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Category Archives: The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later

Kirt Bateman’s most memorable Plan-B role

Kirt Bateman as Dr. Cantway | Photo credit: Rick Pollock

Kirt Bateman as Dr. Cantway | Photo credit: Rick Pollock

Kirt Bateman has appeared in Plan-B’s Script-In-Hand Series (including DEAR GEORGE: LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT, THE NORMAL HEART and THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER), A PERFECT GANESH, THE LARAMIE PROJECT, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, ANIMAL FARM, AMERIKA (also Toronto’s Fringe Festival), EXPOSED, GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! (twice), DI ESPERIENZA, AMERIGO and BORDERLANDS; directed TRAGEDY: A TRAGEDY and participated in several BANNEDs and every SLAM.

I’ve been putting off writing this blog entry for weeks, actually months. Not because I haven’t wanted to write it, but because I’ve had the hardest time deciding which of my Plan-B Theatre roles has meant the most to me.

For the last decade, Plan-B has been home. Every experience has become an important thread in the oddly-shaped, color-incomplete, frayed fabric that is my life (I love a good fabric analogy, don’t you?). But the one that has meant the most to me personally was one of the very first, THE LARAMIE PROJECT.

It’s hard to describe why it was so meaningful. Do I think it was my BEST acting work? No. Was it the most FUN? Not compared to, say, GUTENBERG! THE MUSCAL! Was it the most challenging role I’ve had? No, that would be ANIMAL FARM. Was it the hottest…literally? Yes! Did I sweat the most in that one? Mmmm…probably not (again, that goes to GUTENBERG).

Let me ‘splain. Even just a decade ago, life for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens of this country was a lot different (I speak in general terms and really from my experience and point-of-view). LARAMIE ran in July/August of 2001, right before 9/11, and although we had reached the new millennium, growing up gay in a conservative environment could be a life-or-death situation (both physically and emotionally).

THE LARAMIE PROJECT tells one town’s story as both Laramie and its residents are thrown into the media spotlight following the horrific beating and murder of Matthew Shepard.

Wyoming and Utah are brothers (or sisters) in many ways. I lived in Salt Lake at the time of Matthew Shepard’s death, and my partner Jerry (as of three weeks ago, my husband – see, a lot changes in 10 years!) was commuting to graduate school in Logan. Laramie and Logan are incredibly similar and the beating and death of young Matthew made me look around every corner and feel the need to call Jerry every hour to make sure he was safe. It was a frightening time for us. It was also a time of great compassion, with people from different walks of life coming together to show the best of human nature as the media focused on the worst.

I’m not debating whether Matthew’s murder was a simple robbery gone wrong (as the perpetrators claim) or a hate crime against Matthew just because he was gay in a small western town (as THE LARAMIE PROJECT posits) or maybe a combination of both. What I know is that the play is funny and emotional and devastating and cathartic and beautiful. It has become one of the most produced plays in the world, with several college productions here in Utah. But Plan-B was the first theatre in the world to stage the play (besides Tectonic Theatre, the creators). Being new to Plan-B, I had no idea what kind of production we’d have in the end.

I’ve had the opportunity since THE LARAMIE PROJECT to play actual, still-living people. But LARAMIE was my first such experience. In fact, Jedadiah Schultz, who remains a close friend (and one of the witnesses at our recent wedding) came to Salt Lake from Laramie to play himself…Jed from Laramie playing the character of Jed Schultz from Laramie, Wyoming. His presence constantly reminded all involved to ‘get it right’ – to work harder than maybe we ever had before because we were playing real people who were sharing their actual experiences with the audience through us. Healing happened in us and in the audience.

