BAM PETER JAY SHARP BUILDING

30 LAFAYETTE AVE.
BROOKLYN, NY 11217

The Laramie
Project
THU, FEB 14 2013 AT 10:30AM
BAM HARVEY THEATER
Tectonic Theater Project
Written by Moiss Kaufman and
members of Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by Moiss Kaufman and Leigh
Fondakowski
Study Guide Written by Matt Freeman, Nicole
Kempskie and Scott Barrow

photo courtesy of SPOTCO

TABLE OF CONTENTS
3

Matthew Shepard : A History

6 Gay America

6 Forward

6 Way Back When

7 Wilde Thing

8 Were Here, Were Here

8 The Great White WayTo Jail

8 Prohibition II

8 Homosexual Threat

8 Hearing the Beats

8 Stonewall

10 Gay Groups

10 Progress

10 The Sickness that Dares not Speak its Name (The AIDS Crisis)

10 Uncle Sam Doesnt Care

10 The Art of the Possible

11 In Bill We Trust

11 Crimes of Hate

12 Goin to the Chapel and Were...

13 Just Married

13 Exercise: What in the World?

13 Exercise: And then What?
14 Storied Lives (An Interview with Moiss Kaufman)
20 Moiss Kaufman Biography
21 How Does Tectonic Create Its Productions
22 Tectonic Theater Project Moment Workshop Exercises
24 Understanding Documentary Theater
25 Exercise: New York, New York!
27

Curriculum Connections
27 Confronting Hate Crimes
27 Compare and Contrast
27 Theater Action Project
28 Living Newspaper
28 Further Reading

MATTHEW SHEPARD: A HISTORY

By Matt Freeman

I would like to begin my statement by addressing

the jury. Ladies and gentlemen, a terrible crime
was committed in Laramie thirteen months ago.
Because of that crime, the reputation of the City
of Laramie, the University of Wyoming, and the
state of Wyoming became synonymous with gay
bashing, hate crimes, and brutality. While some
of this reputation may be deserved, it was blown
out of proportion by our friends in the media.
Yesterday you, the jury, showed the world that
Wyoming and the city of Laramie will not tolerate
hate crimes. Yes, this was a hate crime, pure and
simple, with the added ingredient of a robbery.
My son Matthew paid a terrible price to open the
eyes of all of us who live in Wyoming, the United
States, and the world to the unjust and unnecessary fears, discrimination, and intolerance that
members of the gay community face every day.
Yesterdays decision by you showed true courage
and made a statement. That statement is that
Wyoming is the Equality State; that Wyoming will
not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation; that violence is not the solution. Ladies
and gentlemen, you have the respect and admiration of Matthews family and friends and of count-

less strangers around the world. Be proud of what

you have accomplished. You may have prevented
another family from losing a son or daughter.
Dennis Shepards statement to the court, as
re-printed in Judy Shepards The Meaning of
Matthew: My Sons Murder in Laramie, and a World
Transformed.

Judy Shepard says she knew her son Matt was

gay when he dressed up as Dolly Parton for Halloween for two consecutive years. And while she
understands how some might interpret this as
a stereotypical assumption, she mentions many
times in her book, The Meaning of Matthew, that
she believes all mothers have a sixth sense when it
comes to their children, a mothers intuition. Mrs.
Shepard goes on to say she didnt have a problem
with the idea of her eldest son being gay; her primary concern was for Matts physical and emotional safety in a world that had proven throughout
her lifetime and beyond to be largely homophobic.
She says, Like so many parents who first discover
their child is gayor even contemplate the prospect of having a kid who grows up to be gayI assumed that Matt would never have a family of his
own. I conjured up a grim forecast for my son: a

