Laramie Project
Premiere: September 20, 2019 at the Dramatyczny Theater in Warsaw
Directed by: Michał Gieleta
Author: Moises Kaufman
Hailed by the New York Times as one of the 25 most important plays of recent decades, The Laramie Project belongs to the genre of theater of fact. All the words spoken in the play were actually spoken by residents of the provincial town of Laramie, Wyoming, and were recorded by members of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project led by Moisés Kaufman. The text is based on the murder of a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, tortured and tied to a fence before his death in the wilderness, where he was found only eighteen hours later, and died after several days of fighting for his life. The members of Kaufman's theater group appeared in Laramie soon, writing down word for word and documenting step by step the course of the investigation and the attitude of this small community towards the death of Matthew Shephard.
In the performance, six actors play more than 60 characters, reflecting the attitudes of college officials, students, local clergy and media representatives, lower-ranking policemen, mothers of Matthew's schoolmates, neighbors and the victim's traumatized family. Due to its naturalism, minimalism, directness and lack of literary cut, The Laramie Project hits exactly where it should: conscience, emotions, thoughts and… the heart… Matthew Shepard is physically absent on stage. There is his story and emotions related to the story of a gay man living in a small, closed community. A story that you cannot stop thinking about after the performance.
Established in 2000, the play has had 2000 appearances in the United States and Canada in the last decade alone. The influence of art on the imagination of viewers of every age group and social class is proof of the power of socially engaged theater that goes beyond the framework of high art played only for a narrow, metropolitan audience.
Directed by Michael Gieleta
Light: Ewa Garniec
Props: Anotniusz Dietzius
Choreography: Alisa Makarenko
Screenings: Katarzyna Irmina Stępniak
Sound effects: Zdzisław Zieliński
CAST:
Beata Kawka / Katarzyna Krzanowska as Moises Kaufman
Daria Widawska / Agnieszka Matysiak as Amanda Gronich
Jacek Kopczyński / Sławomir Pacek / Jakub Kamieński as Andy Paris
Karol Wróblewski as Greg Pierotti
Monika Obara as Barbara Pitts
Zuzanna Bernat / Anna Mrozowska as Leigh Fondakowski
Daniel Mosior / Damian Kulec as Stephen Belber
Filip Milczarski / Michał Wolny as John McAdams