
2. Discuss the vocal challenges faced by an actor with this play
We all did a lot of voice work with our dialect coach not only for the accents but to vary tone, pace
and pitch for our different characters. Some characters eg. Debbie and the Engins almost lend
themselves to caricature so it was a challenge to move past that and not lose sight of the fact these
are REAL people.
3.How did you see the play at first reading and has this changed?
First read it in a group a couple of years ago with all of us chopping and changing parts as we want.
Even so I was moved to tears at several points. Once we were cast we had several table reads of the
play with our allocated roles going through and discussing each little bit as we went. This was
invaluable for getting our head in the right space to
4.What additional research did you do to help your prepare
as above
5.Which is your favourite character that you play and why?
I think Trish Steger is my favourite because she is like the heart beat and mother figure of the
community. She sublimates how she feels about the incident by worrying about other - Romaine,
The community members who are worried about having to serve on the jury, even Russell having to
hear that people were willing to put him to death.
6.What line(s) do you think best represent how you see the play?
7.Do you think the play is about hate crime only?
No...IT is also about community... the things that brings a community together and tears it apart.
There is also some insight into the nature of relationships particularly exemplified in Zubaidah's
trying to separate AJ McKinney her school friend from Aaron McKinney the perpetrator.
8.Why did you want to be in this play?
What a great acting challenge...the variety of characters, voice work. Also it is such an important
piece because of its content...what is a hate crime, how does a community cope, how does
something like this effect a community and individuals
9.Is this play relevant to an Australian Audience? Why?
The values of community are universal and so relevant to Australia. Also the possibility of hate
crime is just as relevant here as anywhere. Persecution of "the other" is alive and well in many
small and bigger communities here, whether the other is a gay kid, or a refugee
10. How did you adapt to the direct address style of acting?
Luckily my previous production had been very direct address so this was one area that I found far
less confronting. I could dismiss that fourth wall as required.
11. How did you find this style of play to perform in as opposed to
'Fictional drama'
SOOOO MUCH more difficult because there is so little interaction between characters. Most of the
time the characters stand alone. Also the fact that there is no direct narrative line to help you
navigate where you are in the script...the random narrator announcing a random company member
is so seat- of-your-pants scary, and no one else can save you
Belinda Wright Catherine Simpson
1. What have I done to prepare for acting in the play?
I concentrated on learning my lines once I knew which roles I had been allocated to play. I waited
until the first initial blocking was done as I find it helps to have a picture in my head of what is on
stage when I am learning lines. I was aware from the start that it would help to develop characters if
I had a voiceprint in my head of what they should sound like. So I paid attention to the words the
character said and the individual speech patterns they used, because we all have habits in our speech
and a rhythm to our speaking. We did some Laban work early in rehearsals and that helped to make
certain choices for the characters too. In early rehearsals we did a fair bit of discussion which helped
to clarify ideas. Watching and listening to other cast members and the director in rehearsals has been
very important too because it has been like putting a puzzle together in trying to tell the story.
2.Discuss the vocal challenges for the play
Finding a voice for each character and consolidating that voice has been a major challenge. We each
play several characters and I have not been in a play where I have played multiple characters like this
before. Because the shifts between characters are very quick at times the thing that has to be
distinctive is the voice of the character. This is where Nick Curnow (dialect coach) helped a lot. Our
first rehearsals were actually dialect coaching. He explained the mid-western or general American
accent to the cast and gave us vocal practice exercises to do. We then learnt how the accent changed
for Wyoming. Some of the characters are from the other places in America too e.g. New York, so we
learnt what to do with those variations too. Nick gave us some individual coaching once we had
developed the different voices and attended later rehearsals to check on our development.
3. How did you see the play at first reading and has this changed?
I knew the play well before the auditions and first reading. I saw it when Belvoir Street Theatre
performed it several years back and I had read the script. I also have been teaching the Verbatim
Theatre topic from the start of the year and was able to explore the play in workshops with my
students. Being in the cast has of course meant that I know the play very thoroughly now. I still like
it and am making discoveries with it regarding particular moments that I find effective in the play.
4. What additional research did you do to help you prepare?
I have done some reading and research about Verbatim theatre and read all the plays on the HSC list.
