The Laramie Project

I was wondering if anyone on the site has seen, The Laramie Project. I am currently working on a lighting desing for it for a class project, and if anyone has any advice/comments/suggestions let me know.

I saw the original cast and then later I saw a community theater production of it that was suprisingly effective. The first time I saw it I really wasn't thrilled with the first two acts, I kept thinking they were going to do exactly what the story didn't call for, which was to make a martyr (and a saint) out of Matthew Shepard. But then, the third act suprised me when it actually did not do that. And that is how I learned to love The Laramie Project. When I saw the community production I was interested if it wouldn't work without the original people from Tectonic who did the interviewing in Laramie. But it worked very well.

A scrim with a slide of an impossibly blue sky over a low, distant horizon is a very effective mood setter.

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And only about half as long as the stage show.

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I was in a college production of The Laramie Project last year. We stuck to one simple set, a sky and fence backround- with diff lighting to seperate days/scenes.

My sister brought her high school daughter to another high school's production last year and reported that the football players sitting behind them (they were supporting a team member in the cast) were crying like little girlie men by the end.

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I think it's about 8-10

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As far as cast size, my school's cast is sixteen people playing a minimum of four roles each.

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My friend and I brought a couple of carloads of high school kids to see the original production a few years back (August 2000, maybe?) It profoundly affected each one of the kids. I remember posting on another board after coming home, that I thought it should be required viewing for all high school students. I'm happy to see that it's becoming a popular choice for school productions. I saw it done a couple of years ago by a school in Montclair, NJ, and it lost nothing...none of the emotion and none of the impact...from the original.

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I'm so excited, I get to see it tomorrow!

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