For this Fall’s Mainstage Production, the Emmanuel College Performing Arts Department will be performing The Laramie Project, written by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. As stated in the Facebook event for the show, “Set in 1998 Laramie, Wyoming, this powerful show tells the story of the reaction to the death Matthew Shepard. He was a young college student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die only because he was gay. This show tells the story of the people of Laramie as they react to this event. What was once a quiet western town was turned on it’s head by this tragedy and this show tells the true story of how it happened.” Before you see the show, get to know the talented cast and crew who have worked extremely hard over the past month and a half to bring this compelling story to the Emmanuel stage.
Her Campus at Emmanuel: Hi everyone! Congratulations on putting together such an incredible performance! Before we jump into things, I want to know, what motivated you to be a part of this show?
Janette Birtha: I am a freshman here and I have always loved participating in the theatre productions back home. Auditioning for this show was a simple decision, I wanted to feel more at home in my new home so one of the ways was auditioning for the show. I auditioned for Laramie specifically because I wanted to branch out my acting style, because I normally perform in comedies. I have never had the opportunity to perform in something this raw and real so I thought it would be a good chance. I’m still shocked I got in.
Abigail Desrosiers: I am a freshman at EC and theater has always been a part of my life. I am also pursuing a double major, which includes theater. Auditioning for this show didn’t feel like a decision, it was just natural to show up to the audition for the show.
Christina Listro: As performers who are also students, every show that we get involved with is an educational experience and we gain new skills and create new connections each time we get to perform together. But with this show, it was so much more than that. Before the Department decided to do the show, I knew very little about Matthew and how the horrific acts committed against him began revolution of the way we as a country look at hate. After reading the script, it felt so important to want to be a part of this show and share the story of what happened in Laramie. Because, unfortunately, this story is still very relevant and it was very important to me to try and get involved in order to create discourse about these issues on our own campus.
Maggie Archdeacon: Having heard about the story and known that these were everyday people, just like us, I felt I had to do my best to try and tell the story. Performing gives me such joy in itself so to tell such an important story was something that I felt I had to try my best to do.
John Nordt: What motivated me to be a part of the show would mostly be my brother. I don’t think he knows I am doing this show but he is a big part of my life and I think he would be happy to see it. He is a large motivation to me to make this a perfect performance.
HCE: What was the rehearsal process like?
Christian Kelly: Trying to plan the rehearsal process was interesting to say the least. Just because of the way the school year worked out we were left with a very brief rehearsal period before actually putting the show in front of an audience. I think that the cast should be commended for their dedication to the show and their roles and really stepping up to the plate for the show.
HCE: Everyone in the cast plays multiple characters in the show. How did you prepare for that? What do you do to distinguish each individual person throughout the performance?
Eimile Bowden: The initial things I take into consideration when developing a character are age, gender, occupation, and class. Whether we recognize it or not, these attributes have a large impact on the way that we speak, walk, and stand. With this show it was harder, because I had to create four distinct characters and their physicality. I focused a lot on stance and posture to try and develop each character. I play a woman around my age, and she stands similarly to the way I do. I also play a fifty-something year old woman, who has a wider stance and slouches a little. I’ve found it helpful to focus on little things that make the characters different, it also helps the audience forget that you’re one person playing multiple characters.
Makenzie Moore: Well, for each character you’re required to develop not only differences in voice and tone, but specific mannerisms that goalong with each character’s personality. It’s much more than just memorizing lines you know… I think the character that took the longest for me to develop properly was my Baptist Minister, it’s difficult to play a character whose beliefs are so different from your own, but in a way it really helps in creating their persona. It’s all about knowing what your mannerisms are as the actor, and doing your best to shy away from them in order to create a very honest and believable character. My advice? Spend some time on your own really finding bits and pieces of yourself in each character, so you get a feel for who they are. It’s makes embodying them on stage so much easier!