I have attended some teacher workshops on this topic. I did some further research for teaching
purposes and developed resource material for my students. I did research a couple of my characters
to find out some more about them and what they are doing today. This was interesting and helpful
e.g. Cathy Connolly is still teaching at the University of Wyoming. She is a Professor of Women’s
Studies and Sociology.
5. Which is your favourite character that you play and why?
I like them all. I think you have to like the characters that you play even if others don’t like them. I
have a soft spot for the Mormon Home School Teacher. He has a monologue about Russell Henderson
and he is very sympathetic towards him, which is important because he is someone who doesn’t hate
Russell even though he has committed this awful crime. The guy is a faithful Mormon but he has
compassion for the murderer and will not wash his hands of him, as some would expect. This guy
would not be in the majority but he has integrity and I like revealing that when I do the monologue.
6.What lines best represent how you see the play?
“Hate is NOT a Laramie value.” This is said by Barbara Pitts early on in Act One and the play does
show this. So many people in the play are struggling with the impact of the crime in their hometown
and they shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush. The play shows the complexities of Laramie and
the population so that you know that Laramie could be anywhere really.
7.Do you think the play is about a hate crime only?
No it is about more than that. It is about tolerance and acceptance and having the courage to face up
to the worst that people can do in order to move forward and do better in our lives. I think the play is
also about the process of taking the time to listen to everyone’s story because they need to be told.
8. Why did you want to be in this play?
I like this style of theatre and I have seen a few different plays performed in this style over the last 10
years. I wanted to see what it would be like to act in one so I could understand how to stage this type
of play and what was required of the actor and the ensemble nature of performing. I have found that
it looks simple on the surface but it is challenging to do.
9.Is this play relevant to an Australian audience? Why?
Well if you take the crime itself then yes. People are assaulted and even murdered in Australia today
because of their sexuality. It can be a very difficult thing for a young person to be “out” about their
homosexuality. I admire the guts and bravery of young people who are openly gay in say, a school
situation. I hope the play educates people who are not tolerant to “live and let live.” I also think it’s
relevant to Australian society in a legislative sense. Jonas Slonaker makes a comment about this late
in the play. Gay people in same sex partnerships do not have equal rights with heterosexual couples
under the law in various circumstances.
10 How did you adapt to the direct address style of acting?
It is odd to always be looking out and breaking the fourth wall. I had very few interactions with other
characters on stage and it’s difficult not to be feeding off someone else directly by feeding cues or
interacting with them. It has been a very hard play to learn cues from. I think it’s only come together
lately because finally I know the whole play well and not just my bits.
11. How did you find this style of play to perform in as opposed to fictional drama?
Your traditional “well made” play has a structure to it that builds. I found this play doesn’t have that
kind of rising trajectory. It is a series of moments and there are various rises and falls. It takes a lot
of concentration to be on stage the whole time, either listening to the story or being a speaker. It is
more like being in an orchestra as the players in an orchestra all come on at the start and some players
only have one section to do but when their moment comes they have to come in precisely and play as
the conductor indicates. So sometimes it’s like being the bassoon player and you’re watching and
listening patiently until finally your bit comes in.
A criticism of Verbatim is that it is exploitative… someone’s life.
I think our world today is very much shaped by the media and the internet and reality television and
you can’t get away from that knowingness. As soon as a real story happens you know it won’t be
long before that story is being sold as a movie deal or the person involved is hiring a media agent.
Verbatim theatre is no worse than any of that and because it is theatre, well, I think it takes the time
to ask questions and put forward more than glib answers. There is not just one version of the truth in
verbatim theatre. Every member of the audience is going to hear the story differently and the story
will have time to settle and be thought about.
Another point to mention is that when The Laramie Project was first performed then some members
of that first generation audience could possibly have thought that it was exploitative because they
were close to the events and knew about them. There is a different thing that happens after the
immediacy of that first generation performance, and that is that the play becomes just another play
script over time. People in the audience don’t necessarily know the story or how the play is developed.
The audience don’t come into the theatre with a personal investment that “it is done correct” because
they weren’t privy to the process or a participant in the catalyst event.
Directorial Vision - on directing
Laramie
Use of Soundscape/music
S
Critical Analysis of the Play
Joyce Hart
Hart is a freelance writer and author of several books. In this essay, Hart examines Kaufman’s
docudrama to discover how the playwright created theatrical drama in a work that is almost
nonfiction.
