2008 Woodie Awards
Play To Shed Light On Hate Crimes
Katie Hannafin
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Focus
After two successful performances of "The Laramie Project" earlier this month, the cast of the play will be putting on an encore production in response to student requests this Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Student Union Theater.
The two-hour play is sponsored by the Rainbow Center and there is no cost for attendance, although a suggested donation between $2 and $5 is encouraged. Proceeds will go to covering the cost of the production and any remaining funds will go towards "True Colors," a Connecticut non-profit organization which directly reaches out to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth.
"We believe this is an educational and emotional play that everyone should have the opportunity to experience, and we don't want money be a deterrent," said director Eric Knudsen, an 8th-semester journalism and social welfare double major.
This encore production was more challenging to pull off than the premiere of the show because half of the original cast, including the original co-director, had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances, Knudsen said. However, the new director and cast remained dedicated and focused on producing another quality performance.
Knudsen decided to direct this production after seeing it performed at Brown University his freshman year when he felt the UConn community could benefit from the production's emotional and radical themes.
"The LGBT community is largely misunderstood and misrepresented in society, including UConn, and this play is a way for people to see how hate towards a group of people manifests into violence," he said.
"The Laramie Project" is a tribute to Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming who was kidnapped and tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., where he was severely beaten and left to die. The dialogue is taken from actual interviews with residents of Laramie.
Nearly 10 years after Shepard's murder, this group of UConn students is determined to keep his spirit alive and shed light on hate crimes, with the seven cast-members playing more than a half-dozen characters each.
The two-hour play is sponsored by the Rainbow Center and there is no cost for attendance, although a suggested donation between $2 and $5 is encouraged. Proceeds will go to covering the cost of the production and any remaining funds will go towards "True Colors," a Connecticut non-profit organization which directly reaches out to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth.
"We believe this is an educational and emotional play that everyone should have the opportunity to experience, and we don't want money be a deterrent," said director Eric Knudsen, an 8th-semester journalism and social welfare double major.
This encore production was more challenging to pull off than the premiere of the show because half of the original cast, including the original co-director, had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances, Knudsen said. However, the new director and cast remained dedicated and focused on producing another quality performance.
Knudsen decided to direct this production after seeing it performed at Brown University his freshman year when he felt the UConn community could benefit from the production's emotional and radical themes.
"The LGBT community is largely misunderstood and misrepresented in society, including UConn, and this play is a way for people to see how hate towards a group of people manifests into violence," he said.
"The Laramie Project" is a tribute to Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming who was kidnapped and tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., where he was severely beaten and left to die. The dialogue is taken from actual interviews with residents of Laramie.
Nearly 10 years after Shepard's murder, this group of UConn students is determined to keep his spirit alive and shed light on hate crimes, with the seven cast-members playing more than a half-dozen characters each.
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