lonely and loveless existence. Unfortunately, some

of Judys fears for her sons well being and
future would prove tragically accurate.
Born on December 1st, 1976, to Judy and Dennis Shepard, Matt spent most of his young life in
Casper, Wyoming. From a young age, Judy recalls
her son was hyper-sensitive to the emotional
needs of his schoolmates, an emotional and social
intelligence which was also expressed through an
early inclination to local politics (helping with a
political campaign at 7-years-of-age!) and doing
community and college theater. Then in 1993, as
Matt finished his sophomore year of high school,
Judy and Dennis decided to move the family to
Saudi Arabia so Dennis could start a new job with
Saudi Aramco, an oil company. While a big move
for the Shepard family, one of the benefits was that
the company paid the tuition at many international
boarding schools for their employees high-school
aged children. For Matt, who started to express
interest in a career in international relations, this
was a huge perka chance to experience life
outside of the small-town Wyoming existence
he knew.
The Shepards eventually settled on the American
School in Switzerland, where Matt would spend
the last two years of high school studying, traveling Europe, and making close friends. During his
time in Switzerland, Matts trips back to Saudi
Arabia were infrequent, but he and his parents
maintained contact primarily via fax (as e-mail
wasnt accessible where Dennis and Judy lived
and calls between Switzerland and Saudi Arabia
were about $5 a minute.). Although the separation
was difficult for Judy and Dennis, Matt seemed to
be thriving.
Sadly, during his senior year, while on a trip to Morocco with friends, Matt was attacked and raped
by three men. Judy writes, Matt was truly never
the same after that rape, and neither were Dennis
and I. We constantly worried about his physical
safety and his mental state.
As Matt pushed through to finish his senior year, it
finally came time for him to choose a college, ultimately selecting Catawba College in North Carolina, primarily based on the reputation of its theater
program. Although Judy and Dennis were again

confronted with a great distance between them

and their son, Matt seemed to be coming into his
own at Catawba. Early on during his first semester,
Matt phoned Judy at 3AM in Saudi Arabia (which
is 8 hours ahead of North Carolina) to tell her he
was gaythe moment Judy had expected from all
those Halloweens before. After Matts announcement, Judy recalls in her book:
I think it probably took me a couple of
seconds to say anything back, and Im sure
that for him those were longest seconds
in the world. Hed just opened his heart to
me and told me what I imagine was probably his deepest secret at the time. Aside
from complete rejection, the last thing I
wanted was silence. But as long as I had
anticipated this moment, I hadnt rehearsed
anything to say when it finally came. And I
didnt want to say just anythingI had to
say the right thing.
What took you so long to tell me? I finally
asked, before explaining that Id always
known and had just been waiting for him to
figure it out for himself.
If it were possible to hear the stress release
from a persons body, I could hear it fall off
Matts back and shoulders that night. How
did you know before I did? he asked, surprised and at the same time playful.
Its just a mom thing. I dont think you can
keep something like that from the person
who knows you best.
Unfortunately, Matts discussing his sexuality with
Judy did not signal his full recovery. After struggling through his first semester at Catawba as the
result of dealing with post-traumatic stress symptoms related to his rape, eventually Matt dropped
out of school and began the first in a series of
moves around the country. Over the next few years
Matt lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, back in
Casper, Wyoming, and in Denver, Colorado. Matt
made his final move back to Wyoming, this time
to enroll at the University of Wyoming in Laramie,
approximately 150 miles south of where he grew
up.
Very soon after starting his first semester, Matt,

always interested in political and social causes,

became active with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
and Transgendered Alliance on campus. On
October 6th, 1998, after a group meeting to plan
Gay Awareness Week, Matt went by himself to
the Fireside Lounge, a bar he had been to a few
times before. It is here where he first encountered
Aaron McKinney and Russell Hendersona meet-

ing that would ultimately lead to the full realization

of Judys fears. Early in the morning of Wednesday,
October 7th 1998, Matt was severely beaten, tied
to a fence, and left for dead by the two men. He
died 5 days later on October 12th, becoming forever known as Matthew Shepard, a symbol of hate
crimes in this country and a reminder that the
struggle for equality was long from over.

Greg Pierotti, Jeremy Bobb, Amy Resnick, Christina Rouner, Mercedes Herrero
Photo Credit: Michael Lutch

GAY AMERICA
Except where designated (*), the following is
largely reprinted directly from Gay America:
Struggle for Equality by Linas Alsenas, available
wherever books are sold. Used with the permission of Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS.