Moisés Kaufman’s The Laramie Project is most often referred to as a docudrama, a play that is largely
based on real facts. To this point, the play is all but a work of nonfiction. But despite the fact that the
basic elements of the play are based on actual events with their own inherent drama, Kaufman’s
talents as a playwright were used to enhance the emotional impact of the events and thus create an
atmosphere that ultimately stirred his audience more than just the reading of the actual events might
have caused. The question is then, how did he do this? How did he formulate the play in such a way
that he made the events come alive not with just the details but with all the complexities that
surrounded the crime? How did he piece together not only the central events of Matthew Shepard’s
murder, but also the information that he and the members of Tectonic Theater Project gathered? How
did Kaufman arrange his material so that people who came to see the play were stirred to the point of
wanting to ask more questions of themselves, of their community, and of their society as a whole? In
other words, how did Kaufman turn real events into a work of creative theatrical drama?
Most of these questions can be answered in a very simple way. The overall tool that Kaufman uses
to create drama is contrast. But what is less obvious is how he uses this tool. To begin this exploration,
one needs to go no further than the beginning of the first act. It is here that readers can witness how
the playwright pits one thought against another, as he dives into the interviews and arranges the
sentences of each interviewee so that one stands either in partial or complete contradiction with the
other. For example, several townspeople offer background information about what life, under normal
circumstances, is like in Wyoming. “You have an opportunity to be happy in your life here,” states
Rebecca Hilliker, a professor at the University of Wyoming, where Matthew Shepard attended
classes. The setting that Hilliker describes is in stark contrast to the circumstances that are about to
be discussed, of course.
But it is through contradictions such as this that Kaufman plays with the emotions of his audience.
Another example occurs when Kaufman offers the statement of Philip Dubois, president of the same
university. Dubois describes how safe he feels living in Wyoming. In contrast to what he would do if
he lived in a large city, in Laramie Dubois allows his children to play unsupervised outside at night.
“My kids play out at night till eleven and I don’t think twice about it,” Dubois says. This statement
resonates with the audience, which is already aware that Shepard was killed at night, possibly in a
similar location in which Dubois’s children might have played. It is in this way that Kaufman sprays
a mist of emotional colors throughout his play, teasing his audience first in one direction, than jerking
them abruptly to the other edge of the spectrum.
Even though the general consensus of the interviewees at the beginning of the play is that of peace
and the belief that Wyoming is a nice place to live, Kaufman weaves through these positive comments
statements that hint otherwise. Another example is the comment of Doc O’Connor, a relatively new
arrival to Wyoming. Although O’Connor agrees that Wyoming is a great place to live, he adds a
sinister touch to his statement. “They say the Wyoming wind’ll drive a man insane,” he says. By
including O’Connor’s statement, Kaufman throws out yet another hint of the macabre acts that are
later recorded—the brutal and irrational beating of Shepard. O’Connor’s comment thus becomes a
type of foreshadowing of the murder or at least a warning that crazy things have previously occurred
in Wyoming. It is in this way that the audience—which at first was being lulled into believing in an
idyllic environment and is shown a virtual-Wyoming, where everyone is happy and where the “live
and let live” attitude of the state’s residents allows a seemingly unusual sense of freedom—is
suddenly (and quite subtly) reminded that something dreadful is lurking in the background. Let the
audience beware, Kaufman is suggesting. All is not perpetual goodness in this so-called paradise. So
although Kaufman appears to be delivering just the facts of the case, he is cleverly manipulating the
information. He could easily claim that he is only re-iterating the statements of the people he
interviewed. And this is partially true. But by craftily layering one person’s sentence upon another
person’s, Kaufman orchestrates the overall effect just as inventively as a composer who connects one
note to another to build a musical work that creates a symphony that stirs the emotions. Yes, Kaufman
raises a lot of questions that he leaves for his audience to answer for themselves. However, the
questions that arise are the questions that Kaufman wants the audience to take home with them.
