‘Laramie Project: 10 Years Later’
PHILADELPHIA — The Indian River Central School District’s theater program is one of about 150 theaters in the U.S. and one of a handful of high schools in the U.S. selected to take part in “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later.”
On Oct. 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten and tied to a fence in the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo. He died six days later. His murder highlighted the violence and prejudice that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face. A month after the murder, the members of the New York City-based Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and conducted interviews with the people of the town. From the interviews they wrote the play “The Laramie Project,” which they later made into a film for HBO.
Since 2000, “The Laramie Project” has been one of the most performed plays in America. The Indian River Drama Club presented it in 2007. The club won awards for excellence for best technical production and for best overall performance when it was presented that year at the Michael J. Harms Theatre Festival in Syracuse. It was also honored with four merit awards from a roving adjudicator from the Theatre Association of New York State.
The drama club will present the epilogue “10 Years Later” at 8 p.m. Monday at Indian River Theatre of the Performing Arts. It will include Indian River alumni who performed in the original production along with Kristie L. Fuller, the district’s theater teacher and theater manager, and Phillip Dyke, the theater’s technical director.
Besides theaters around the U.S., “10 Years Later” will be staged in Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia. It was written by Tectonic Theater members Moises Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber.
“All 130 theaters will be doing the same script at the same time,” Mrs. Fuller said.
A Tectonic Theater spokeswoman said there are fewer than five high schools in the U.S. presenting the epilogue.
Also presenting the play will be Syracuse Stage, 820 E. Genesee St.
The productions will include a live introductory webcast from Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City hosted by Glenn Close and a question and answer session following the play with the cast at Lincoln Center.
The epilogue focuses on how Laramie has changed and how Shepard’s murder continues to reverberate in the community.
Mrs. Fuller said that even though the setting is in Wyoming, the message in “The Laramie Project” and the epilogue is universal.
“Laramie isn’t much different from where we live,” she said. “It’s about how the community reacts to a hate crime.”
The following are Indian River Central alumni who will perform in “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later”: Megan Kemple (2009); Caitlin Bartow (’09); Maggie Western (’09); Ethan Dusharm (’08); Alec Walsh (’09); and Elaine Finley (’05). Also in the cast is David B. Zwierankin, a student at SUNY Potsdam who lives in Poughkeepsie.
