The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and Stephen Belber
The Spring of 2020 was my final semester at the University of Central Oklahoma. I had the chance to work with Director, Alicia Tafoya, and others, on The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, Stephen Belber and Members of The Tectonic Theatre Project. This play pulls from hundreds of interviews conducted by theatre members with citizens of the town, journal entries, and news reports. It covers the town of Laramie, Wyoming’s, reaction to the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student. This murder was deemed a hate crime and brought attention to the lack of hate crime legislation there was in the United States. Judy Shepard, created the Matthew Shepard Foundation in memory of her son and works to organize a hate crime reporting and prevention initiative and provides a various amount of resources to those who need them. After years of advocacy, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama.
Our cast had a total of twelve actors that played over sixty roles. A few of the roles I had the chance to play were Rebeccas Hilliker, Officer Reggie Fluty, and Debbie Reynolds. We workshopped, rehearsed, and grew together as an ensemble for weeks. We also had the opportunity to sit in on a video chat with Barbara Pitts and ask her questions about the process and staging of this play and any insight she had for us. Unfortunately, we were into tech week when the Covid-19 pandemic happened and the whole school transitioned to online learning. Our production of The Laramie Project, was cancelled.
Although we never never got to share this story with our fellow college students or members of the community, this story is vitally important and must continue to be shared.