Another example of how Kaufman uses contrast to provide drama is shown with the presentation of
the crime scene, which he does in several different ways. Each time the audience is taken there, the
emotional reaction is purposefully deepened. The first mention of the field where Shepard was killed
takes place in the beginning of the play. Sergeant Hing is talking about the Wyoming landscape and
about how he took some reporters to the murder scene. Hing speaks about the area where Shepard
was beaten as being a beautiful place. On the day he took the reporters there, Hing recounts that the
sky was blue and the mountains had a dusting of snow on them. The area, Hing states, is a popular
place with bikers and joggers. Upon hearing this, one reporter asks: “Who in the hell would want to
run out here?” To which Hing confides that he thought this woman was “missing the point.” Hing
felt that the media was stupid because they could not turn around and see the beauty of the land.
“They were just—nothing but the story,” Hing explains. In other words, Hing has all but erased the
memory of the murder that occurred at that place. He was in love with the land and, no matter what
had happened there on that specific spot of land, all he saw was the beauty of the surrounding
landscape. The reporters, however, were living in a completely different world. They had, of course,
come to cover the story, but more than that, they felt the ghost of the murder around them when they
stood on that spot. They could not be there and not have their minds cluttered by the thoughts of
despair and death as Shepard lay dying there after the beating. These reporters, most of whom had
come from outside of Wyoming, looked at the crime scene with eyes focused on only one thing—the
brutal murder of a young student. For Hing, Shepard’s murder might be one of many he has had to
investigate, and he might be questioning why the Shepard case had gained such national attention.
And Kaufman, through Hing, might want his audience to ask the same question. Why was Shepard’s
death more relevant than hundreds of other murders that had taken place that year? Why had the crime
become so momentous it had caused a media frenzy? Whatever the reason for Kaufman’s
“PAY ATTENTION TO THIS, THE PLAYWRIGHT SEEMS TO BE
YELLING. THIS IS IMPORTANT, AND I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU GO
WITHOUT FEELING THE INCREDIBLE AND UNFORGETTABLE DRAMA
OF IT ALL.”
use of these contrasting visions, the results pull the audience into the play. And Kaufman knows that
the more an audience invests, the more emotionally involved the audience will become in his play.
As Act 1 closes, Kaufman takes the audience back to the crime scene. It begins with one of Kaufman’s
“moments,” which has the subtitle “The Fence.” Stephen Mead Johnson introduces this section by
telling the audience how this area has become a place of pilgrimage. Johnson’s depiction of the area
drastically differs from the previous one given by Hing. “It is so stark and so empty and you can’t
help but think of Matthew out there for eighteen hours in nearly freezing temperatures,” Johnson says.
Then he relates Shepard’s experience to the suffering of Christ on the cross by quoting from the Bible
“God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” This is the first real reference to Shepard’s pain.
Previously, the accounts of his death are mentioned merely in an unemotional way. A few details are
provided but there is nothing mentioned of the pain. A young man was killed, is all the audience is
really told up until this scene. After Johnson’s reference to the suffering that Shepard must have
experienced, a member of Tectonic Theater Projects intensifies this moment by offering his own
personal reactions to having visited the crime scene. “I broke down the minute I touched it [the
fence].” Now the audience not only has a visual image of the fence, they also have a sense of having
touched it. And in doing so, the audience is touched in return. The first act closes with commentary
from people who were there on the night of the crime. First there is Aaron Kreifels, the young man
who found Shepard. Next is a report from Officer Reggie Fluty, the first police officer on the scene.
And the third person interjected into this part of the play is Dr. Cantway, the physician on duty at the
emergency room where Shepard was taken. All the bloody details are provided by these three people.
And through them, Kaufman provides the audience with an in-your-face reproduction of that night.
From three different points of view, the audience sees Shepard’s bloody body through the experience
of the young boy who found him and called for help. Then Fluty describes the scene in a very clinical
manner, noting such things as the position of his body and the way Shepard was tied to the fence.
And the doctor, despite all the wounds he has seen in the past, describes the horror of discovering the
unimaginable destruction caused by one human upon another. This is not going to be an easy play to
sit through, the audience must be thinking at this point. Kaufman is not going to allow anyone in the
audience to passively watch and listen as the story encapsulated in the play unfolds. Kaufman has
masterfully crafted this work of art, slowly wrapping his fingers around each person’s heart and
squeezing it. Pay attention to this, the playwright seems to be yelling. This is important, and I am not
going to let you go without feeling the incredible and unforgettable drama of it all.
