The Laramie Project: Algonquin College’s Production is a Fine Example of Verbatim Theatre.

Photo: Andrew Alexander

The Laramie Project, first produced in 2000 is a particularly powerful form of docudrama conceived by Moisés Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre Projects. This group of actors from New York decided to create a staged work based on the story of Matthew Shepherd, the young man beaten to death in 1998, the victim of a hate crime in Laramie Wyoming.

The play tells us how the actors made 60 visits to Laramie, conducted 600 interviews with all the towns people, with witnesses, family, friends, police and everyone who had anything to say about the crime.

Portions of the authentic dialogue were selected to produce a script which became the play and which the actors then performed, speaking the roles of the many people involved. Thus they told the whole story . The fragments pieced together Matthew’s life, the trial and the ramifications of this assassination on the townspeople, on all the institutions of the town: the the police, the local religious movements, the doctors, the nurses,the universities the school teachers and every aspect of life in the town.

This form of theatre is now called verbatim theatre: theatre based on the authentic words of people who have been interviewed as was the case here and The Laramie Project has become a model of this kind of theatre which more recently has taken many forms. What we realize is that the actual process of the play’s creation (interviews etc) is given the same importance as the reconstruction of the crime itself. Thus we see two plays evolving simultaneously, both performed by 11 remarkable young actors from Algonquin college who take on all the roles.

Director Teri Loretto-Valentik, has put it all together in a most interesting way.The young performers are perfectly obedient in this choreographed staging which has them, sometimes lined up across the stage, sometimes, sitting on chairs, either facing the audience, or facing each other. Sometimes the chorus remains at the back as individual speakers come forward downstage to face the audience directly. There are chairs constantly moved around to give the illusionof a changing site. Surrounding the actors are three large video screens with images of Laramie, the sky, the fields, the court room and other important spaces, that all flash by as though they were a series of authentic home movies, supposedly the real sites where the events took place. The screens also suggest the presence of TV journalists reporting from Laramie, showing how the media swarmed the town like locusts, trying to get all information possible. Their quest for sensational details, often lead to distortions of reality, thus upsetting the townspeople who barely had time to understand how such a thing could take place in their own neighbourhood.

Slowly the idea of “hate crime” takes hold and various voices represent the different attitudes expressed by the many individuals who are  interviewed by the student actors creating the play.

In spite of the realism of the event and the authenticity of the dialogue, the form of the play emphasizes the fact that it is a theatrical construction. Thus we are well aware, that there is some artistic manipulation in a clearly brechtian sense, and that makes us reflect on all the problems involved in this crime: the question of homophobia, the question of hate crimes, the survival of the idea of difference in a closed society, the attitudes of some religious beliefs in such moments of crisis, plus the way parents deal with children’s problems and the problem of bullying. The question of capital punishment even appears at the end. As the story builds, we keep listening very intently, as the dramatic moments are  interrupted by comments on the part of the actors playing the New York based actors who tell about their attempts to interview people and to arrange all the material into some form of interesting theatre. Thus the creative process is  constantly highlighted.

It is a perfect choice for a large acting class because it involves young people and offers them all a chance to perform even though some of the speeches are only a few lines. The play invites the cast to communicate the feelings of the real individuals they are supposed to be representing, while speaking without becoming too theatrical. The acting is therefore all low key, relaxed, without explosions of anger or any true sense of tragic loss. The speaking voices do everything to foreground the text which is so powerful that it does not need performances that are  highly charged with emotion.
Some moments do  have a stronger impact than others. There was some video of Fred Phelps, the well known hate monger who had organized his followers (even small children) to carry signs telling us that ” God Hates Fags”, all of which was projected on the TV screens. During the trial scene, the testimony of the boys accused of murder and the final pronouncements of the judge, were disturbing highlights of the evening. There also seemed to be a flaw in the text in the case of Aaron, the most aggressive of the two young men accused of the murder. The play did not produce the decision of the judge in his case. Rather, it allowed the dead boy’s father to read a speech, saying he did not want Aaron to be given the death penalty. He wanted the boy to live the rest of his life haunted by what he had done. However, that was also a convenient way to avoid the issue of the death penalty which was under discussion at that period in the U.S. but it did become an implicit negation of that penalty when we learn that Aaron would be sentenced to life in prison.  We did not hear the decision of the judge until later so this was also a successful tactic to heighten the suspense.
Some of the students had a lot more physical presence than others, some spoke more clearly than others but the individual weaknesses were absorbed in the rapidly changing human landscape that kept us moving from one voice to the next. The powerful story kept us focussed on the narrative so we were listening more to the way events evolved rather than to the individuality of the characters speaking. I was so totally immersed in this event to the point where any little flaws just didn’t make any difference. Director Teri Loretto-Valentik  has lead her  group with great sensitivity and produced a work which should make them all proud.
The Laramie Project continues until April 21 at Algonquin College in the Studio College Theatre 613-727-4723 ext. 5784,

For more background see the article by Jane Baldwin on The Laramie Project and
the Laramie Project ten years later, the sequal to the play,
produced by Emerson college in Boston.
http://capitalcriticscircle.com/the-laramie-project-ten-years-later-a-long-process-that-gained-the-admiration-of-the-whole-community/#more-1514

Algonquin College Theatre Arts Program presents
The Laramie Project
a play by Moises Kaufman & Tectonic Theatre Project
Setting, Laramie Wyoming, USA, 1998-99
Director: Teri Loretto-Valentik
Set:Terri Loretto-Valentik & Lynn Cox
Costumes: Judith DeBoer
Lighting: David Magladry
Projection Designer and Photographer Andrew Alexander
Musical Composition: Riley Stewart
CAST:
Elizabeth Chant, Annie Clarke, Shannon Collins, Katherine Dermott, Bruno
Khoueiry-Jaber, Curtis Kupkee, Kiersten MacDonald, Sean Mason, Sam McCarthy, Sarah Patrick, Nick Surges.