After Laramie

The Laramie Project is complete and wow, what an incredible experience. I've never seen so many people in the theatre and apparently neither has anyone else in the cast for a very long time. We had a full house for every single show, it was incredible. The audience was filled with really great energy, they wanted to enjoy the show and they got really into the play. The talkback sessions afterward were nothing short of amazing. Many people took something from the show or identified with it in a very personal way and it feels great to have been apart of that, this is the first show I've ever done that tackles some very serious contemporary issues in our society such as discrimination and homophobia. It’s also the first thing I’ve done that’s carried some political weight with it as gay and lesbian societies in the university have used the show to spearhead some new agendas and programs, all of them for good causes.

But the audience, oh my god, the audience was incredible. The show was incredibly well received, we even had two shows where the cast had to come out again and give an encore bow. Now that is something I’ve never ever done in my life. People really identified with what they were shown and it got them talking, it was fantastic! The talkback were amazing, parents were opening up and sharing stories about their gay children and issues that the play brought up were discussed. We even talked about issues in the play that weren’t put fully into the spotlight, like the roles of drugs and alcohol and how they lead to violence. It was such an incredible experience to listen to all of this, people were really opening up their personal lives for others to listen, and I felt so privileged to have been there. What was a surprise for me was listening to some of the discussions raised by the high school students. I found they where the ones who asked some of the most provocative and personal questions out any of most of the talkbacks. I had forgotten how intelligent some of these kids are, and how they are surrounded by these hateful messages in their daily lives and in school.

It was a privilege to be apart of this show, but now its over. What I do is very ephemeral... those words I say are no longer mine, if they ever were. During the last production of any show there is a great sense of release as you let go everything that you have forged and have represented over the coarse of the production. But I’m glad, presenting this show and seeing how it has connected and meant so much to so many people was for me an utterly exhilarating life experience. I can now say that I got the chance to work on something important and meaningful like this at least once in my career, and I’m very proud of that.

Thank you to everyone who came out, performing is more fun when you have someone in the audience and I wuv you all. Its also a lot more terrifying, but, you know, meh… It really has been an incredible experience working on Laramie, people laughed, cried, opened up, and learned. And seeing this happen in people was nothing short of spectacular.


And now that I've vacuumed myself up a bit, and with Pyramid Song stuck in my head, I will now go off and catch up on all my homework, at last.

“All my lovers were there with me
All my past and futures
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt”
Radiohead, Pyramid Song