One of my dozen or so characters was the doctor who announced to the world that Matthew had died from the injuries he sustained in the attack…I tear up just thinking about it more than 10 years later. What an incredible opportunity I had to ‘be’ this person for just a moment in what was an extraordinary moment of his life. And be part of an important and vital and current and educational piece of theatre. It’s not often that you feel that what you are doing is vital and has a life of its own. The cast (me, Jed, Colleen Baum, Anita Booher, Cheryl Cluff, Joyce Cohen, Charles Lynn Frost, Carl Nelson), was the internal organs. The theatre was the skin that held us together. Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre Project, the playwrights, were the brain. And Jerry, our director, was the heart.

This part is cheesy. But I can’t help it.

I still get teased by my LARAMIE castmates because I used to break the 4th wall (a big no-no) and would sometimes stare at the audience during performances. I’ve often wondered why I would do that. I think, after writing this and remembering the love circling the theatre during that production, I just had to see people watch the show. I had to watch them watching because their emotional journey filled me with hope and love.

I’ve told this story before – many times, in fact – but it bears repeating here. After the closing performance of THE LARAMIE PROJECT, we were crying (some of us (me) ridiculously hard) as we exited the stage for the last time. We got down into our little green room and hugged each other in a big, loving group hug. We knew that we had participated in something special. Joyce said “It doesn’t always happen like this. It doesn’t always feel like this.” (I paraphrase.). After many, many years working in the professional theatre Joyce really knew what she was talking about. We cried and hugged and we knew it was special. And it was. I was changed forever.

Joyce was right, it doesn’t always feel like that. But when I am working for Plan-B Theatre Company something about the experience is ALWAYS amazing.

THE LARAMIE PROJECT was my introduction to what good theatre (and I’m talking about the experience beyond well-reviewed, or well-attended, or well-awarded) FEELS like! It’s amazing. It’s why I am a theatre geek. It’s why I work for Plan-B. And it’s why I am beyond grateful that they let me.

Kirt Bateman as Dave O'Malley - photo credit Rick Pollock

Kirt Bateman as Dave O'Malley - photo credit Rick Pollock

6 of the 8 members of Plan-B’s 2001 cast of THE LARAMIE PROJECT performed the world preview staged reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER in 2009 (pictured above), which happened to be the very week that the federal hates crimes law, dubbed the Matthew Shepard Act, was enacted.

Learn more about our upcoming 2011/12 season here!

 

REFLECTIONS FROM THE CAST OF THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER…AN EPILOGUE

In October 2008, Q Salt Lake published a cover story commemorating the 10th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. Members of the cast of Plan-B Theatre’s 2001 production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT reflected on their experience as part of that story. We also shared those comments on this blog.

As we prepare to present THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER, AN EPILOGUE (A Kingsbury Hall presentation this Friday, October 9 at 7:30pm), which examines the impact of Matthew Shepard’s death on Laramie, Wyoming a decade later, we thought we’d share these with you again, as 6 of the 8 actors from our 2001 production return for the EPILOGUE.

JERRY RAPIER, DIRECTOR
In the fall of 1998, I was a graduate student in the theatre department at Utah State University in Logan. On the night of October 7, 1998 – the night Matthew Shepard was discovered, badly beaten, hanging on a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming – an impromptu meeting of the USU Pride Alliance was organized. I’d been to other meetings where only a handful of people showed up. But this was different.

Dozens of us were there, each in shock, in need of somewhere to be – somewhere where others understood what we lacked the words to express.

A writer for the campus paper showed up with a photographer. People were openly expressing their feelings to the writer. But the relief of being in a safe place immediately shifted to tension – fear – when the writer began asking for the names of those photographed. I think it crossed everyone’s mind: ‘It could have been me.’

Over the next few months I read about Tectonic Theater Project’s series of visits from New York to Laramie to conduct interviews for what would become THE LARAMIE PROJECT. Their production ran off-Broadway and toured to several regional theatres during the 1999-2000 season. However, the play had yet to be published so it took until January of 2001 before I could finagle a copy. I ripped open the package when it finally arrived and immediately read the play. By the end of the first act I had collapsed in tears on the floor. I knew I had to do whatever was necessary to produce the play.

