Theater Review
WRVP’s ‘The Laramie Project’:
Powerful, Sensitive, Profound

By Valerie F. Levitan, Ph.D.

The following is a review of the White River Valley Players’ current production of "The Laramie Project." The show will be presented two more times, on Friday, Oct. 19 and Saturday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m., at the Rochester High School Auditorium. Tickets will be available at the door.

At first I didn’t want to go. Years ago, I had followed the horror story of the hate crime against Matthew Shepard, knew that he had been tied against a fence in Laramie, Wyo., and brutally beaten—way back in 1998 when civil unions and gay and lesbian marriages were not that common an occurrence. Why should I go see something awful about murder! But then, when my daughter, Jeanie, said she was going to the production Saturday evening and wouldn’t I join her, well, of course, I said "yes," to being with my daughter. And I’m so glad I went.

What a marvelous production! The writing is so powerful, so sensitive, so profound! The writer, Moises Kaufman, and the Members of the Tectonic Theater Project and the entire team of writers deserve all the praise they received for creating this dramatic piece. We, the audience, watch how the townsfolk react to the incident (over 200 interviews were conducted), how they feel about homosexuality—live and let live, or mild acceptance, or totally against the life style. What is important, as one of the characters says, is that the perpetrators of the crime against Matthew Shepard "caused so much grief for so many people."

There were several scenes I found riveting: such as when the young man played by Ferron Griffin finds the almost-dead body, when the policewoman (Kathrin Lawlor) describes how she tried to move him (and later takes antibiotics against the possibility of contracting AIDS), and when the doctor (Dorothy Robson) relates how she was treating both the victim and the batterer.

Another part that stands out for me occurred when there’s a description of how the town reacted to a parade in support of Matthew, and there were "500 in the tag." The subplots and the various soliloquies are just marvelous.

Of course, watching a play where you know most of the actors (Dick Robson, Burma Cassidy, Nancy Manning, Susie Smolen, Brenda Goupee, Kristie Tate, Toni Richardson, Elaine Cissi, Montana Bowman, Robert Finkle, Herb Campbell, Denny DeCoff) is always enjoyable. It’s been several years now that I’ve been watching student David Crowley grow into his roles on stage. He and Doug Kingsbury are outstanding, as is Christine Meagher. All of the players, almost without exception, are fabulous. Each one plays several parts—a huge accomplishment in itself. The unfamiliar faces were also terrific—Scott Rotman and Tomas McElhaney were my favorites.

And then there was the lighting and the silhouettes and the poses on the darkened stage. Wow! Kudos to Robert Meagher and Dylan Tate.

Go see "The Laramie Project"—and, as the playbill states, "Go home, give your kids a hug, and don’t let a day go by without telling them that you love them."

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