SHENECA SHARPE
Special to The Leader
“The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” is about going back to Laramie, Wyoming, to talk to people who had connections with Matthew Shepard, who knew Matthew Shepard, or who even had connections to the murder. The play showed the difference between memories and actual history — the difference between fact and rumor. In the small town of Laramie, people felt the sense that no one could give an actual recollection of what happened that fateful night 10 years ago.
With eight actors’ portrayals of multiple characters and a multitude of emotions, there was a concern that the actors couldn’t switch from one to another smoothly. But each transition ended up seamless. Actors like James Lillin portrayed just that, coming onto the stage as a character that was just filled with rage, and then later as an old man with a sense of calm and wisdom.
The play was beautifully set, especially with the design of the Bartlett Theatre itself. Especially with the interviews of the murderers, played by Jeff Kringer and Andrew Vitovich, it gave the feeling that the audience was in the prison watching the interview take place right there in 2008.
“I thought it was beautifully done, and it was just an amazing production,” said Carolyn Sheridan, a junior biology major.
Even though this play was originally done in 2008, its value hasn’t changed. Gretchen Martino, a junior BFA musical theatre major and one of the actresses in the play, felt the same way.
“I just think it’s really important to talk about these issues, because so often you just hear about them in the news or you just hear them from right now. You kind of forget what happened in the past and how that has shaped what has happening now. So it is important to look back on the history and see how those changes are affecting what is happening in current events,” said Martino.
Not only did the play make the audience think about rumors and facts in the Shepard case, but it also made people think about how they decipher rumors from facts in everyday life.
“People don’t really remember how it exactly happened. Everyone tells the story differently the next time they tell it,” said sophomore political science major, Samantha Larson.
The fact that Shepard’s tragic death occurred 10 years prior to “10 Years Later,” shows that some people’s mindsets can’t be changed when it comes to the topic of hate crimes and the LGBT community even after a decade. However, change can be seen in the increased amount of communicate about it — creating a bigger conversation on LGBT rights and safety for the LGBT community — from Washington, D.C., to the Fredonia campus.
The play went into detail about how how Shepard’s legacy inspired Congress to pass the “Matthew Shepard Act” in 2009. The act helps to effectively investigate and prosecute hate crimes. It also helps with hate crimes that deal with “perceived race, color, religion, national origin of any person,” according to the law. It is one of the first laws to provide protection for transgender people.
This is the reason why “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” is a must see. Not because of the fact that it was a great play, but because it made the audience leave with a lesson: Always consider that some of the stories you do hear, even years later, aren’t always what they seem. “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” will close this weekend. Tickets can be obtained at the Fredonia Ticket Office.