Looking at Laramie, a decade later

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on October 02, 2009

A group of local actors and political figures will stage a new nonfiction play about Laramie, Wyoming, and the changes it has undergone in the 10 years since a gay man was brutally murdered there.

The free performance will take place Oct. 12, the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Music. This premiere of "The Laramie Project 10 Years Later: An Epilogue" will be performed simultaneously at about 120 locations in the U.S. and abroad.

The original "Laramie Project" play, which was performed at First Churches in 2002, was assembled from the actual words of people with connections to Shepard's murder. The new play has the same you-are-there immediacy, including the chilling comments of the two murderers.

These lines were not made up by a playwright. They come from real interviews with real people.

"People say very disturbing things in the play," said co-director Chris Rohmann. "It shows the depressing ways in which the town hasn't bettered itself in the wake of this crime, but there are also some wonderful, inspiring things."

The cast includes both gays and straights. State Sen. Stan Rosenberg will play a conservative Wyoming legislator who talks about his gay daughter and his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act. Amherst Town Moderator Harrison Gregg plays a priest who says Shepard's death "jabs the conscience of our society." Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins and her challenger, Michael Bardsley, have said they will be there to take small roles.

The Rev. Andrea Ayvazian, pastor of Haydenville Congregational Church, will be the narrator, and radio host Bill Dwight will have a role. Jo Comerford, director of the National Priorities Project, will participate, as will Smith College Theater Professor Andrea Hairston. The local actors include Kelsey Flynn, Linda McInerney, Bob Williams, Jeanine Haas and Jenny Ladd.

"The show has a lot to say about the attitude in America to gays and what it means to be a community, and what an event like this does to a community," Rohmann said.

The staging of the play resembles Thornton Wilder's classic "Our Town," with the implication that "things like this could happen anywhere," said co-director Meg Gage. Many of the characters "are very thoughtful and aware and are doing their best to figure out what happened, and how change happens," she said. But some Laramie residents try to redefine their own history, claiming that Shepard's murder was motivated by robbery or drugs and not homophobia.

The officer who found Shepard after the attack is in the play, saying, "I just hope the community remembers truly how ugly hate is." The Wyoming governor talks about how the death "changed us." A University of Wyoming professor says that "new students don't come either knowing or caring or thinking it's relevant to their lives." The editor of the local newspaper says, "we're trying to put this behind us." Shepard's mother says, "I'm angrier now than I was then."

Some of the most moving moments in the play come from the murderers, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney.

Henderson talks about how his mother was raped and killed in Laramie, and how the Mormon Church excommunicated him. A passive participant in the crime, he talks about the shame he feels that he didn't do more to stop McKinney from hitting Shepard over and over.

McKinney, who talks about his Nazi tattoos, expresses remorse for embarrassing his father and for causing Henderson to serve a life sentence - but not for Shepard.

Ayvazian said the lessons of Shepard's life and death are still important 10 years later.

"The message is that the human family is diverse and beautiful," she said. "I believe we were all made in God's image and our diversity is our strength and our radiance and we were meant to cherish one another."