Saturday, Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.—RANDOLPH— Vermont Pride Theater presents a staged reading of “The Laramie Project,” Saturday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Chandler Center for the Arts. This is VPT’s eighth annual winter benefit, with the proceeds this year going to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, whose mission is to erase hate by replacing it with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.
On Oct. 7, 1998, young Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally attacked, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die because he was gay. In the weeks following his death on Oct. 12, Moises Kaufman’s young NYC-based Tectonic Theatre Company traveled to Laramie to begin answering a central question raised by this tragedy: How would Laramie change as a result of Matthew’s death?
The company’s work on this project encompassed 18 months of interviews of over 200 residents of Laramie. From these interviews, 100 of the most compelling and diverse stories were chosen to weave together the script we now know as “The Laramie Project,” a play in which 10 actors voice these 100 narratives.
Directed by Williamstown resident Cher Laston, the cast features Rowly Brucken (Northfield), Samantha Loesch (Waitsfield), Gina Logan (Braintree), Susan Loynd (Fayston), Rae Merrell (Brookfield), Hilary Mullins (Bethel), Zoe Newmarco (Rochester), Ramsey Papp (Randolph), Kris Rowley (Brookfield), and Amy Elizabeth Shalvoy (Chelsea).
General admission is as follows: adults, $22 in advance, $24 day of; students, $15 advance, $17 day of. For tickets or more information, call 802-728-6464 or visit chandler-arts.org. Chandler is located at 71-73 Main St., Randolph.