Source: Joyce Hart, Critical Essay on The Laramie Project,
in Drama for Students, Thomson Gale, 2006
.
2 Unit Drama Year 12 2010
Performance Essay Marking /Feedback Sheet
Criteria
1. Effective use of
dramatic elements
and theatrical
conventions
2.Use of performance
skills and appropriate
to the style and form
3.Capacity to realise
and sustain role and
character
4.Demonstrates an
understanding of the
style and form
A
20-17
B
16-13
C
D
12- 8-5
9
E Totals
4-1
Comments
5.Understanding of
the artistic, cultural,
social, political and
personal issues raised
Prompt Book
Clearly outlines and
records the process of
the performance
essay and the
directorial vision
Production
Notes
Communicates the
challenges faced as
an actor
Comments
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……………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Student Response
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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……………………………………………………………………………………
Student Signature
…………………………..
Teacher’s Signature ……………….…………….
Date: May 2010
2 Unit Drama Assessment Task No. 4
GRADE
A
MARK
20
19
18
17
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
B
16
15
14
13
Year 12
2010 Marking Criteria
DESCRIPTION
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Has an excellent level of competence of lines and characterisation
Develops, shapes and refines dramatic action with the ability to make decisive use of theatrical conventions
Works at a sophisticated level with the text as Director and as Actor
Sustained role and established strong actor/audience relationship
Strong acting skills
Uses elements of acting in a sophisticated manner
Work is well structured using various dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Works independently on piece and produces own ideas
Undertakes critical and complex analysis and synthesis of research and applies this creatively in performance and
written responses
Prompt Book and Production Notes reflect a thorough understanding of elements of production and how they are
used
Oral response reflects an excellent understanding of process undertaken to create a solid performance
Has a high level of competence of lines and characterisation
Develops and refines dramatic action with the ability to make some decisive use of theatrical conventions
Works at a high level with the text as Director and as Actor
Sustained role and established strong actor/audience relationship throughout most of the performance
Good acting skills
Uses elements of acting in a mature manner
Work shows some strong structure using various dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Works independently on piece
Undertakes some critical and complex analysis and synthesis of research and applies this creatively in
performance and written responses
Prompt Book and Production Notes reflect a good understanding of elements of production and how they are
used
Oral response reflects a high level of understanding of process undertaken to create a solid performance
C
12
11
10
9
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
D
E
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Has substantial competence of lines and characterisation
Develops dramatic action with some ability to make decisive use of theatrical conventions
Works at a competent level with the text as Director and as Actor
Work is structured using some dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Some sustained role and established an actor/audience relationship
Effective acting skills
Uses some elements of acting
Work is structured using some dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Works independently on piece and produces own ideas
Undertakes superficial critical and complex analysis and synthesis of research and applies this creatively in
performance and written responses
Prompt Book and Production Notes reflect satisfactory understanding of elements of production and how they are
used
Oral response reflects a competent understanding of process undertaken to create a solid performance
Has a satisfactory level of competence of lines and characterisation
Develops some dramatic action
Can work with the text at a simplistic level, and has basic understanding of the role of the Director and Actor
Work uses little if any dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Undertakes basic research and applies this to their performance and has limited written responses
Work uses little if any dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Some sense of actor/audience relationship established
Uses few acting skills
Prompt Book and Production Notes reflect basic understanding of elements of production and how they are used
Oral response reflects an basic understanding of process undertaken to create a solid performance
Has an elementary level of competence of lines and some understanding of characterisation
Participates and performs to a limited level in the piece
Weak structure with little or no dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
Weak structure with little or no dramatic elements and theatrical conventions
No actor/audience relationship established
Few elements of acting employed
Shows limited understanding of research, theory and its application to both performance and written work, with
little understanding of the function of the elements of production
Oral response reflects little understanding of process undertaken to create a solid performance
Year 12 2U Drama Assessment Task No. 4 - 2010
Performance - Studies in Drama and Theatre
Task Type
Performance Essay
Due 24 May 2010
HSC Weighting 15%
Mark Allocation 20 – Performance 15 – Prompt Book 5- Program Notes
HSC Outcomes
Making: H1.1 - H1.2 - H1.3 - H1.4 - H1.6 – H1.7 - H1.8 - H1.9
Performing: H2.1 - H2.2 - H2.4 - H2.5
Critically Studying: H3.1 - H3.2 - H3.3 - H3.4 - H3.5
TASK - Performance Essay
A performance essay explores a topic through performance and discussion. As a group you
will each take on the role of actor and director to bring to life your group’s directorial vision
of the performance essay.
