As part of Arena Stage’s mission to “champion diversity throughout the organization and in the community,” the theater will co-host the premiere of a compelling and groundbreaking epilogue to the highly acclaimed play The Laramie Project, which since 2000 has been one of the most performed plays in America. Written by Tectonic Theater Project members Moisés Kaufman, Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris, and Stephen Belber, The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, an Epilogue will be performed in Washington at the historic Lincoln Theatre, under the direction of Arena Stage’s own Anita Maynard-Losh, and in over 100 other venues in all 50 states, Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia simultaneously on Oct. 12, 2009, at 8:00 p.m.
The epilogue focuses on the long-term effects of the murder of Matthew Shepard on the town of Laramie. It explores how the town has changed and how the murder continues to reverberate in the community. The play also includes new interviews with Matthew’s mother Judy Shepard and Mathew’s murderer Aaron McKinney, who’s serving two consecutive life sentences. The writers also conducted many follow-up interviews with Laramie residents from the original piece, including, Romaine Patterson, Reggie Fluty, Jedediah Shultz, Father Roger Schmidt, Jonas Slonaker, Beth Loffreda and others.
In tandem with the premiere, an online interactive community will be launched where participants can blog, upload video and photos and share their stories about the play, experiences in preparing and presenting the epilogue in their communities. The members of Tectonic Theater Project will be active participants in the online community, offering participants feedback and encouragement.
“The Tectonic Theater Project set out to find out how Laramie had changed in the ten years since the murder of Matthew Shepard. When we arrived, we were forced to confront the question ‘How do you measure change in a community?’ One of the things we found when we got there, which greatly surprised us, was people in Laramie saying this was not a hate crime,” said Moisés Kaufman, artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project.
“We found the people of Laramie still fighting to own their own history, their own identity, their own story, and part of that is shaped by how they understand what happened that night to Matthew,” continued Leigh Fondakowski.
“Creating the epilogue also gave us the opportunity to talk to Aaron McKinney about his crime, what his thinking is about it now, and what his experience has been in prison over the past decade,” said Greg Pierotti, the company member who interviewed Aaron. “We were also able to speak with Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, whose striking transformation from privately grieving mother to civil rights activist has captured the nation’s attention,” concluded Andy Paris.
The International Community Convocation of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, an Epilogue is made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the support of these Presenting Partners: Grand Performances, Los Angeles; Cuyahoga Community Coll., Cleveland; UA Presents, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson; Kingsbury Hall, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City; Reston Community Center, Va.; Miami Univ. Performing Arts Series, Oxford, Ohio; Connecticut Coll., New London; Celebrity Series of Boston; Baptist Temple at Temple Univ., Philadelphia; Cal Poly Arts, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Fullerton Coll., Calif.; Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; Newman PAC, Denver; Lied PAC, Lincoln, Neb.; Choregus Productions LLC, Tulsa, Okla. ;Clarice Smith PAC, College Park, Md.; Lensic PAC, Santa Fe, N.M.; Hope Theatre Company, Salford, England.
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