Monday, June 10, 2013

Tacoma Little Theatre takes on The Laramie Project




Hospital Update
(From L to R Michael Cooper, Jeremy Thompson, Martin J. Mackenzie, Mark Peterson, Jefri Peters, Rachel Fitzgerald, Russ Coffey). Photo by Galen Wicks Photography
It was Saturday night of the opening weekend of The Laramie Project at Tacoma Little Theatre. We thought we must have arrived too early because there was only one other person in the lobby who was not theater staff. By the time the play started more had trickled in, but it looked like little more than a fourth of the seats were filled. If they had been doing The Sound of Music or a Neil Simon comedy the house would have been sold out. 

Director Brie Yost wrote in her director’s notes, “I was told by a fellow theatre colleague that ‘Tacoma is not ready for The Laramie Project.’” Tacoma? The Advocate magazine’s recent choice for gayest city in America? — If that is true then the people who are staying away have no idea what an amazing theatrical experience they are missing.
I was astounded as I experienced moment after moment after moment of jaw-droppingly stunning dialog and memorable acting and staging. This is the fourth time I have seen this show, plus one performance of the ten-year-after show. I’ve seen it done by a high school drama department; I’ve seen a college production; I’ve seen it done by a community theater company and one professional company. — TLT’s production is hands-down the best I’ve seen.
Aaron McKinney's Confession
(From L to R Jeremy Thompson, Russ Coffey, Michael Cooper). Photo by Galen Wicks Photography
In 1998 on a cold October night 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo. He was found 18 hours later and rushed to the hospital, where he died five days later. The case was a media frenzy.
Five weeks after Matthew Shepard’s death, Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project of New York City went to Laramie, where in the course of the next year they conducted more than 200 interviews with people of the town. They wrote the play using the actual words of the interviewees, including people who knew Matthew Shepard and even his killers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson.
A cast of nine actors play the roles of more than 20 Laramie residents, Kaufman and members of the acting company, with staging reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town — but unlike Our Town, this is not fiction. This is naked truth.
Epilogue
The cast of THE LARAMIE PROJECT.   Photo by Galen Wicks Photography
It is beautifully directed and has a mood setting sparse set designed by Lex Gernon with spot on lighting by Niclas R. Olson. The use of overhead television monitors in the scenes where the media was swarming the town was extremely effective (reminding me of a similar use of monitors in TLT’s Frost/Nixon, which Yost also directed).
The ensemble cast works in such harmony that it would be wrong to single out any one actor. They are each superb. They are: Jen Aylsworth, Russ Coffey, Mike Cooper, Rachel Fitzgerald, Marty MacKenzie, Jefri Peters, Mark Peterson, Tiffani Pike, and Jeremy Thompson, each playing multiple roles.
What is truly amazing is the manner in which these actors change from character to character, often in a manner of seconds with no more than a simple costume change — sometimes in full view of the audience — more often than not consisting of a simple change of hats or a different shirt or jacket thrown over the black T-shirts they all wear, and then a radical change of voice, from the twang of a cowboy to the sophisticated tone of a college professor. As one of the audience members pointed out in the great talk-back after the show, method actors may live in character on and off stage for months at a time, yet these actors do the same thing while cycling through anywhere from six to ten characters each with the changes in the length of time it takes to put on a hat or walk from one part of the stage to another.
I’m writing this on the day of the Tony Awards. Each of these actors deserve one of those, and Yost deserves one for directing.
And you know what? This is not even a “mainstage” production; it is a “second stage” show, meaning it’s not considered mainstream enough to draw large audiences. The good thing about that is that tickets are merely $10.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday through June 23
WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N “I” St., Tacoma
TICKETS: $10
INFORMATION: 253-272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.com.

Also see Michael Dresdner's review
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