Student Actors Tackle Docu-drama on Shepard Murder

(Worcester, MA – November 3, 2003) Student actors at Worcester State College will take to the stage to tackle one of the most intriguing and disturbing dramas of our time. The Laramie Project is the story of a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming in October of 1998.

Nicholas Priest, Scott Englund, Kara E. Krantz, Mark Walker, Rita Parkins, Jessica A. Cabrera, Edward H. McIvor, Jessica Robinson, Robert C. Latino, Monica S. Borci, and Daniel Mascroft are featured in this documentary drama on the murder of Matthew Shepard by Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project.

Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. They conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town. Some people interviewed were directly connected to the case, and others were citizens of Laramie, and the breadth of their reactions to the crime is fascinating. Kaufman and Tectonic Theater members have constructed a deeply moving theatrical experience from these interviews and their own experiences. The Laramie Project is a breathtaking theatrical collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink, and the heights of compassion we are also capable of.

The Laramie Project will be performed at Worcester State College at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 20, 21, and 22 and at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 23 in the Administration Theatre. The Department of Visual and Performing Arts is presenting the performance. Admission is $10 for general public and $5 for students and seniors. Tickets may be reserved by calling 508-929-8843 or purchased at the WSC student center information center.

The performances will be directed by Ann Marie Shea (Visual/Performing Arts), designed by John Howell Hood (Visual/Performing Arts) and produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Services, Inc. Worcester State College students Raul Cabello and Osiris Cespedes are the stage managers.

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