The Laramie Project at Seymour Centre

Twenty years after New York’s Tectonic Theater Project first went to Laramie following the brutal murder of gay university student, Matthew Shepard, their work, The Laramie Project remains incredibly potent to today’s audiences as we continue to fight for acceptance and equality for all Australians.

This year, Theatre Travels is proud to bring back The Laramie Project and to present to Sydney audiences’, The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later. Detailing a community’s reaction in the aftermath of a small town hate crime, both plays focus on universally important stories of acceptance, community, intolerance and legacy. The shows will play a strictly limited run from November 28th – December 8th 2018 at the Seymour Centre, Sydney.

In October of 1998, openly gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence, beaten and unconscious. After 5 days in a coma, Shepard succumbed to his injuries and his murder was denounced and tried as a hate crime. Members of the Tectonic Theater Project travelled to Laramie to conduct over 400 interviews with more than 100 residents of the town. The Laramie Project is a portrait of this town: an average community redefined by a heinous crime.

The Laramie Project:10 Years Later sees the town and its occupants ten years after Matthew’s death and calls into question the issue of legacy and our innate desire to rewrite history. It forces us to question how we deal with the uncomfortable or unflattering and which side of change we want to be on.

“Stories are malleable,” says founder of Tectonic Theater and playwright, Moisés Kaufman. “History is malleable. And so we have to be doubly vigilant when we listen to history and we listen to stories.” Ten Years Later explores that history, interviewing and re-interviewing citizens of Laramie and allowing those histories to speak for themselves.

Producer and Co-Director, Carly Fisher said, “this story is set in Laramie in 1998 but the truth is that we know it could just as easily happen here, in Australia, in 2018. Last year’s plebiscite was a harsh reminder that intolerance and baseless hatred continues to exist. These plays remind us of the importance to talk about our beliefs and to peacefully speak out for what is right – to speak up for equality.”

Co-Directed by Rosie Niven, The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project:10 Years Later will play in repertoire at Seymour’s Reginald Theatre. Bringing to life over 75 characters between the two productions is an outstanding ensemble cast including John Michael Burdon, Laura Djanegara, Andrew Hofman, Francisco Lopez, Linda Nicholls-Gidley, Matthew Pritchard, Dominique Purdue, Emily Richardson & Charlotte Tilelli.

“After years of traveling to and from the USA, I have witnessed a drastic change in attitudes to a range of issues, not the least of which has been gay rights. I was living in Washington, D.C. in the final months of campaigns and protests for the legalization of same-sex marriage, through to the announcement that it had been voted in by the Supreme Court,

So I remember feeling such a sense of victory – that humanity had won over ignorance – but the reality is that in 2015 there still 7,153 victims in the USA alone of Hate Crimes, nearly 20% of whom were targeted because of their sexuality.

In 2017, that number saw nearly a 16% increase in the number of victims. And back in Australia in 2017, our government turned our conversations into hate campaigns and re-divided our nation over the right to marry. The Laramie Project may mark its 20th anniversary this year but its relevance remains equally as pertinent today as it was in 1998," said Fisher.

Theatre Travels is proud to make its production debut with a unique opportunity to see both works together for the first time in Sydney. Furthermore, audiences are invited to attend a special day of theatre on December 1st where both shows will be performed on the same day to mark World AIDS Day.

Two decades after Matthew’s passing, there is no more appropriate a time to bring The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later to Sydney to continue to challenge audiences through its compelling and powerful discussion of some of the most intimate complexities facing community’s today.

For further information please visit: https://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/the-laramie-project/

Media Enquiries and Interviews, please contact Theatre Travels - Lisa Gluckman or Carly Fisher, publicist@theatretravels.org or 0401 796 056

Authors

• Greg Pierotti
• Leigh Fondakowski
• Moisés Kaufman
• Peter Golub
• Stephen Belber
• Stephen Wangh