Click here for a review of the show by Neil Zolot in the Saugus Advertiser posted on Wicked Local.
Click here for a preview article about the show by Jeannette Hinkle in the Saugus Advertiser posted on Wicked Local. Photos by David Sokol.
Click here for a an album of photos taken at a dress rehearsal. Photos by Rob Webster.
The Theatre Company of Saugus is excited to announce our upcoming winter production, The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The show is a fascinating collage of characters reacting to the death of a gay student in the town of Laramie, Wyoming.
The performance dates of The Laramie Project are March 4-5-6, 11-12-13, 2016. Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 PM, and Sunday afternoons at 2 PM.
The venue for the show is the Black Box Theater – Room C09 – at Saugus High School / 1 Pearce Memorial Drive / Saugus, Massachusetts 01906. See our Directions page.
Tickets are $20 for adults, or $17 for seniors, students, and children. For complete details about purchasing or reserving tickets, please see our Tickets page.
We are donating a portion of each ticket sold to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and another local charity that advocates for the rights of LGBTQ youth. Theatre Company of Saugus presents The Laramie Project in collaboration with the Tectonic Theater Project and Susan Burk and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
The audience is invited to join the cast in a talk-back discussion after each of the Sunday matinée performances.
In October 1998, a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten, and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised, and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay.
The members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. They conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town. Some were directly connected to the case, others were citizens of Laramie, and the breadth of their reactions to the crime is fascinating. The visitors constructed a deeply moving theatrical experience from these interviews and their own experiences.
The Laramie Project is a breathtaking theatrical collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable. This will be a collaborative and community building experience. We will be working with local LGBTQ organizations and sharing our proceeds of the project with those who continue the work in the community.
The actors in The Laramie Project portray members of the Tectonic Theater Project, who in turn each portray multiple characters in the town of Laramie.
Theatre Company of Saugus is proud to announce the cast of The Laramie Project. First, we list a bunch of talented people who are new to the TCS stage:
- Meg Anchukaitis (April Silva, Narrator 2, Romaine Patterson, Newsperson)
- Victor Brandalise (Baptist Minister, Gil Engen, Email Writer, Conrad Miller, Reverend Fred Phelps)
- Richie Dejesus (Stephen Belber, Shadow, Andrew Gomez, Cal Rerucha)
- Laura Edwards (Barbara Pitts, Catherine Connolly, Zubaida Ula, Baptist Minister’s Wife)
- Darius Eslami (Moises Kaufman, Dr. Cantway, Rulon Stacey, Mormon Home School Teacher)
- Jack Ferdman (Russel Henderson, Aaron McKinney)
- Evelyn Holley (Zackie Salmon, Amanda Gronich, Reggie Fluty, Sherry Johnson)
- June Kfoury (Marge Murray, Lucy Thompson)
- Damien LaCount (Greg Pierotti, Matt Mickelson, Kerry Drake)
- Maxie Mettler (Jedediah Schultz, Shannon)
- Elvira Schoenthal (Eileen Engen, Waitress, Alison Mears)
- Julie R. Schoenthal (Rebecca Hilliker, Newsperson, Sherry Aamenson, Tiffany Edwards, Narrator, Jen)
- Greg Sullivan (Seargeant Hing, Doug Laws, Bill McKinney, Rob DeBree)
And here are those who have previously appeared with TCS:
- Jonathan Barron (Doc O’Connor, Matt Galloway, Murdock Cooper)
- Derek Clark (Philip Dubois, Jon Peacock, Jonas Slonaker, Stephen Mead Johnson, Dennis Shepard)
- Gabriel Clark (Aaron Kreifels)
- Kelli Gaynor (Narrator 1, Newsperson)
- Patrick Harris (Andy Paris, Father Roger Schmit, Phil Labrie, Harry Woods)
- Sherri Raftery (Newsperson, Jury Foreperson)
- Larry Segel (Judge, Jeffrey Lockwood, Governor Jim Geringer)
- Jessica Stockton (Leigh Fondakowski, Kristin Price, Bailiff)
- Stacey Wilson (Trish Steger, Anonymous)
Thank you to all who auditioned. We had a wonderful turnout of truly talented actors! The stage manager is Mary Moffett.
The production features original music composed by Brian Nickerson.
The director of the show, Jason Hair-Wynn, has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ issues, in addition to his extensive theater experience. He has traveled and spoken at schools across the country. He has been recognized by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian Social Education Network). He has been the keynote opening ceremonies speaker at the Boston State House for Pride.
He was featured in an MTV documentary Fight For Your Rights, which focused on his personal experience with harassment and violence against gay students in American High Schools. For more information on the director, see his website: www.jhair-wynn.com
Theatre Company of Saugus 