Tonight I saw the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts
present The Laramie Project. It was a beautiful performance. The cast, crew,
and talented director, Susanna Rinehart, did an excellent job capturing the
audience’s attention and taking us into their world for two hours.
I love this about theatre. When watching a performance,
you’re pulled into their world for however long the play lasts. You feel what
they feel, you experience the joy, heartache, and anger that each character may
go through while on stage.
Growing up I was involved in my local children’s theatre
group. I continued acting until my senior year of high school. I enjoyed every
moment that I was on stage. I loved bringing a character to life and allowing
the audience to let go and enjoy the show.
Going into college I knew I wanted to continue theatre. I
took Intro to Theatre my first semester and enjoyed every minute of that class.
We read plays from Othello to The Laramie Project. My professor,
Susanna Rinehart, broke down each play with us and discussed the themes, key
messages, characters, authors, settings, and anything else you could imagine
about a play. I remember reading The
Laramie Project for the first time. I remember having a discussion about it
in class and then going back to my dorm to finish reading it with tears coming
down my face.
For those who don’t
know The Laramie Project is a play
about a homosexual guy, Matthew Shepard, in Laramie, Wyoming who was the victim
of a hate crime. Two guys robbed him, brutally beat him, and left him tied to a
fence post for 18 hours. Matthew died days later in the hospital. The two guys
that did this hate crime to Matthew are serving life sentences in prison.
Plays that represent real life events hit right to the
heart. As I was sitting in the theatre tonight I couldn’t help but look around
me and see the reactions from the audience members. When intermission hit, it
was the quietest intermission I had ever experienced. No one was talking or
moving. The same atmosphere happened at the end of play. I’m hoping that people
were taking in what they just saw and were processing that the play was based
on an event that happened over 10 years ago.
Tonight was another reminder of why I love theatre and the
affect that it has on the audience and myself.
Theater is absolutely amazing for those reasons, Kaitlin. While I never acted in high school (or college), my best friend was incredibly involved in theater, and she's a theater major now, at JMU, so I was always attending the productions and taking photos for the school newspaper. I had never heard of the Laramie Project, but I do know about the hate crime, as we discussed it in my criminology class - it truly is a terrible occurrence, but it's amazing that theater can bring these events to life to give people another perspective.
ReplyDeleteHey Kaitlin,
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I too share a passion for theater. Growing up I was involved in local children's theater, my sister was a thespian in high school and went on to be a vocal performance major at Boston University. Because of my older sisters interest in theater I attended all her performances and got to attend a large variety of shows, from Anne Of Green Gables to Les Mis. From grade 7-11 I took theater classes and even took an acting class here at tech that was a lot of fun. A little fun fact about myself, my favorite play of all time is Neil Simon's "Rumors," which is a very funny play about various couples to show up to a dinner party and the the host of the party is found passed out with a gunshot wound to the ear and his wife missing. The series of events that follow are hysterical, if you have free time I suggest reading the script. While that may not be as funny as an actual performance, the script its self is still very funny.
I've always been a big fan of movies, but had never seen a theater performance at VT until my roommate was in "Spring Awakening" last spring. The coolest part, for me, was being able to see people that I know take on different characters and see a different side of them. Theater was really a "cool" thing at my high school and looking back I'm upset that I listened to what was "cool" because I'm learning that I really enjoy theater!
ReplyDeleteHey Kaitlin, that is so awesome you did theater! I always wish I did, it looks like it would be so much fun. I also took Intro to Theater and read The Laramie project. It was a very moving story and I was really excited to see that VT theater students were going to bring it to life. Although I have not seen it yet, your blog post makes me really want to!
ReplyDelete