'Laramie Project': theater's jagged pill
By MICHAEL SMITH World Entertainment Writer 06/02/02
AJ Brennan can't act. She's a nurse at St. Francis Hospital. You can occasionally find her at Allied Helicopter in her continuing training to become a pilot. She can do many things -- acting isn't one of them.
And yet there she was at Heller Theater a few months ago, script in hand, among the dozens who had shown up at auditions to read for "The Laramie Project," a Theater Club production which creates a tapestry of interviews from residents of Laramie, Wyo., following the beating death of Matthew Shepard in 1998.
"What am I doing here?" Brennan asked herself. "Some friends told me about the show. I knew I wanted to be involved. I haven't done any theater, but I get in my truck to come down here. Here I am reading for this show and I can't act my way out of a paper bag."
She's so nervous that she unintentionally sounds a bit sarcastic when director Vern Stefanic asks her to read the part of Romaine, who's one of the interview subjects in the play, and her last name is, uh, uh ... Stefanic can't remember the woman's last name.
"Patterson. It's Patterson," Brennan tells him harshly. "Yeah, Patterson. How did you know that?" the director asks her. Brennan tells him that as a political science major in 1998 she went to Laramie after hearing about the case. She researched, met with people -- wound up writing papers about human rights, what was happening politically, the media influence, how the gay population was affected.
Brennan had talked with Patterson. She knew this woman, while those auditioning could only approach Pattersonas as a character to be portrayed.
"I think it was at this point that Vern thought, `You're right, you can't act your way out of a paper bag, but you probably need to be involved,' " Brennan -- who took on the role of stage manager for the play and became an invaluable resource for Stefanic -- recalls with a good laugh.
Shepard, a gay college student who was lured from a campus hangout, beaten and lashed to a split-rail fence, died in October 1998. His skull was so badly smashed that doctors couldn't perform surgery. The University of Wyoming student was in a coma for two days after bicyclists found him in near-freezing temperatures.
Fastened to the fence in the style of a crucifix, the bicyclists had at first mistaken him for a scarecrow. The two men who tortured and killed Shepard were arrested quickly and convicted, but the case just as quickly became a watershed event for many in the country. It certainly was for playwright Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project in New York, as members of the troupe spent the next year conducting more than 200 face-to-face interviews with the people of Laramie.
A year after Shepard's death, the company premiered "The Laramie Project" based on these interviews. Eight cast members portrayed more than 60 people they had met and talked with.
Stefanic will use 14 cast members: Lisa Combs, Cameron Cummings, Marnie Ducato, Mary Forester, Rick Fortner, Greg Hermann, Kurt Harris, Larry Latham, Liz Masters, Don Miller, Annette Rosenheck, Richard Slemaker, Tara Treiber and Angi Ullrich.
Several of these people also were deeply affected by the initial tragedy and felt drawn to participating in the production. Fortner is heading up a small group that's planning to visit Laramie in a couple of weeks.
"I wanted to be a part of an amazing piece of theater that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the height of passion that we're all capable of," said Fortner, a local musician for 20 years and the founding director of Council Oak Men's Chorale, but acting in a play for the first time. "This piece is about tragedy, but it's also about hope and what we can do and, even more so, what we can be."
What happened in Wyoming can happen in any town, and it's important to remind ourselves what can happen when hate takes hold, he said.
"Yes, maybe in Tulsa you can get people who still think that (gays) are doomed to hell, but in the last five years things have changed so dramatically. In the last 10 or 20 years, believing in the inherent worth and dignity of everyone, well, it's almost chic now. It's not OK to hate anymore."
About three weeks before Shepard's murder, Liz Masters' best friend -- a gay man who was in another state -- was involved in a gay-bashing incident. It was also brutal, she said, but he received treatment quickly.
"It was pretty horrible, and the police did nothing -- unlike in Matthew Shepard's case, where there were actually some people who cared enough to get involved and make sure that the perpetrators paid," Masters said. "They just kind of ignored it. He even ID'd one of the men for the police, and no arrests were ever made. I guess another faggot getting bashed was no big deal to them."
Her friend lost some teeth, and that might be his only lingering physical trauma. But he's still dealing with the emotional trauma today.
"People don't want to think about it; they want to think this kind of thing happens other places and not in my town," Masters said. "Well, it happens everywhere, and it's still happening."
Brennan remembers Shepard's death and her initial amazement at how it captured the attention of the country. She wondered, why this incident? Why Matthew? Why now? She didn't find all the answers she sought, but she found a few.
"We think we're so evolved, that we're this big melting pot. Then something like (Shepard's murder) happens and we realize that it's not those walking among us who have a high tolerance and can even bleed over into acceptance, but it's the bad seed that makes us stop and stare," she said.
"We've at least evolved enough to realize that there are still those out there who think this way, and that if we do happen to differ from what the majority considers normal, we could not only be at risk emotionally and psychologically, but we could be at risk physically. And that's a jagged pill to swallow."
WHAT: "The Laramie Project," presented by Theater Club
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, also 8 p.m. June 13-15, 20-22
WHERE: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
TICKETS: $8, may be reserved by calling 857-9154
Michael Smith, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8474 or via e-mail at michael.smith@tulsaworld.com.