{"id":104952,"date":"2015-10-08T09:26:07","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=104952"},"modified":"2015-10-16T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T15:05:09","slug":"the-laramie-project-an-exploration-of-prejudice-and-tolerance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/10\/the-laramie-project-an-exploration-of-prejudice-and-tolerance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Laramie Project: An Exploration of Prejudice and Tolerance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"THE<\/a>
The Connecticut Repertory Theatre opens the fall season with ‘The Laramie Project,’ onstage Oct. 8-18 at the Nafe Katter Theatre in Storrs. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the aftermath of the 1998 hate crime murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, the Tectonic Theatre Project conducted interviews with more than 200 Wyoming residents for \u201cThe Laramie Project.\u201d The docu-drama that resulted will open the Connecticut Repertory Theatre\u2019s fall season on Oct. 8 at the Nafe Katter Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Laramie Project\u201d focuses on residents’ reactions to the death of Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, who was left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo. In the years since, the play has become an educational tool to discuss prejudice and tolerance in schools, as LGBT anti-discrimination bills are increasingly being signed into law across the United States.<\/p>\n

\"MFA<\/a>
MFA student Bryce Wood, front, Brandy Burre, and Josh McCabe in ‘The Laramie Project.’ (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe play is still relevant,\u201d says Brandy Burre, the actress best known for her role as Theresa D\u2019Agostino on HBO\u2019s \u201cThe Wire,\u201d who stars in the CRT production. \u201cIt speaks volumes to our society and how little we have changed and how much more could be changed. The Matthew Shepard case had a huge impact on my life. I was friends with a lot of gay people at the time who were just coming out. It was a whole different world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play, written by Mois\u00e9s Kaufman<\/span>, is based on interviews conducted by members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. There are more than 60 characters portrayed in three acts, in a series of short scenes.<\/p>\n

Burre and Josh Aaron McCabe, a 10-year veteran of the Tony-Award winning regional theater Shakespeare & Co., lead a cast of 11 undergraduate and graduate actors in the School of Fine Arts who portray multiple characters in the Laramie community, presenting a challenge for everyone on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a piece like this, we capture moments that are happening all over the place. Literally you\u2019re flipping through this photo album and we have to switch photos this moment quickly, not always in sequence,\u201d says McCabe. \u201cI might be playing a character, and switch a jacket or a hat and capture another moment with another character. I\u2019m trying to find what is happening in this moment and where the language is taking me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brandy<\/a>
Brandy Burre leads the ensemble of ‘The Laramie Project.’ (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Burre, who was the focus of the critically acclaimed documentary film \u201cActress,\u201d says the wide range of characters and short scenes help to demonstrate the range of viewpoints within the college town where the incident occurred and the varied experiences of the individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn real time, it was the media and their spin on it and the reaction, both good and bad, from hate groups, from gay rights groups and others,\u201d she says. \u201cOne of the characters says [to the Tectonic members], \u2018I will trust that if you write a play of this, that you say it right. You need to do your best to say it correct.\u2019 I think the theater company had a huge responsibility. They had multiple points of view. They had to honor many characters. To tell it correctly they had to have a lot of people\u2019s point of view, because so many people saw it differently from their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CRT production is directed by CRT artistic director Vincent J. Cardinal, who is also head of the Department of Dramatic Arts. \u201cThe Laramie Project\u201d is serving as a reunion of sorts for Burre and McCabe, who both were students at the Ohio University School of Theatre when Cardinal was School director before coming to UConn.<\/p>\n

There will be a reading of \u201cThe Laramie Project: Ten Years Later,\u201d which includes re-interviews with subjects from the original play, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nafe Katter Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Laramie Project\u201d runs from Oct. 8 to 18 at the Nafe Katter Theatre. For more information go to the Connecticut Repertory Theatre website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRT opens the season with The Laramie Project, set in the aftermath of the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":105026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-104952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 22:16:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104952"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105034,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104952\/revisions\/105034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/105026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104952"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=104952"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=104952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}