MARIA MELCHIORRE
Staff Writer
For the 2016 Spring semester, Fredonia’s theater department will be staging an innovative pairing of two companion pieces written by the Tectonic Theater Company: “The Laramie Project” and “The Laramie Project: 10 years later.”
“The Laramie Project,” which is required reading for many English and Women and Gender Studies classes on campus, is a reactionary piece of documentary theater about the 1998 murder of a gay student in Laramie, Wyoming. “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later,” a companion piece to the original, is composed of follow-up interviews with the residents whose voices had been featured in the original production.
“They went back 10 years later to see what had changed, how things had developed,” said Tom Loughlin, Chair of the Theater and Dance department. “When they first went there, the incident had been fairly fresh. They wanted to see what had developed in the time since, what had happened, how they had grown.”
The theater department will be staging an eight show run, as opposed to their usual six-show run, in order to present opportunities for the audience to attend both pieces.
“Each one of them stands on its own as a single play, so it’s not like anyone would be required to come to both to get the full experience,” said Loughlin. “But what we did do,” he went on, “was schedule the shows so that you have the opportunity to see both the productions on consecutive nights.”
In fact, people will have the opportunity to see the original Laramie Project and the epilogue piece on the same day. On Feb. 27 and March 5, both Saturdays, audience members will be able to see a matinee of the first play and an evening show of the companion piece. “It really doesn’t even matter if you saw them in reverse, you’ll still be getting the full experience,” emphasized Loughlin.
The production will be accompanied by a lecture on March 2, by Judy Shepard, the mother of slain Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard.
“As audience members we don’t always have the opportunity to really delve into the background of the stories being presented,” said senior arts administration major Amy Shake. “Bringing Judy in really adds another layer to this beautiful project that we, as audience members, don’t generally get.”
The dance ensemble will also be staging shows this semester with guest choreographer Jon Lehrer, from the world renowned LehrerDance Company. Additionally, Fredonia dance professor Sam Kenney will be staging her piece titled “90% metaphor.”
The student theater group, The Performing Arts Company (PAC), will be staging two productions this semester. Playwright Eric Bogosian’s “Suburbia” will be directed by Pablo Vazquez. Kiernan Matts will be directing Hunter Foster’s “Summer of ‘42.” Foster is the wife of Jennifer Cody, a 1991 graduate of Fredonia’s Theater program and a current broadway actress.
The department is also producing Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach” later in the semester. The set and performance are going to be “very colorful, very audience interactive, and will feature some interesting work featuring silks for the first time,” says Loughlin.
As to whether or not this is mainly just a show for kids, he said, “Sometimes I think college students need that escape for a couple of hours, you know, back to when their parents read to them and they were filled with wonder.”
Tickets for The Laramie Project are currently on sale in the Fredonia Ticket Office, located in the Williams Center. Although tickets for PAC productions are not yet available, “Summer of ‘42” is slated for early March and “Suburbia” will be towards the end of the semester.