ZACH Theatre – An Austin Theatre Blog

Images and References in The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project 10 Years Later Prepared by ZACH Theatre Producing Artistic Director Dave Steakley Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN When ZACH first produced The Laramie Project ten years ago, Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires wrote an article entitled “Our Town, Our Time”, in which he noted:

“There is the actor directly addressing the audience, setting up the play we’re to see, leading us into its world. There are the chairs on the otherwise bare stage. There are the actors sitting in those chairs, portraying mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, the people who comprise a town. There is the funeral for one of them, taken too soon by death. There are the black umbrellas. In the play The Laramie Project there are several touches that may put you in mind of Our Town, that theatrical portrait of an American town created in 1938 and performed almost constantly in theatres, schools, and community centers ever since. Those touches are deliberate, purposeful. They take advantage of the fact that hardly anyone gets through school without seeing or being in Thornton Wilder’s play. It is so familiar, so deeply embedded in our national psyche that it has become a touchstone for us, depicting American small-town life, as we believe it to be. Evoking Grover’s Corners in Laramie, Wyoming, connects the audience immediately to its character, makes it a close-knit town where everyone knows everyone else — and everyone else’s business; a home to decent folks, people of the land, people of faith, people who love their neighbors and where they live. Like Our Town, it works as a mirror, reflecting the way we live at a certain moment in time, showing what we face as a community and must confront if we’re to keep community meaningful.”

The Matthew Chair In ZACH’s production we chose to leave one of our chairs in its natural state, unstained and unfinished, as a symbol and representation of Matthew Shepard. The chair is used as a continuum in the plays, as a reminder, as a witness, as the icon of a movement and as the young man … (Read more.)	The Texas Connection Early on in The Laramie Project, a young student named Jedidiah Schultz in talking about Laramie says that “We’ve become Jasper, we’ve become Waco.” Jasper refers to the East Texas town where James Byrd, Jr., an African-American, was murdered by three white men … (Read more.)
Fences The fence used in ZACH’s production of The Laramie Project is not meant to be a reproduction of the buck type fence that Matthew Shepard was tied to outside Laramie, Wyoming … (Read more.)	The Rain In ACT II of The Laramie Project it rains on the day that Matthew Shepard dies and while Rulon Stacey holds the national press conference making this announcement outside the Poudre Valley Hospital. It’s as if the heavens open up to grieve his death … (Read more.)
The Umbrella I have been asked why I chose to have a black umbrella on stage through most of ACT III of The Laramie Project. For me it is a symbol of the grief, like a black cloud, which many Laramie residents felt hung over their community in the months following Matthew’s death, ever present … (Read more.)	A Table and Four Chairs We have chosen to use a table and 4 chairs as our primary scenic element in The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. This was inspired by a newspaper interview that director Dave Steakley came across while doing research for PART II of the play cycle … (Read more.)
The Quilt For The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later we wanted to use a symbol of our Austin community, and whether it is watching fireworks on the 4th of July, assembling for a concert on Auditorium Shores, or gathering on the Zilker Hillside for the Summer Musical, these rituals begin for us with the spreading out of a quilt on which to gather … (Read more.)

THE LARAMIE PROJECT: 10 YEARS LATER performs April 18 – May 13. Both Parts 1 and 2 will be offered on Saturdays: April 28, May 5 & 12 with a dinner break between shows. For tickets, please call ZACH’s box office at 512-476-0541, x1 or visit ZACH’s website.

Production Sponsor:

This is Austin theatre at its finest. Based on the events surrounding the Matthew Shepard story as seen through the eyes of the Wyoming townspeople who were both witnesses and participants, THE LARAMIE PROJECT is live at ZACH Theatre. Production photos below are by Kirk Tuck. Feel free to share these photos, but please remember to credit Kirk Tuck and ZACH Theatre wherever they appear.

For more show info and video, please visit http://www.zachtheatre.org/show/the-laramie-project. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (512) 476-0541, x1.