Try something different on stage

To the editor:

We would like to invite you to Jay County Civic Theatre’s production of “The Laramie Project.”

This show is unlike most we have done in the recent past — Disney shows, comedies and productions iconic in popular culture. Those shows are certainly fun, but they are not all that theatre is about.

Theatre is an art. It is meant not only to entertain us but to make us think and to make us feel.

“The Laramie Project” does both of those things.

The documentary-style play was created by playwright Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. It analyzes the death of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student who was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998 because of his sexual identity. Matthew’s murder is one of the most well-known hate crimes in recent American history.

For “The Laramie Project,” the Tectonic Theater Project traveled from New York to Laramie in 1998, just four weeks after Matthew’s death. There, they interviewed dozens of townspeople, collecting a wide array of different perspectives on the crime. The dialogue and monologues that comprise “The Laramie Project” are taken from these interviews, along with news reports, courtroom transcripts and journal entries.

Performing, directing and being involved in theatre in other ways is also meant to help us stretch our skills. Growth only comes from challenging ourselves.

“The Laramie Project” certainly does that as well. The cast of eight plays dozens of different characters — not characters thought up in someone’s mind, but real people who spoke real words and shared real thoughts in the wake of a murder that rocked their community.

The audience hears from a wide variety of personalities, from a bartender, to a university professor, to church pastors, to the men convicted of the crime, to Matthew’s father.

Our cast takes great pride in doing them all justice.

As stated on the Matthew Shepard Foundation website, “‘The Laramie Project’ is not about homosexuality or even primarily about Matthew himself. As documentary theater, it lays before the audience what happened in the case of Matthew’s murder and how the people of Laramie, and the world, responded. There are many differing viewpoints put forth in the play, and it is left to the individual to decide how they feel about what happened and about each of the individual characters.”

The show is meant for a mature audience. There is strong language — these are words real folks spoke — though it is not gratuitous. And there are graphic descriptions of violence. Matthew, after all, was beaten to death.

Our production opens at 7 p.m. tonight at the Jay County Campus of Arts Place in Portland, with shows again at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. An additional performance is slated for 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at Blackford County Arts Center in Hartford City.

In addition to the show itself, we will have a “Cards and Letters” display that is being shared with us by the Matthew Shepard Foundation. And following Sunday’s show, Dennis Shepard, Matthew’s father, will join us via Zoom for a talk back — an opportunity for the audience and cast to discuss the show with the man whose son’s death led to the creation of the play.

If you’ve joined us for “Shrek the Musical,” “Newsies,” “Elf the Musical,” “Mamma Mia!” or any of our various Disney shows, we invite you to get a ticket this weekend and try a different variety of theatre.

We hope to see you there.

Jay County Civic Theatre board of directors

Ray Cooney, Lee Osteen, Reid Knuth, Greg Rittenhouse, Bev Wolford, Casi Avery, Sarah Lingo and Pete Vogler