John: The best way I can put it is that each character has a bit of me or someone else I know in them. Except for Fred Phelps he was created from just watching videos of him and trying to get his mannerisms down from the way he standed to the pronunciation of his words. He was however the easiest character for me to develop. The hardest character was Matt Galloway. Trying to play someone who is genuine and just a nice guy can be challenging because you do not want to come off as someone who does not really care about the performance. I would say if you wanted to get a character down I would say go over as much as possible even if you are in public. LIttle mannerisms and the way they pronounce words can affect the way you look on stage greatly.
HCE: Which of the characters you portray is your favorite? Why?
Darren Cornell: I think that the character that I had the greatest connection to was Harry Woods. Of the characters that I felt as though he had so much personal connection to the story without having actually met Matthew. In the second act he talks about watching Laramie’s homecoming parade from his apartment window. Seeing how touched this person was, by the outpouring of support by the Laramie community is really special. I feel the show itself is about the way society reacts to tragedies such as this and getting to portray a moment as powerful as this really means a lot.
Eimile: Oh, easily Romaine. Romaine Patterson is actually a dream role of mine, and I’m astonished that I have the chance to try and do her justice. I feel particularly connected to this character because of an experience I had in high school. A local theatre group was putting on a production of The Laramie Project, and the Westboro Baptist Church announced that they were going to protest the event. The city of Portsmouth initiated a counter protest to the WBC, and it was a festival of love, celebration, and community in the face of ignorance. I felt then a fraction of what Romaine must have felt when her angels surrounded Fred Phelps. I am floored by her courage and creativity in the face of hatred and ignorance.
Jack Constantine: I think Sergeant Hing is my favorite character. He’s so different from the types of characters I usually play, and that made getting him right a bit of a challenge, but also rewarding and fun.
Abby: My favorite characters to play were Kristin Price and Murdock Cooper, because they were also my least favorite characters to play. I had the opportunity to play two people that had the opposite views of myself and it provided me a challenge to NOT show how much I hated saying the words that these people had stated in interviews.
Sophia LaFontaine: My favorite character to portray was Zubaida Ula. I relate to her a lot. She is shy, outspoken, and has her own style. The only part that was difficult about portraying her is that she says “like” a lot, and I do not think I talk with as many “likes” inserted into my sentences. Needless to say, it took some getting used to for me, but the actual character’s personality is very similar to mine so it was fun to portray her.
Maggie: My favorite character to play was easily Catherine Connolly. There was something about her natural way of talking and understanding of the situation that I thought was admirable. She loves to tell stories and talk, which is something that I connected with her on. She has such a strong outlook on the situation, but handles it with such poise, which is something I look up to very much.
Haley Parker: My favorite character to play in this show is definitely Amanda Gronich. I immediately felt a connection to her when I read for her at auditions, and I was honored to have the chance to perform as her in the show. Amanda has an excitement to her that I connected with. She also has an equal sense of sympathy for what happened, and at times, I feel as though I would respond to these situations in the same way she did.
Brandon Morales: My favorite character to portray in this show was probably Jedadiah Schlutz, he was a character that was pretty easy to get involved in. He is just a loveable character that is just trying to process what happened to Matthew Shepard and his community.
HCE: Crew members, what were the challenges of presenting this show visually (set, lighting, sound, costumes, etc.)?
Christian: For me, as the the lighting designer in addition to the stage manager, it was about trying to use the limited resources I had to really convey the feeling of Laramie Wyoming, while also trying to supplement the general mood of the piece as it progresses. I think that it’s important for the lighting design to not only ensure that the actors can be seen, but that the actors are lit in a way that helps place them in the various locations since the show is performed on an unchanging unit set.
Darren: One of the challenges for me while working on this set was making everything look as though it is natural and would really be in a town like Laramie. When you work on a more presentational show, there is often more wiggle room with regard to what can be put on the set and look correct. When you are working a show like The Laramie Project which deals actual event and interviews that actually happened, you need to work that much harder to make sure that everything looks real and accurate to what actually occurred.