Question
“In verbatim theatre the audience assumes an active rather than a passive role … [the character] talks
to the audience on a purely personal and confidential level ….Transferring a deeply personal
conversation onto the stage in this way confers a responsibility on the audience – a responsibility
which I think they enjoy – and this partially accounts for the increased intensity of their listening.”
(Robin Soans in Hammond, W. & Steward, D. (eds) (2008)
Verbatim: Contemporary Documentary Theatre)
Consider theatre’s role in allowing us to ‘see better and more clearly’ issues of today. Discuss how
the conventions and performance style of Verbatim Theatre ensures that the audience is enlightened,
challenged and entertained.
In your performance essay you will need to focus on:
• (Introduction) The social context which surrounds or is applicable to the scenes.
•
Exploration of the themes in the scenes
•
•
How the scenes reveal the conventions and performance style of Verbatim Theatre
(characterisation, direct audience address, use of titles and projections, staging and
costumes, use of narration)
How the scenes create authenticity and a sense of authority – the truth – for the audience
•
The challenges you and your group faced as actors and directors.
•
(Conclusion) How as an ensemble you wanted the audience to react? Learn?
Assessment Guidelines
A. Performance
•
Form a group of three and a group of four – these will be the same groups as your GP
•
Select 2- 4 scenes ONLY from both texts: Laramie Project and Parramatta Girls
•
The performance essay including performances must be 20 -30 minutes in length
•
As a group you will perform each of your chosen scenes from the texts without a script.
•
Every group member must discuss a point. Each member must have equal performance and
discussion times.
•
Each student must discuss a different aspect from each other
•
There must be no excessive reading of notes when you are discussing the scenes.
•
It is important that you discuss the scenes confidently, showing that you have a strong
understanding of the content.
NOTE: You will be marked as individuals for both your performance and your understanding of
the topic.
• You can use powerpoint images for your background as set or to help with your discussion
and exploration of the topic.
•
You are to wear theatre blacks with any additional costume pieces used where appropriate
eg. scarf/hat
B. Leaflet - Program Notes
•
Content: As an actor discuss how you explored the challenges you faced performing the
nominated scenes.
•
Length: 250 MAX words in length and formatted as program notes that are easy to read and
handle by the audience
C. Prompt Book
To be kept as an individual member of the ensemble. Include:
• Rational for the chosen scenes.
•
Explanation of the theme/s and/or message/s and the social contexts and an explanation of
the process for devising the dramatic elements to communicate this to the audience
•
How your performance will create a relationship with the audience.
•
Notes on staging your performance in creating a piece of Verbatim Theatre.
•
Your individual and your group’s vision.
A final copy of the actual essay MUST be submitted as a hard copy
Focus questions/comments
How does a community react to an event?
Is this a play about a hate crime?
“Verbatim theatre
Authentic theatre?”
Forever “west”
Anti violence?
What is Australia’s ‘Laramie’ equivalent?
Is Laramie stuck in the past, hence it cannot move forward?
Physical contact really doesn’t happen but when it does it’s violent (IS THIS bred into the PEOPLE
OF LARAMIE?)
You want to audience to care…Do they by the end of the play?
“Never forget, it’s someone’s life…”
Essay Topics
1. “The purpose of the theatre is not to provide the solutions, but to state the problems more
clearly.” Chekhov
To what extent is this a reflection of verbatim theatre?
In your answer, refer to your study and experience of TWO texts set for the topic.
2.‘The audience for a verbatim play will enter the theatre with the understanding that they’re not
going to be lied to. They may be unsettled by the unusual way the play is constructed, but they will
be compensated for the lack of convention by the assumption that what they are looking at and
listening to is revelatory and truthful.”
How does verbatim theatre engage the audience?
In your answer refer to your study and experience of TWO texts set for study, ONE being THE
LARAMIE PROJECT, and the other from the text list.