In the summer of 2001 Plan-B became the first company worldwide licensed to independently produce THE LARAMIE PROJECT. It was life-changing for each of us involved and for our company. I can see every moment of the production vividly in my memory, still feel the energy that was in the theatre for all 21 performances – a sense of community I had never before experienced.

People from all over the country came to see our production. And they wanted to share their stories with us. A man in his late 70s told me that he’d driven from Laramie to see the play and that it had given him courage – he then said, ‘You see, I’m gay.’ It was the first time he’d spoken those words and I am honored that I was the first person to hear them. A post-show discussion was, sadly, the last public appearance of the late Senator Pete Suazo. And during the last week of the run, Chasity Paisley, Russell Henderson’s girlfriend (who plead guilty as an accessory after-the-fact) came to the show. She sat on the front row, racked with the most sorrowful sobs I have ever heard, before the play even began. The truest intersection of art and life. Healing was happening in that theatre and we were witness to it.

Jedadiah Schultz’s presence as himself in our production made it urgent, real and was a constant reminder of the responsibility we shared of getting it right. Jed had gone to school with Matthew Shephard’s killers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Many other people that populated the play were from Jed’s everyday life.

Jed’s mother sent us a jar of dirt from Laramie that was present at the theatre for all rehearsals and performances. To this day, it is my most prized possession. In the summer of 2003, my partner Kirt and I went to Laramie with Jed. He took us to each location mentioned in the script, ending at the fence where Matthew was left to die. It’s now in the middle of a housing development.

I keep the jar so I will never forget.

KIRT BATEMAN, ACTOR
THE LARAMIE PROJECT was the first time I understood the immense power theatre can have. And it was the first time I experienced a collective journey of actors/company/crew/creators/artists for a common goal without personal agenda. The company of THE LARAMIE PROJECT remains in my heart as some of the most important people in my life.

COLLEEN BAUM, ACTOR
The story of Matthew Shepard’s death floored everyone in the theatre each night, whether you were in the audience or on the stage. I’ll never forget hearing the audience’s gasps and feeling just as moved as they were as we played the story out.

ANITA BOOHER, ACTOR
Any actor will tell you that live theatre creates its own energy. That was clear every night onstage during the run of THE LARAMIE PROJECT. By the curtain call, you knew that many in the audience had had an experience that gave them pause, causing them to consider ideas they had perhaps not entertained before. That’s the reward of the experience for me.

JOYCE COHEN, ACTOR
It was a profound experience to work on THE LARAMIE PROJECT, to explore our humanity – its grace and its destructiveness. I was (and still am) deeply moved by the discussion after one of the performances with LDS families with gay children: their comments and insights about the play, about hate crimes, and about loving their children and wanting to make their world a safe one for them in which to live and love. I will always be proud of having been part of the Plan-B production.

CARL NELSON, ACTOR
THE LARAMIE PROJECT was, and still is, my favorite play I’ve ever been in. I feel honored to have been a part of it. Matthew Shepard’s death was such a violent and horrible tragedy, yet so much inspiration, love, strength, courage, dignity and integrity was able to come out of it.

JEDADIAH SCHULTZ, ACTOR
When Mathew was murdered, all of us in Laramie had to ask ourselves, ‘How did I contribute to this? What did we do to breed this kind of hate?’ The young men who murdered Mathew didn’t create this hate on their own. It came from a group mentality, a body of thought, or a collective consciousness. The production in Utah powerfully tapped into the paradox between Salt Lake City and the rest of the state.

Cheryl Ann Cluff and Charles Lynn Frost were also part of the cast of Plan-B’s 2001 production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT. They are committed to directing Plan-B’s RADIO HOUR: ALICE and performing in Pygmalion’s THE PASSION OF SISTER DOTTIE DIXON: SECOND HELPINGS respectively so are unable to join us for THE LARAMIE PROJECT: TEN YEARS LATER, AN EPILOGUE.