HCE: This is an extremely moving piece. How has the nature of the story affected your decisions on stage and you personally?
Jack: I think getting the tone of the show right was one of the most important things about doing this production. You obviously want to convey the raw emotion and pathos that this story evokes, but I also felt that not making it overly sentimental was just as important. Part of what makes this play great is that it’s not only about the story Matthew Shepard, but also the people of Laramie, and how the community responded to what happened. So presenting these people as realistically as possible and not making them into caricatures was huge.
Maggie: This piece is very moving, and it definitely has had an effect on me on the stage and off. On stage, you have to be careful not to have cliche reactions because we are portraying real people. And real people have real emotions. Portraying those emotions on stage was definitely something that was difficult to tap into. I also mentioned that I was being affected off stage as well. Doing this piece day in and day out and tapping into those emotions is not something easily done. Each character shows such real and raw emotions throughout the entire show, so rehearsing this and trying to get it right was tiring. There is not one moment that I would change though. All of the challenges, and the attempts to “say it correct” were inexplicably worth it. There are not enough words to explain how incredible this experience was.
Christina: It would be very difficult to work on this piece and not be personally affected. It’s challenge that we are not normally given as actors, to try and tell a story by truly being authentic and subtle and real. Even when you are presenting a realistic piece of drama, there is still this veil of the superficial because deep down we know, and the audience knows that these are not real people, and you can allow yourself the heightened circumstances that go along with that. However, with Laramie, these are real people. We are being given the words that they actually said during these interviews and there is a great deal of responsibility that goes along with that. Each night, when we present the show we try to make sure that what we are saying and doing is honest and genuine and true, riding the emotional journey of the characters we all present together, and hoping that at the end we are doing this story justice.
HCE: What is one thing you will take away from the experience of being in this show?
Eimile: There’s a huge moment at the beginning of act three that I’ll try not to give away, but it’s what I hope the audience takes away from the production. At Matt’s funeral, a group of people from different backgrounds make the decision to unite against hate. It’s beautiful, and going to see the show is worth it just for that one moment.
Janette: One thing I will take away from this show is to never underestimate how powerful working on such an intense show can be. I did not believe I was so emotionally invested in this show until a week ago when I found myself more upset than usual. It is just such a powerful piece that you need to try to separate it from stage to life.
Abby: One thing that I will take away from this show is to always watch what I say to and about other people, for you never know how it can impact another person’s life… whether it’s a direct or indirect impact.
Connor Lynch: In the process of the show i have bonded so much with the cast and crew and it has been a very rewarding experience. Through this process i have learned how to broaden my acting range and become a more diverse actor. Working on this show has shown me just how draining both physically and emotionally a dramatic production like this can be.
Sophia: My takeaway from this show is that it’s amazing how such hateful acts can unite people in the times of sorrow that proceed, but that shouldn’t have to be the case. Hateful acts, such as what happened to Matthew Shepard and even the Orlando shooting recently, should not have to happen in the first place. I think that there will always be hateful people, but we need to do our best to prevent events such as these. There is a line in the play delivered by Darren Cornell that asks, “What has come of this?” and that is an important question to ask. Media coverage makes the crime known, but then it is up to how the rest of the world sees the crime and how they react.
Maggie: I will take away the fact that no matter how hard people try to push hate, love always wins. There are some things that are inevitable in this world and I think love driving out hate is one of those things.
Brandon: This being my first college show is something I will never forget. The cast and crew are people that I have bonded with and have been great people to work with. I hope that people enjoy the show as much as we have enjoyed being in it. Thank you everyone for making this an unforgettable first show!
The Laramie Project will have a five show run, beginning on Wednesday, Oct. 19 and ending with a matinee on Sunday, Oct. 23. There will also be a panel discussion co-sponsored by OUTspoken following Friday evening’s performance, featuring Emmanuel faculty and students, as well as Leigh Fondakowski of the Tectonic Theater Project. You can reserve your (free) ticket on Eventbrite today.