By D. A. Blackburn
Local theaters will revisit 'The Laramie Project' o n t h e 1 1 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f Ma t t h e w S h e p a r d ' s death.
FERNDALE – "It's kind of like September 11, or the Apollo spaceship landing," said Joe Plambeck, of Ferndale's Who Wants Cake? Theatre.
"Many gay people will always remember where they were when they heard the news. It's all very vivid to me, still."
The news was nothing short of horrific. Outside a small Wyoming town, on Oct. 6, 1998, a young gay man was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead. Discovered comatose, Matthew Shepard struggled on, with the aid of life support, for six days, never regaining consciousness. As details of the crime surfaced, the murder became national news, sparking wide-spread debate about hate crimes, prejudice and legal protections for members of the LGBT community.
The debate, however, may have been short-lived were it not for the work of some intrepid thespians. In the weeks and months following Shepard's death, members of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie, Wyo. to conduct interviews and gather material for what would become one of the most groundbreaking theatrical works of the last decade: "The Laramie Project." The production, which since 2000 has been a staple of academic, professional and community theaters, was also made into a film for HBO television, and has cumulatively been viewed by more than 50 million people worldwide.
"It's just had an enormous impact. It's a story that people know needs to be told, that the community wants to hear," said Dr. Mary Elizabeth Anderson, of the Wayne State University Department of Theatre. "And at this point, it's become an important training tool for actors, because it's a whole new form of documentary theater."
Now, 11 years since Shepard's tragic death, Tectonic's staff has returned from another trip west, with a fresh production to reinvigorate the discussion and start a few new ones. "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later" will premiere – in unprecedented grand fashion – on the anniversary of Shepard's passing (Oct. 12) at New York's Lincoln Center and as staged readings at more than 120 theaters across the country and abroad. Three Michigan theaters – Who Want's Cake? in Ferndale, the Hilberry at Wayne State and the University Theatre at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo – will participate.
"That's part of the genius of the vision of the Tectonic Theater Project, that they have framed this in terms of a one-day national theater company – that, for one evening, all 120-plus theaters are part of the same theater company," said Anderson.
Though this new work is structured like the original and revisits many of the same "characters," it ultimately serves as an epilogue. But more importantly, it's likely to get people talking about more than just prejudice.
"I think it's interesting to view the transition in response to the event, and how it's been repositioned by a lot of people in that community into something that is easier to live with," said Joan Herrington, chair of WMU's Department of Theatre. "I think people's willingness to do that, the ability to rewrite history – pretty effectively – is a very interesting phenomenon that the epilogue really explores."
While Plambeck believes that interviews with Shepard's murderers yielded the most jarring material in the epilogue, he, too, points to the revisionist nature of Laramie's residents as the most potent revelation to come from the work. "The big thing is that now the perception is that it was all drug-fueled, which all came out of this '20/20' interview in 2004, I believe. Because of that, lots of the people in Laramie seem to hold onto that, and feel that it wasn't a hate crime. It had nothing to do with Matthew being gay. It was all about drugs."
"10 Years Later" also focuses heavily on failed attempts to include sexual preference clauses in anti-discrimination and hate crime legislation in Wyoming and elsewhere in the country.
"People's perspectives haven't really changed. In fact, they're moving in the opposite direction. And all this legislation we thought was moving forward, you know what? It's actually not. So I think it's maybe a little wake-up call, the epilogue. You know, if we really look at this, there's not been much progress," said Herrington.
Though the march of progress has been decidedly slow, "The Laramie Project" has kept the discussion going for 10 years. With the broad launch of "10 Years Later," it's likely that people will keep talking for the foreseeable future. And that is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to Matthew Shepard, and all victims of hate crime, that we as a society can offer.
The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later
Hilberry Theatre
4743 Cass Ave., Detroit
Oct. 12: Pre-glow begins at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m; networking afterglow follows.
Tickets: Free
313-577-5126
http://www.hilberry.com
The University Theatre – Western Michigan University
Gilmore Theatre Complex's Williams Theatre
1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo
8 p.m. Oct. 12
Tickets: Free
269-387-6222
http://www.wmutheatre.com
Who Wants Cake? Theatre
The Ringwald Theatre
22742 Woodward Ave., Ferndale
Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.: "The Laramie Project"
Oct. 12 at 8 p.m.: "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later"
A fundraiser for The Matthew Shepard Foundation
Tickets: $30 adults, $15 students (includes both shows)
