Stages Bloomington presents disquieting 'The Laramie Project' at Waldron Arts Center

The torture-murder of openly gay college freshman Matthew Shepard in 1998 in Wyoming changed how people think about and treat the LGBTQ+ community. Youth in Bloomington will bring that to audiences soon when Stages Bloomington presents the story of Matthew Shepard.

At Stages Bloomington, parents and other caregivers were asked to acknowledge the subject matter of "The Laramie Project" before the young actors could agree to participate in this play about murder, anti-gay sentiment, AIDS/HIV and politics. The 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project wrote it 23 years ago, and Stages Bloomington's October production happens to coincide with the anniversary of Shepard's attack, to the day.

Matthew Shepard chatted up and attacked

The planned abduction and attack of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard happened on Oct. 6, 1998. His heart stopped in the very early morning of Oct. 12, 1998. That was six days after two young men engaged him in conversation, then bound and tortured him. Once discovered, Shepard lay in intensive care until he died. The men had tied him to a split-rail fence with a clothesline and pummeled him with the butt of a pistol 19-20 times. Then they walked away, leaving Shepard slowly to die.

The murderers had crushed Shepard's brainstem. He remained bound to the fence for the next 18 hours in Wyoming's frostbitten wind.

After he was found, people all over the globe held vigils for him.

More than 200 interviews conducted to create the play

Moisés Kaufman and his team members interviewed more than 200 people during their research for the play. They talked with townspeople from Wyoming and pored over their own theater company members' journal entries as well as formal news reports.

Eight actors take on 65 roles in "The Laramie Project" to portray getting-right-to-the-point scenes.

The Wyoming community reacted in many ways to the 1998 torture-slaying and to the resulting media tornado. The play shows how Shepard's murder sickened but also inspired his hometown as it responded publicly and personally to bigotry's terror.

Would the late Pat Gleeson have agreed with Stages' doing "Laramie"?

The late Pat Gleeson, past executive director for Stages, had a mantra: In addition to who, what, where, when, how, Gleeson used "what if?" and "how else?" to upend a problem.

"Pat Gleeson would definitely have produced 'The Laramie Project,'" said Marc Tschida, Stages' executive committee member of the board of directors.

In fact, in 2018, Gleeson led “The American Mosaic” theater series that produces particularly challenging works from historical moments that examine long-lasting, demanding social and political topics.

"These ('Mosaic') shows would be open to (the more) experienced teen performers," Tschida said. On several occasions Stages management had actually discussed doing "The Laramie Project." Plus, Gleeson had already produced works with hard-to-watch subjects, such as Molly Newman's and Barbara Damashek's 1982 "Quilters" and "John Brown’s Body" (by Stephen Vincent Benet; book adapted by Charles Laughton; music by Walter Schumann.)

Rick Armstrong, past executive director at Stages, brought up producing "The Laramie Project" during the 2023/2024 season.

"Twenty-five years later," Tschida said, "the underlying themes of this story are prevalent today as state after state rolls back protections for members of the LGBTQIA community." He said, too, that Stages' youth actors have embraced doing the play.

Upcoming festival: Lotus World Music & Arts Festival begins soon; catch early shows today

Director will guide and teach with care

Throughout the rehearsal and performance process director Devin May will create safe spaces for the young actors so they can step back and process the show's subject matter.

"There needs to be an acknowledgement that our cast will be challenged by the material."

The play's words are not those from a playwright's imagination; they are the actual words of members of the Laramie, Wyoming, community.

The actors must portray sympathetic characters as well as those to whom they cannot relate.

May is helping the actors absorb the abhorrent story.

"This play deals with some extremely heavy themes — LGBTQ+ rights, hate crimes, the AIDS epidemic, the death penalty, collective trauma, to name a few. The play calls on us to handle these topics with extreme care."

Part of that care is doing a lot of dramaturgical questioning and research, identifying the actors' collective opinions on the topics, and delivering a doable call-to-action" for the audience.

In spirit of the original Tectonic Theatre production of "The Laramie Project," May said Stages will use bits of costumes and scenic elements to suggest character and setting, because there are so many place and people to portray.

May said he hopes seeing the production will motivate audience members to act to change minds and policies.

Legal challenges

"One part of that challenge is that the frontier of LGBTQ+ rights has shifted since ('Laramie') was written in 1998," May said.

Progress, such as marriage equality and HIV/AIDS treatment, has indeed happened, he said, but added "trans rights are under attack as much as ever."

"(Many people) today are affected by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation moving through the Indiana Legislature, such as H(B)1608 the 'Education Matters' bill."

HB 1608 was passed 65-29 by the Indiana House on April 24 after passing by a vote of 37-12 in the Indiana Senate on April 10. It was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb on May 4 and became then became Public Law 248.

According to www.aclu-in.org, HB 1608 effectively bans "discussion or acknowledgement of LGBTQ people in schools under the guise of banning conversations around "human sexuality."

According to the summary at Billsponsor.com, the bill says a school, an employee or school staff member or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction may not provide any instruction on human sexuality to a student in prekindergarten through grade 3. A school employee or a school staff member is not prohibited from responding to a student's question. A parent must be notified if the student is an unemancipated minor and has asked to change his or her name or pronoun, title, or word that describes him or her.

May also identified Senate Bill 480, which, keeps a physician or other practitioner from knowingly providing gender transition procedures to someone younger than age 18 or assisting another physician or practitioner in giving gender transition care to a minor. Some medical exceptions apply.

"So, the question," May said, "is, how do we draw the line from the LGBTQ+ issues in 'The Laramie Project' to the issues we face here and now? How do we celebrate the progress that has been made, while keeping up the urgency of the fight?"

What has happened since Shepard's death

Matthew Shepard's parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, chose a place of rest for their son. Matthew Shepard’s remains were buried in a sheltered recess of the Washington National Cathedral, which is also called the “spiritual home of the nation.”

Matthew Shepard participated in the Episcopal Church, and the Gothic cathedral is its official seat. The Washington National Cathedral also regularly hosts memorials for remarkable individuals. Roughly 200 people are buried there, including Woodrow Wilson, George Dewey and Helen Keller.

Matthew Shepard's two murderers currently are serving double life sentences in prison.

If you go

WHAT: "The Laramie Project." Note: The play is for ages 14 and older (disturbing subject matter).

WHEN: 7 p.m. Oct. 6 and 7; 2 p.m. Oct. 7 and 8WHERE: Waldron Arts Center Auditorium, 122 S. Walnut St.

TICKETS: $21 adults and $12.50 for people age 17 and younger. Available at tinyurl.com/34huhkp9, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., or by calling 812-323-3020.

MORE INFO: For more on Matthew Shepard, go to www.matthewshepard.org

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Stages Bloomington presents 'The Laramie Project' Oct. 6-8