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Arts & Entertainment

'Laramie Project' Presents Powerful Story

Lindenwood Theater Department will present the play based on the murder of a gay student.

The Lindenwood University Theatre Department's latest production is certain to have audiences talking. And thinking.

Which is exactly what its director wants.

The Laramie Project opens Thursday and runs through Saturday at Jelkyl Theater in Roemer Hall on the main campus of Lindenwood University, 209 S. Kingshighway, St. Charles.

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"I want to tell a good story and make the audience react," said the play's director Rebecca Helms, a graduate student at Lindenwood. "It definitely makes people think, and it's a story people need to hear."

The show is based on the true story of Matthew Shepherd. In 1998, Shepherd was a gay college student attending the University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY. One night he was robbed, beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die. He died five days later.

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Tectonic Theatre Company in New York were among those that covered the story. The company spent two years in Laramie, conducting more than 200 interviews with the residents of Laramie. The Laramie Project is compiled from those interviews.

"The play shows all walks of life," Helms said. "It offers different opinions and shows how the town was affected when all was said and done."

Helms was affected by the show when she first saw it, while a teenager working as an usher at a theater in Shreveport, LA. "I watched every performance of its three-week run," she said. "I will never forget the way I felt when I left the theater."

When it came time to direct a large-cast show for her directing class, "The Laramie Project was the first and only show that came to mind," Helms said.

To fill out the 25-member cast, Helms turned to graduate and undergraduate students in and out of the theater department as well as members of the Lindenwood faculty. "I wanted to represent a community on stage, not just students," she said. "We have quite a mix of people."

Helms' largest cast previous to this consisted of five actors. "This is the biggest cast I've ever worked with," she said. "I've learned a lot and enjoyed every minute of it." 

One of the cast members is Chad Snider, a graduate student in arts management. "Every once in a while, you read a show that really strikes you. This is one of them," he said.

"The point of the show is to hold up a mirror to Laramie and up to us. This stuff still goes on," Snider said. "This is a story that should be told. I think once in your life everyone should see this show."

The show won't just have an impact on those watching it. "In other shows, the cast can sometimes get distracted," Snider said. "Everybody here has been really focused. People get emotional at rehearsals.

"I'm excited to see the audience's reaction the first time they see it."

"The motto of the show is: We want people to open their minds," Helms said. "We're not trying to radically change anyone."

The Laramie Project begins at 7:30 p.m. each night. Admission is free. For more information visit http://www.lindenwood.edu/center/

 

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