3. In verbatim theatre 10% of the time is spent interacting with fellow actors and 90% has your
attention directed at the audiences. The audience becomes a key, if silent, character in the
performance.
How is the audience drawn into the issues presented in verbatim theatre?
In your answer refer to your study and experience of TWO texts set for study, ONE being THE
LARAMIE PROJECT, and the other from the text list.
4. The quintessence of verbatim theatre is a group of actors sitting on chairs, or cardboard boxes or
sofa, talking to the audience, simply telling stories. The principle skill required of the actor remains
that of storyteller, and his or her key relationship is with the audience. The audience assumes an active
rather than a passive role.
How does verbatim theatre engage the audience?
In your answer refer to your study and experience of TWO texts set for study, ONE being THE
LARAMIE PROJECT, and the other from the text list.
5. It is important for the audience at a verbatim play to want to know what happens next as it is in any
other play. No matter how compelling the speeches are in terms of truthfulness and revelation in their
own right, the verbatim play must be more than a random collection of monologues if it is to sustain
interest over a whole evening.
Discuss the given statement and use it as a springboard to discuss your understanding of verbatim
theatre. In your answer, refer to your experience of performance making and to BOTH texts you have
studied.
6.Verbatim theatre should be built around a narrative, and it must still set up dramatic conflicts and
attempt to resolve them. Characters should be shown to undertake journeys of discovery of some
kind, even if these journey’s take place while the character is sat in a chair, talking.
Discuss this statement, exploring how verbatim theatres’ characters are represented on the stage.
In your answer refer to your study and experience of TWO texts set for study, ONE being THE
LARAMIE PROJECT, and the other from the text list.
7. A criticism of verbatim is that it is exploitative. It’s important that the verbatim theatre playwright:
“Never forget, it’s someone’s life”
How do verbatim theatre playwrights craft their plays to force the audience to see the individual
characters and convey their ‘life’?
8. To what extent and in what ways have the verbatim theatre Practitioners you have studied realized
their social goals in performance?
In your answer, refer to your experience of performance making and to BOTH texts you have studied.
9. There is a potential for exploitation but also a sense of honour. Verbatim theatre raises moral
questions. Verbatim theatre is a recontextualising process. Rather than being any one thing, it inhabits
a spectrum- a spectrum between reality and fiction.
In your answer, refer to your experience of performance making and to BOTH texts you have studied
10. “ When you are an actor you cease to be male and female, you’re a person, and you’re a
person with all the other persons inside you.” Sybil Thorndike
How does an actor prepare for a performance in verbatim play? What did you discover in your own
exploration of your verbatim texts? Refer to specific class workshops and TWO texts you have
studied.
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Find an organisation that supports gay rights in your community. Gather information about this group
and prepare a paper that covers such issues as current legislation, the challenges that face homosexuals
in your community, the history of homosexuals as a group, and common political goals of
homosexuals.
Matthew Shepard was majoring in political science at the University of Wyoming at the time of his
death. He was interested in the issue of human rights. Choose a specific country and research that
country’s human rights’ issues. What legislation has been passed? What is the history of the fight for
human rights in that country?
What are some of that country’s major organisations that focus on human rights?
Research hate crimes in the world. First, what is the definition of a hate crime? How do hate crimes
differ from other types of crimes? What are the statistics of hate crimes in each country? Which
countries have laws that specifically address hate crimes? Since the passing of legislation in each
country, hav e the incidents of hate crimes decreased?
Read Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Try to figure out which scene in that play might have been
used by Jedadiah Schultz for his competition for a scholarship to the University of Wyoming.
Memorize the scene and perform it in front of your class.
Pretend to be the defense attorney for Aaron McKinney. Prepare the closing remarks that you would
present to the jury in an attempt to save his life. Find some reason that McKinney should live, and
build an emotional plea that might sway some of the jurors.
How does Kaufman avoid the identities of all the characters becoming confused in The Laramie
Project? Give some examples.
What comment does Kaufman make here about the society today?
How does The Laramie Project contribute ten years on as Kaufman’s vision of verbatim theatre?
What particular challenges do you think would be involved in directing a production of The
Laramie Project? If you have a copy of the script count the number of character exits and
entrances in the play.
