By Rachel Wender ’13

April 25 marks the opening night for Williston Northampton’s production of The Laramie Project, a play by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Company. The Laramie Project is a series of interviews with the people of Laramie, Wyoming about the events that occurred after the brutal killing of Matthew Shepard, and how his death has impacted their community,

In early October, 1998,  Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, tied to a fence, and left there to die. He was killed because he was gay. The events were not only catastrophic to the people of Laramie, but had a national impact, putting this very small rural Wyoming town under the public eye. The play is made up of over two-hundred interviews with people from Laramie about the community, the trials of the murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, and the vigils and funeral held for Matthew.

The play was first performed over a year and a half after the murder by members of the Tectonic Theater Company, located in New York City. It covers topics such as homosexuality, religion, community, and the media’s effect on the town of Laramie, Wyoming.

“Clearly, the play covers a topic with sensitive issues that are not easily discussed amongst any community,” says cast member Mackenzie Zehring ’14. “To truly understand the depth of the play, the audience must have the maturity and open-mindedness to listen to what the characters have to say without judgment.”

So Emily Ditkovski, director of The Laramie Project, had to come up with a way to prepare students for the upcoming performances. The cast of students have created five workshops covering the main issues of the play, and will be spending the next month or so coming into classrooms and dorms.

The workshops have been divided into five categories: the importance of community, religion, homophobia, judgment, and the effects of media. Each group has created their own lesson plan including fun games and activities aiming to open up students’ minds and start a discussion. Then, after the play, along with the Pride organization, the cast will be having a talk-back on stage for a half an hour. During this time, students are free to ask questions about the play, and talk about what affected them the most.

Ms. Ditkovski says, “I think it’s important to give the audience a chance to process and deal with these questions in a safe environment. This play asks us to grow as human beings, and I hope these workshops give us the chance to do just that.”

In preparation for these classes, the cast has attended other workshops, including one taught by Williston’s Gender Studies and middle school teacher, Ms. Diane Williams. She used her time to teach about working with students. This has been very helpful for the group working on “Community,” as they will be working specifically with the middle school students. One of the coordinators for that group, senior Mairead Poulin, adds, “I have enjoyed creating the workshops. I’m most excited because my group gets to work with the middle school, so we get to influence the youth, who are after all our future.”

In addition to the workshop with Ms. Williams, the cast also heard Leslea Newman, feminist writer of Heather has Two Mommies, speak. She is planning to return to see the final show, and is going to speak in front of the entire Williston community later this year. Finally, they had a weekend long workshop with Scott Barrow, a member of the Tectonic Theater Company. He taught them the style that they use in his company, and how to incorporate it into the play.

It is important to remember that these workshops are not meant to force students to have the same beliefs as the cast, or even what the school believes, but to teach others to be able to keep an open mind about what it is they are going to hear. There are certainly characters in the play that are themselves narrow minded, but it takes a courageous group to be able to hear their ignorance and keep an open discussion about some of the more controversial issues.

Junior thespian Oliver Demers says, “I think it’s really important that the outside Williston community gets to see a bit of the inner workings of The Laramie Project. I have never spent so much time thinking about some of these sensitive topics that people so often try to dodge. Hopefully that is something we can change.” When asked how The Laramie Project has most affected him, he said, “I feel like I have become a more sensitive, outgoing, courageous person.” Gabe Byrd ’13 sums it up by saying, “you can never stress enough how important acceptance is to a community, even one as accepting as ours”.

The play will have performances on April 27-29, and May 2-4 at 7:00 PM, and the performance on the 26^th will be at 7:30. Tickets can be purchased online. Good luck to everyone in the show, break a leg!