FOREWORD
Gays and lesbians play a very prominent role in
American life today, whether grabbing headlines
over political gains, starring in and being the subject of movies and television shows, or filling the
streets of nearly every major city to celebrate Gay
Pride every year.
Studying the history of gay and lesbian people can
be a very slippery business. Just as with
Heterosexuals, lesbians and gays are hard to define in any age and grouping them together across
time adds further complications include figures
and events that have been claimed by queer men
and women in reconstructing the history of their
community beginning with the Victorian era- because it was during that time the word homosexual appeared in America to describe a kind of
person and identity.
The history of homosexuality in America is hugeand it grows more complex every day. This [timeline] could not possibly claim to be a complete
history. My narrative tries to focus on the most
dramatic, trail breaking moments and personalities,
and it omits the everyday struggles and joys of the
millions of gays and lesbians who lived unrecorded
lives with silent courage throughout the period. It
is important to note that there often are exceptions
to every rule -- what is happening in New York
may not be true in Oakland, California, for example, or the experience of one racial or ethnic group
may differ vastly from the experience of others.

WAY BACK WHEN

It may be hard to appreciate that just over a hundred years ago, people didnt use the words gay
and lesbian to describe a kind of sexuality. Of
course, guys have been attracted to
guys and gals have been attracted to gals since at
least ancient times (the ancient Greeks left us explicit sex scenes on their pottery as proof, to take
but one example). But the concept of homosexuality as a sexual orientation appeared in America
during the late 1800s. We know that earlier, colonial Americans had homosex, but they didnt think
about sexual identity the way we do today. Instead,
sodomy was the term colonists used to describe
various sexual acts that didnt lead to procreation,
or pregnancy. (In fact, sometimes the word sodomy was used for certain sexual acts, such as
oral sex, that a man and a woman were physically
able to do together.) The colonists Puritan religion
maintained that these acts were an offense against
God. While religion was certainly a dominant reason for outlawing sodomy, historians have argued
that colonists had a practical reason for doing so
as well: it was particularly crucial for them to have
children because their lives depended on it. Conditions in the North American wilderness were harsh,
and the more workers they added to the community, the better their chances of survival.
In the early colonies, sodomy was no joke: it was a
crime sometimes punishable by death. (Then
again, so was witchcraft.) The colonists didnt believe that only certain people could be attracted to
people of the same sex-they thought sodomy was
an evil act by which everyone could be tempted.

WILDE THING
Unfortunately, it seems that most public discussion
of homosexuality during the Victorian era centered
on scandals. The best-known such scandal was
the trial of Oscar Wilde.
Wilde was a playwright living in London, England,
who was world famous for his colorful personality and witty plays, including The Importance
of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. Wilde
was enamored with a younger man named Lord
Alfred Douglas. The two had an intimate (though
troubled) relationship for several years. Though
Wilde was married and a father, he and Douglas
would arrange to have sex with lower-class young
men in exchange for gifts or money. Meanwhile,
Douglass father, the marquess of Queensberry,

was enraged that his son was spending so much

time with the controversial and flamboyant Wilde.
The marquess began intimidating and harassing
the playwright. Wilde responded with a libel suit,
which he lost, thereby leaving himself open to
charges of gross indecency. Though given plenty
of opportunities to escape England, Wilde stayed,
and during his trial in 1895, he stated an eloquent
defense of love between men. Nevertheless, he
was convicted and sentenced to two years of hard
labor. Wilde served his prison time and died a few
years later, in 1900, a penniless and broken man.
His trial was well covered in American newspapers, although some newspapers, like The New
York Times, considered his crime too heinous to
describe. In the newspapers extensive coverage of
Wildes case, from the trial until his death, neither
the crime nor the charge was ever named. (The
Times would not print the word homosexuality

Moiss Kaufman turned the trials of Oscar

Wilde into a riveting human and intellectual
drama called Gross Indecency: The Three
Trials of Oscar Wilde. Expertly interweaving
courtroom testimony with excerpts from
Wildes writings and the words of his
contemporaries, Gross Indecency unveils its
subject in all his genius and human frailty.
The play was one of the most performed plays
in the country the year it opened, and has since
been performed around the world.

until as late as 1926.)

WERE HERE, WERE HERE

THE HOMOSEXUAL THREAT

As America entered the new century, most people

still thought all homosexual men were by definition
highly feminine, like the fairies who could be
found in New Yorks less-reputable neighborhoods.
But by the 1910s and 1920s, middle-class men
had developed the beginnings of what historian
George Chauncey calls the gay world in New
York.

