Destructive forces: Final play at TCR Lindale looks at aftermath of hate crime

By Diana Nollen

 “‘The Laramie Project' is not about Matthew Shepard, homosexuality or Laramie,” says Director Jason Alberty, 40, of Cedar Rapids.

“It's about hate and the effect of a single act of hate on a community.”

On Oct. 7, 1998, gay college student Matthew Shepard was lured into a car by two young men, robbed, brutally beaten, tied to a fence outside Laramie, Wyo., and left to die. Discovered 18 hours later by a bicyclist who thought he was seeing a scarecrow, Shepard never regained consciousness and died of head injuries less than a week later in a Fort Collins, Colo., hospital.

The murder was characterized as a hate crime and drew international media attention.

The play, based on the community's reaction to the murder and trial, opens Friday and is Theatre Cedar Rapids' final production at TCR Lindale, 4444 First Ave. NE. The troupe is slated to move back to its renovated home in the Iowa Theatre Building downtown in February.

“The Laramie Project” grew out of more than 200 interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyo., beginning four weeks after Shepard's death. Moises Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project in New York made six trips to Laramie over 18 months to gather material for the play, which also was turned into a screenplay.

Eastern Iowa native Michael Emerson was among the cast of the Emmy-nominated HBO film version that also starred Peter Fonda, Laura Linney, Christina Ricci and Camryn Manheim.

Alberty says the play “is really pretty plotless. It's what I might call an ‘interview documentary.' It's not about what most people think it's about. It's one of the recently most-protested shows in America and most protesters have never seen or read the show.”

The most vocal of the protesters - the Rev. Fred Phelps and his flock from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., - have the Theatre Cedar Rapids production on their protest schedule. They've been to Iowa before, picketing “Laramie Project” stagings in Iowa City and Mount Vernon in 2003 and in Marshalltown this past July.

What will Theatre Cedar Rapids do if Phelps and company show up?

“I don't know,” says managing Director Casey Prince, 32, of Cedar Rapids. “It's freedom of speech. We'll let them do their thing. I don't know if a wall of angels will show up to block them out.” (A move was afoot Wednesday on Facebook to round up counterprotestors, known as “a wall of angels.”)

Prince sounds like he'll be almost disappointed if the infamous protesters don't show up.

“It would be too bad if they gave their attention to a production an hour from us and no attention to ours,” Prince says.

Alberty agrees. “If he comes, it's free PR - it's great.”

The play generates controversy “because the world is filled with hate,” Alberty says. “It's an absolute and utter knee-jerk reaction.”

Reality-based plays such as this are “an attempt to create catharsis within the audience,” he says. “In the modern view, it's to create self-reflection, to create a dialogue so that we can discuss the issues - issues that people generally don't talk about.”

In “The Laramie Project,” one actor serves as the narrator and the other eight each play as many as a dozen different voices from the southeastern Wyoming town.

The TCR production will use a minimalist, multilevel scenery and costume approach, with the actors dressed in black and adding a costume piece to suggest the different characters. Videos will be projected on two big screens, ranging from news reports to images in a surreal, animated form and photos Alberty took in Laramie after accepting the directing job.

“It's like Anytown, USA,” he says. “It's like so many little towns in Iowa on the rail line. It could be Creston. (Laramie) has about 20,000 people, a big rail yard and pretty good unemployment for a college town. During the summer things are pretty dead; during the school year things are pretty hopping.”

He did arouse suspicions when taking pictures of the police station.

“An officer came out and grilled me on what I was doing. He had never heard of (the play). That really surprised me at the time.”

Alberty chose to just shoot his photos and leave the residents alone.

“I'm sure every crazy theater person who thinks they're somebody goes out there and tries to talk to these people.”

He hopes audience members come away with the message that “hate is destructive. It comes in so many forms and it's not just about the single hate crime. It's not about hate of sexual orientation. It's about hate in general and how destructive it can be,” he says.

“Some people will find catharsis in there. Some people will feel as though they're left hanging. Other people may leave angry.”

 FAST TAKEInformation and video clip: www.theatrecr.org

What: Theatre Cedar Rapids presents “The Laramie Project”

Where: TCR Lindale, 4444 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids

When: Friday, Jan. 15, through Jan. 24; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays

TCR rating: PG-13

Tickets: $20 or $25 adults, $15 students at the TCR Box Office, (319) 366-8591 or www.theatrecr.org $12 rush tickets at the door 30 minutes before each performance