Do you find the content of The Laramie Project outrageous? Why or why not? What comment does
Kaufman make about the nature of society and is it still relevant today - why or why not?
References
HBO: Everybody Carries a Piece of Truth Teaching notes
http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com/2005/03/Laramie-project.html
http://ww.freeradical.co.nz/content/42/42sciabarra.php
http://www.variety.com/index
http://www.answers.com/topic/the-laramie-project-play-8
http://www.enotes.com/laramie-project//print
The Laramie Project – a reading and research guide prepared by Dr. Dean Yohnk
University of Wisconsin-Parkside Theater Arts Department
NSW Dept of Education and Training HSC Drama Prescription 2010-2012 Teacher’s Notes
Curriculum K-12
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/theater/17laramie.html
http://ww.newsweek.com/is/163027/output/print
http://www.thedramateacher.com
http://www.culturewars.org.uk/2003-02/laramie.html
http://thefastertimes.com/theatertalk/2009/10/04/333/
www.laramieproject.org
*EXCELLENT resource
Anderson, M & Wilkinson, L (2007) A resurgence of Verbatim Theatre:Authenticity, Empathy and
Transformation. ‘Australasian Drama Studies’ Issue 50
Brustein, Robert, The Staged Documentary, in the ‘New Republic’, Vol. 222, No. 25, June 19,
2000, pp. 29–30.
Thomas Gale Offprint Drama for Students Notes LARAMIE PROJECT (2006)
Gluck, Victor, Review of The Laramie Project, in Back Stage, Vol. 41, No. 22, June 2–8, 2000, p.
56.
Hammons, W & Steward, D (2008) Verbatim Verbatim; Contemporary Documentary Theatre.
Oberon:UK
Andrew Harrison Composer various productions of Laramie Project of music on itunes
info@ andrewharrison.com.au
Helbig, Jack, Review of The Laramie Project, in the Booklist, Vol. 98, No. 1, September 1, 2001,
pp. 43–44.
Kaufman, Ed, Review of The Laramie Project, in Hollywood Reporter, Vol. 373, June 11–17, 2002,
p. 22.
Kaufman, Moisés, and the members of Tectonic Theater Project, The Laramie Project, Vintage
Books, 2001.
Lloyd, Emily, “The Laramie Project: A Play,” in School Library Journal, Vol. 47, No. 11,
November 2001, p. 194.
Mason, M. S., “Laramie Project Connects Stage to Social Ills,” in the Christian Science Monitor,
March 31, 2000, p. 19.
Miller, Howard, Review of The Laramie Project: A Play, in Library Journal, Vol. 126, No. 14,
September 1, 2001, p. 179.
Pincus, Marsha R Learning from Laramie: Urban High School Students Read. Research, and
Reenact The Laramie Project
Pochoda, Elizabeth, “The Talk in Laramie,” in the Nation, Vol. 270, No. 24, June 19, 2000, pp. 33–
34.
Shepard, J The Matthew Shepard Story
Shewey, Don, “Town in a Mirror,” in American Theatre, Vol. 17, No. 5, May–June 2000, pp. 14–
22.
Wilkinson, L (2007) ‘Creating Verbatim Theatre’ - Thesis
Zoglin, Richard, “Voices from Laramie,” in Time, Vol. 155, No. 19, May 8, 2000, p. 86.
Anti Violence “Building our Community’s Health & Wellbeing” ACON Sydney 9 Commonwealth
Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 PO Box 350 ...
www.acon.org.au/anti-violence
New South Wales (Sydney) Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service of NSW www.glcsnsw.org.au
1-800-18-4527 or 02-8594-9596 www.glccs.org.au
Listen to a Broadcast of Romaine Patterson’s radio show.
NEWSPAPER REVIEWS
http://www.newsweek.com/id/160327/output/print
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-laramie11-2009oct11,0,1120088,print
Songs about Matthew Shepard
http://www.queermusicheritage.us/matthew.html
Other websites
http://www3.northern.edu/wild/0203Seasons/prs_lara.html
http://gratuitousviolins.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
http://iowatheatre.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-of-laramie-project.html
DVD’s
The Laramie Project HBO movie
Hard Copy 20/20 ABC USA documentary on The Matthew Shepard Case.
Can be purchased through Amazon.com