‘Laramie Project’ teaches students tolerance, acceptance

By KATIE WORRALL

For Madeleine Smith, presenting The Laramie Project is a sobering experience. The Springside School student, who is in the cast of Moisés Kauffman’s play based upon the1998 kidnapping, beating and death of a 21-yerar-old homosexual college student, said that that while rehearsing for the play, it hit home how much hate there is and how much more aware she is on how accepting people can be.

Smith is among the 30 cast members of the Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy Players’ production of The Laramie Project on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 11, 12 and 13. Performances will be given at 8 p.m. at the Conkey Center, Valley Green Road and Springfield Avenue.

The Laramie Project is based on more than 200 interviews conducted over a year a half in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of two young men accused of killing Matthew Shepard.

“It’s the greatest learning experience to get in the mindset of people. They’re on a spectrum of love-hate. It’s not a black and white thing. You get to understand how people think,” said Springsider Melissa Marks.

Schuyler Ferguson, a CHA student, believes that what is important is the presentation to the audience. The audience will learn what the students have learned: how hateful people can be.

Selection of the play, directed by Springside drama teacher Court van Rooten and CHA drama teacher Lee Smith with the assistance of Janet Blenheim, grew out of a discussion school administrators had last summer in which the role of theater as a component of college preparatory education was discussed.

In letters sent to parents, CHA head Frank Steel and Springside head Priscilla Sands wrote that the play was an excellent choice for students because “it asks a town (and therefore the community) to examine their individual and collective responsibility for this heinous crime [the killing of Matthew Shepard]. It also contextualizes the difference between lifestyle choices and tolerance for one another. How we create an inclusive environment that feels respectful of each of us is a critical issue for all of our young adults. “

The play and discussions with students are a way to show them smaller ways they can be more tolerant in the ways they treat each other. Both schools have multicultural groups that serve as forums for students to discuss issues, to say things in a way that are not hurtful and to listen to each other, Steel told the Local.

“Our students, by nature, are open and tolerant but they need help sometimes and are universally appalled by acts of intolerance and injustice,” Sands said.

Related to the play is an upper school curriculum, Acting for Community Transformation (ACT), that teaches how to affect change, according to van Rooten. At each grade level, issues such as class, hate, community and homosexuality as well as tolerance and acceptance are taught, he said.

“We’re probably a tolerant community but not necessarily an accepting one,” Lee Smith said, as van Rooten added that the schools are “working toward being accepting” through discussions about ACT in homeroom and advisory sessions.

“At schools, we are recognizing that these [tolerance and acceptance] are lacking in some of the young people and this will help them address that,” Smith said.

The Laramie Project is the first production in van Rooten’s 11 years at Springside that has a curricular aspect to it, and support of the administrators and parents. No one had a negative reaction to giving the play, he said.

A cross section of students are active in the Players, including some who have been participants for their entire upper school experience and others who are new. “The old war horses — the seniors — know they might not get part just because they’ve been here, but they cheer the new kids on. They’ve approached this play with a seriousness that is considered appropriate,” van Rooten said.

Some of the students in The Laramie Project are playing two or three roles, according to van Rooten, who said that the play was written for eight actors and was given at Upper Dublin High School by 14 actors. (A large cast is one of the aspects of a play that the drama teachers look for when they select plays.) There are roles for all students who auditioned for the play, van Rooten said.

Ask the students why they tried out for this play and they tell you they try out for all of them. Some of the students had never heard of the incident in which Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in a prairie outside of Laramie until they read articles about it in homeroom.

“I did not understand the mind set. It makes you more aware, to take a stand for tolerance, and then acceptance,” Madeleine Smith said.

With the cast and crew, 50 students are assisting with the production.
A 3/4 round set is being constructed by Rob Ervin and a crew, while Ellen Fishman-Johnson of Springside’s music department has written “The Laramie Suite.”

CHA and Springside are encouraging parents and their children to see the play together and discuss the issues afterwards, Sands said. It is suitable for students in seventh grade and above. Middle school students must be accompanied by an adult. For ticket information, call CHA at 215-247-4700 or Springside at 214-247-7200.