22 ' OlTl”’l september 2001 AQTS TkeLourowv\ie Pvoject . . . . . BY SIGNORILE In a time of all-night cable news and Web sites that update information by the minute, it is no small triumph when a medi- um such as theater meticulous- ly unravels further facts and perspectives surrounding a news event. When this happens it is like a splash of cold water "in the face: a sudden reminder that there is no universal truth about an experience, just countless interpretations of occurrences. Some are shaped for the marketplace — sold with visuals that shock and entertain — while others are infused with the politics, philosophical strains, religious beliefs and other grand themes on life that the interpreters hold dear. With a ' jolt, The Laramie Project reveals that and_,much( _ more. The members"',Mo'iises"“ Kaufman’s Tectonic» ‘Thea Project, the New ‘ troupe 3 acclaimed for _V'_itAsi. Broadway : production ‘I S Indecency: Trials Wi1de,'i“i"pu‘fslir*? us to everything i'we’ve seen‘ or , read _ about Larami’__ Wyoming,-«and about they _ ‘ gay-bashing murder of 1 the A: ,2.4year-old ‘S .. Off_ closer to the an desperately seek? The mainstream press’s inadequacy in exploring how hate is cultivated in small town America, beyond the pat clichés and stereotypes that bombarded the airwaves in the weeks and months following the slaying, is a theme that runs throughout The Laramie Project. Video clips depicting television news reports barge in at peaceful and reflective moments, reminding us just how much the people of Laramie were seized upon by the international media but often weren’t heard above the din of recriminations. The Laramie Project looks at a tragic event through the eyes of those at ground zero, documenting their thoughts, their memories and their reve- lations, and then literally plays them back to us. Director Kaufman, assistant director and writer Leigh Fondakowski . and the eight actors in the com- pany traveled to Laramie sev- eral times over the course of more than a year, beginning ‘two weeks after Shepard was beaten by Aaron McKinney ' and Russell Henderson and left hanging on a fence post to die. Collectively, Kaufman and the Tectonics conducted over 200 _interviews with Laramie residents. Using. bare sets and maintaining a rapid succession of characters, the actors offer up their reportage and com- mentary, alternately playing themselves, the townspeople, and even director Kaufman. The writers and actors have the perspec,t_ive__of outsiders " who ‘appear to on the daunting task of t 79 ing’.-vto “say the harme- f pr gance — of believing they are showing us the truth that no one else could. But Kaufman and the Tectonics more so seem to be confronting us, - telling us that the~narrative of every event we see in the media is crafted in a similar manner: a slickly-produced mini—drama attempting to “say it right” by using real people whose words (in the form of the “sound bite”) are tweaked for effect. The Laramie Project posits that in the case of the Shepard murder as well the media had a set narrative going in: small town, Christian val- ues, gay haters. The writers and actors thus seem to openly and -admittedly offer an altemate, equally manipulated narrative, using the very same people — and many others who were --4:-we-.s..,, ignored — tweaking their words no less for eflect but to a dif- ferent end. It is complicated and con- flicted voices like that of The Laramie Project’s Father Roger that were rarely heard in the media whirl, which tended to focus on the black and white: the voices of fire and brimstone preachers or of the educated, liberal, ‘heterosexuals associat- “ ed with the university, in addi- tion to the usual sound bites from police and family. “I’m not gonna sit here "and say, ‘I was just this bold guy — no fear,” Father Roger says. “I was scared -— I was very vocal in this community when this happened - and I thought, ‘You know, should we, uh, should we call the Bishop and ask him permi_SSi.9 A;—»—-to’ do the vigil?’ And I was'like,v"Hell, no, I’m not goin :_t_o;do _that."I-I_i_s_per- knocking ops, what is correct is correct.” That kind of tension and emotion is excavated from the people of Laramie with preci- sion. One after another, the varied perspectives of a diverse assortment of individuals, from a lesbian professor to a wait- ress, from a rancher to a Muslim student, are fleshed out. The high-profile figures who dominated news reports surrounding the murder and the funeral are of course present too, including the infamous Kansas-based Rev. Fred Phelps, the antigay crusader who traveled to Laramie to protest at Shepard’s funeral, complete with his followers and their “God Hates Fags” signs. But even through these more obvious characters, something new about the story but .n-‘Lu--t :.,~._.'-,~..*.-.-. .-’...‘t.'..!-'.'1 . * . ='. 9 is unearthed, often a detail or a perspective that was previously lost or perhaps distorted. When Laramie police offi- cer Reggie Fluty, who took Shepard’s bloodied body down from the fence, is told by doc- tors that Shepard was HIV pos- itive, the morbid sensational- ism that characterized much of the media’s reporting of this news is non-existent in the play. So is the fear and anger directed at Shepard. The Laramie Project rather displays the compassion of people who’d been previously por- trayed as one-dimensional and closed-minded. Fluty had pos- sibly been exposed to the virus because she came in contact with a great deal of Shepard’s blood, having had several cuts on her hands — due to “build- _ for my..llai- mother, Marge, a social servic- es worker, tells the audience. “Not at Mathew, please under- stand that, not one of us was mad at Mathew.” She pauses, and then adds, “But we maybe wanted to squeeze McKinney’s head off.” Marge’s last line, with her signature Wyoming inflection, gets a big-laugh out of the audi- ence. For all the brutality and horror on which The Laramie Project is focused, it does not lose sight of the humor, of every day small town life. Marge is chock full of quips, and her spats with daughter Reggie are comical. Jedediah Schultz, a student in the theater department at the University of Wyoming who struggles with his parents over playing a gay men in Tony_Kushner’s Angels "'K_"’,_“.*R’!I*!1;v-uaeu-as---op:-s ... . ..-..«-- 7--.v.. ‘,4: cnbes in America, draws a few howls as well. Just enough levity is. brought to two colorful charac- ters who seem to represent quintessential Laramie men: Doc, a no-nonsense, gritty cab driver who befriended Shepard as he drove him from place to place in town; and Matt Galloway, the quirkybartender at the Fireside Bar, the last per- son to see Shepard before he left the bar with Henderson and McKinney. The humorous bits under- score the writers’ basic point: The narratives we’d so far seen about this murder, alternating between maudlin and angry, were superficial at best. Most, of us, after all, have experi- enced moments of laughter at a funeral, or have told a joke dur- ing__,_even the most tumultuous , ing, face V V _ ficant simply because Shepa ’s blond good looks were no doubt very much a reason why his murder — and not those of scores of other gay-bashing victims — received enormous media attention and became the cause celebre for‘ the’ issue of hate crimes. For Kaufman and the Tectonics, there are many ways to tell a story — even without the pro- tagonist. In breaking from the pack to detail its own version of events The Laramie Project shows us how r we’re often influenced by visual images, by deep-seated stereotypes and by our own fears. Using words and depictions to influence us to an equal degree but in a dif- ferent direction, The Laramie Project above all else chal- lenges us not to ever accept that there is a final word. ,himself, whose szfnili . was _,___.._§__.. __,,4 H A \/