ESU Theatrical Organization to Present The Laramie Project

When he began reading the script of The Laramie Project, director Nicholas Kwietniak, a senior from West Grove, Pa., majoring in theatre said, “I immediately began imagining how every scene would look, even though I was unfamiliar with the play and had never seen a production of the drama.”

Stage II, ESU’s student theater organization will present The Laramie Project November 16-18.

“What drew me to the piece,” Kwietniak added, “was that it dealt with the issue of hate, an issue that, I think, has come into even greater focus in the U.S. since I first read the script last spring.”

In 1998, the brutal beating death of Matthew Shepard, a gay man, outside of Laramie, Wyoming prompted playwright Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project to travel to the town and talk with members of the community about the crime and the trial of the two men accused of the murder.

From the interviews, the group developed The Laramie Project, an award-winning docudrama depicting the town’s unraveling during the aftermath of Matthew Shepard’s death when inhabitants were forced to confront the reality of evil.

The relevance of the drama also appealed to Stage II, according to Katherine French, a junior theatre major from Springtown, Pa., the group’s president and stage manager of The Laramie Project.

“We realized how important it is to do this play right now,” French explained and added that “the multiple characters in the play provide opportunities for many student actors to gain hands-on stage experience.”

French noted that Stage II is responsible for every element of the production, giving “our student designers a chance to use the skills they’ve learned in class. We also have some members who, though they are concentrating in acting, are branching out to explore elements of technical theatre.”

To help develop the current staging, the cast and production staff reached out to two groups, the Tectonic Theater Project and ESU’s PRIDE organization. Jimmy Maize, a member of the Tectonic Theatre Project, gave a “Moments Workshop” at ESU funded in part with an ESU Student Activity Association grant.

“The workshop was eye-opening for the actors and staff,” French said, “because it showed us how the drama was developed in a collaborative process. The Tectonic member had taken bits from the many interviews that they did in Laramie and created ‘moments’ that were developed and edited into the final script.”

“I see the play not as a series of monologues, but as a fragmented history with various pieces of memories, like you find in a dream,” Kwietniak explained.  “The workshop helped create an atmosphere where the actors can explore the poetic potential of objects and make staging choices for the ‘moments’ in the play. I see the production as a big dance that we all are creating together.”

Members of the ESU PRIDE organization came to the second rehearsal of The Laramie Project and “had an open and honest discussion about their experiences growing up and their experiences today as members of the LGBTQ community,” French said.

“The PRIDE students opened up to us and talked about things that are not usually said to strangers,” Kwietniak added. “The stories weren’t from somewhere else or from the past, but were about horrible things that happen here and now in Pennsylvania.”

Using the experiences gained from the workshop and group discussion, Kwietniak wrote a “manifesto” to help him in directing the production.  “I want to expose the true nature of hatred in a world where people have become almost numb to it,” he stated, “by showing how it impacts a community and every social institution within the community.”

Stage II will present The Laramie Project November 16-18 at 7:30 p.m. and November 19 at 2 p.m. in the Dale Snow Theatre of ESU’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg. The production is recommended for mature high school students and adults.

General admission is $10; senior citizens, faculty and staff (with ID) are $7; and students (with ID) are $5.

Because of the intimate size of the Dale Snow Theatre, advance ticket purchase is strongly suggested. Tickets are available online in advance at esu.edu/theatretickets (credit cards only online). Remaining tickets are available at the box office one hour before curtain on performance dates (cash and checks only at the box office).

For reservations or other information, please email esuarts@esu.edu or call 570-422-3483.

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