I recently viewed the play The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project at the University of North Texas' main stage theatre. The director of UNT's production was Nicholas A. Davis and Timothy Wilson.

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Lauren Mills                Mills

THEA1340

April 16, 2003

        I recently viewed the play The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project at the University of North Texas’ main stage theatre.  The director of UNT’s production was Nicholas A. Davis and Timothy Wilson.  The settings of the play took place visually in the same place for the entirety of the play, but the actors tried to portray that they were in fact in different places in certain times of the production.  For instance, in the opening of the play, the audience gave the visualization that they were in a cemetery having a funeral for Matthew Shepard, the murder victim, but the actual structure of the scene was exactly the same as all the other scenes.  

        Before I entered the theatre I was very skeptical about what I was about to watch.  I thought to myself, “Why would UNT put on a production about a homosexual male that got beaten to death?”  Honestly I did not want to see it at all.  I thought that it would be tragic and sad, and I do not like to watch things of that nature, especially if they are true stories.  

        I wore very casual clothing to watch the play.  I wore a T-shirt and jeans, and as I recall everyone in the audience was wearing very casual clothing as well.  The audience had a pretty good turn out.  The box office said that the play was sold out, as I am sure that it was, but when I got there, every seat in the auditorium was not filled up.  That sort of irritated me, because I had wanted one of my friends to go with me, but they could not because it was “SOLD OUT”.  I do not really like to go to plays by myself, and I was forced to experience this one alone.  As I sat there for two and a half hours with the rest of the audience, I became very bored.  I know it is not right to display anything graphic or gory onstage, especially when it is a true story.  However, I feel that the actors and director could have come up with something else for The Laramie Project.  I think that I speak for many when I say that it was very boring.

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        When one thinks of the audience of The Laramie Project, one would probably think of a more middle-aged to senior citizen type audience.  The real audience at the show consisted of mostly college students along with a few senior citizens.  I believe that the turn out of the audience was caused by the location they decided to perform the play.  If the production was put on somewhere else, it would have attracted an older audience rather than a younger audience.

        My assumption about the audience is that most of them were there because they had to be as part of ...

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