Now Playing
by Paul Myrvold.

The Laramie Project at The Western Stage
I have to confess that I traveled to The Western Stage to see The Laramie Project with some reserve. I know the script having done a reading of it a few years ago at Gavilan College in the heyday of the Monday Night Play Reading series. It is a unique piece of theatre – a hugely ambitious docu-drama focussing on the people and events surrounding the infamous Matthew Shepard murder. Created by Moisés Kaufman and members of The Tectonic Theater Project of New York City, the show recreates the interviews the group did with the citizens of Laramie, both those directly involved with the case and those with greater or lesser degrees of separation. The writers also mine the public record – official statements, news articles, broadcasts and court room transcriptions. These are the real words of real people set on a stage.
I was curious to see how the play works in a full production, because the show has danger signs all over it. The Laramie Project is not short; there two intermissions. It's all talk with little action. In the wrong hands, it could be a disastrous bore; it could easily crash and burn – a bold, risky choice to start a new season.
With the sure hand of Jon Selover directing and a capable cast with improbably varied experience, The Laramie Project is utterly and absolutely absorbing. Start with the intimate confines of Hartnell College's Studio Theatre. Configured as a three-quarter round black box, the space is ideal for this production. A superbly minimalist set by David Parker sets twelve foot high 4x4s upstage at irregular distances crossed with 2x4s at the top suggesting at once telephone poles, a fence, and for those so inclined, crosses of crucifixion. Parallel horizontal boards against a dark back wall represent mountains and a dimly discernible paint treatment gives the impression of clouds against a nighttime sky. A mélange of dissimilar chairs and benches gives a visual reinforcement of the play's rugged Wyoming individuals.
When the entire cast of twenty-three takes the stage, it forms a veritable crowd of actors and inevitably some backs will always be to the audience. It could be a director's nightmare or, in Selover's case, an opportunity. Because the cast is trained in the vital acting technique of active listening, each performer is a mirror reflecting in face and body what is happening in the scene. I never felt I missed anything if an actor gave me his back for a while, but it seemed rather that I became a part of the scene. More importantly, the necessarily naturalistic acting style demanded by the script also pulls the audience in. Again, the intimacy of the space works to the director's advantage. It is as though the audience is really in the same room with the people on stage and, of course, they are. The audience becomes the proverbial fly on the wall listening in fascination, as the characters reveal themselves and the events with all its compassion, horror, humor, love and hatred.
Each actor takes on several roles and all are successful on their own terms. One expects fine work from Western Stage veterans such as Hal Peiken, Jeffrey T. Heyer and Dawn K. Flood (an exemplar of active listening – always engaged in the scene even when standing in the darkness of the entry way) and they deliver fine performances, creating unique, memorable individuals. Clifford Gilkey uses his size and considerable stage presence to great effect as the ebullient Doc O'Connor. Valerio Biondo is effective in his several roles especially as a bible-thumping preacher, a gay cowboy and is very touching as a deeply closeted older gay man watching a home coming parade. Susan Keenan gets it just right as the head of the university drama department. Ron Perez brings moral authority to his role of Father Roger Schmidt. R. J. Adams makes an enthusiastic, likeable bartender with his Matt Galloway. And Matthew McDowell, a charming performer loaded with charisma, was ideal as student Jedadiah Schultz who goes against his parents' wishes to perform a scene from Angels in America. I was amazed to read in his program bio that "this is his first show ever." An auspicious beginning.
The Laramie Project continues through June 29th. Go to www.westernstage.org/ for more information.

Mount Madonna School's Ramayana!
The themes of "truth, respect and right living" cloaked in a romantic adventure story out of Hindu mythology make The Ramayana an enduring classic worthy of repeated tellings. To be sure, there are appealing aspects that make it ripe for dramatization – complex family relationships, love, loyalty, treachery, deceit, honor, mistakes, violence, egomania, kidnapping, battles, monkey armies, demon armies and a couple of giants and a dragon for good measure. Put it all on stage in an epic three and half hour show with world class costumes, impressive sets, a competent combo playing a pop rock score with Indian flourishes and you have Mount Madonna School's 30th annual production Ramayana!
Please remember this is a school play. True, is has become a tradition that draws a diverse audience from near and far, but it is still a school play. The performers range in age from adorable pre-schoolers (I loved the little lady bug who had her hand held as she marched around the stage) to seniors, some of whom have done the show for a dozen years. The principals all know what they were doing and perform with authority. The huge cast (it seems as if the entire school is on stage) is well-disciplined, enthusiastic and totally committed to the work. I was especially impressed with the agile Andrew Whitaker as the monkey hero Hanuman and Jasbir Nijor as the evil ten-headed King Ravana.
The show is a visual treat. A unit set with a platform and curving ramps left and right is swiftly re-dressed to indicate the many locales. A quickly dissipating stage fog very effectively adds mystery and atmosphere. The splendid spectacle has some stupefying theatrical effects. The evil giant Kumbhakarna (Chuck Schuessler) stands perhaps 20 feet tall with rolling eyes and swinging arms. The smoke spewing dragon with electronic eyes (operated by the stage crew – Premdas Rohan, Sudhir Dass Frankenberg, Sidd McDonald and Chuck Shuessler) is frankly amazing. Wonderful stagecraft!
The great thing here is the commitment from the school, parents and extended community that ensures the kids will have a first class experience and learn on multiple levels not just performance, but history, culture and morality. In Ramayana! the children absorb in the most direct way the lessons of truth and virtue and the perils of selfishness, pride and egomania.