Illogically, homosexuals were also roped into

hysteria about Communistsgays and lesbians
were considered dangerous not only because of
their supposed predatory perversion or deviant
behavior, but also because they were thought to be
vulnerable to blackmail. Beginning in 1947, President Harry S. Trumans National Security Loyalty
Program instructed the State Department to fire
suspected homosexuals as security risks.

THE GREAT WHITE WAY TO JAIL

Meanwhile, in midtown New York, Broadway was
at its most popular during the 1920s, with one
season putting on two hundred and fifty different shows at seventy theaters. (In contrast, there
were only fifty-four shows during the 2005-2006
season.) In the twenties, several plays opened
that notoriously dealt with homosexuality. As early
as 1923, Sholom Aschs Broadway play God
of Vengeance, had a lesbian theme that caused
the producer, director, and cast to be arrested for
obscenity.

PROHIBITION II
This was just the beginning of a dark decade for
homosexuals. When Prohibition was repealed with
the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in
1933, a new mechanism was introduced by states
for monitoring the moral order of the public: liquor licensing. Part of the argument for Prohibition
had been the number of social problems associated with saloons, such as prostitution and disorderly public behavior. The mere presence of homosexuals in a bar was considered disorderly by the
police, who could force the bar to close. For the
next thirty years, homosexuals in states such as
New York would be legally prohibited from openly
socializing or working where liquor was being sold.

HEARING THE BEATS

On October 7, 1955, writer Allen Ginsberg read
his landmark poem Howl in a San Francisco gallery. The poem began, I saw the best minds of my
generation destroyed by madness. and went
on to list a vivid variety of experiences, including
several explicitly gay encounters. The poem became an anthem for a generation of rebels, people
who didnt fit in to the rigid orthodoxy of 1950s
America.

STONEWALL
The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street was a
dingy bar with its front window painted black that
served watered-down drinks in unwashed glasses.
The Mafia owners paid about $2,000 a week in
bribes to the police to stay open, but even so, the
bar was raided about once a month. The bar had
warning lights that flashed when the police were
on their way in so that customers could stop dancing and touching, and so that the bartenders had
time to jump the bar and pretend to be customers
(to better their chances of not getting arrested).
The weekly bribes usually bought the bar a headsup tip from the police that they were on their
waybut on June 27, the tip didnt come.

That night, the warning lights flashed, and eight

detectives barged in. The raid started off with
the usual insults and rough handling. The police
arrested some customers, but let most of them
go. There was a crowd outside the bar that night,
and when departing drag queens left, they struck
poses for the cheering onlookers. When police
paddy wagons pulled up to take away the arrested
customers, the crowds mood suddenly shifted.
Enough was enough. As the police came out of
the bar, the bystanders began yelling. Then they
started throwing bottles and coins.
The police were stunned-this had never happened
at a gay bar raid. Homosexuals didnt fight back.
Someone threw a garbage can through the bars
front window, and the police got scared. They retreated back into the bar. Someone squirted lighter
fluid into the bar through the broken window and
began throwing in lit matches. The police tried to
come outside, but the crowd wouldnt let up- one
police officer grabbed a hostage and pulled him in.
They beat the man and arrested him for assault.
The street was in chaos: police beating people,
people throwing concrete blocks and garbage at
police cars. But a total of only thirteen people
were arrested that night, seven of whom were
Stonewall employees.
All throughout the next day, people came by to
check out the scene of the trashed bar. Someone
had scrawled Support Gay Power and Legalize
Gay Bars on the entrance, and a crowd began
to build. That night, the riot control unit returned
to confront the thousands of people milling about
- soon the street erupted into chaos again, with
police randomly beating civilians, and people
striking back by throwing bottles and garbage.
Passing cars were swallowed by the crowd and
rocked, terrorizing the passengers. The chaos
lasted until four oclock in the morning, when
the last of the police left.
Pioneering gay rights activist Barbara Gittings
at the first homosexual rights demonstration,
Philadelphia, July 4, 1965

GAY GROUPS*
The Stonewall Riots prompted a few gay radical networks to form, such as the Gay Liberation
Front (GLF) which started a newsletter called
Come Out! After a fairly disorganized year, the GLF
disbanded and a new organization emerged called
the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). The GAA became
known for its media zaps. These zaps would
have GAA members confront politicians at public
events about their stance on gay rights. As a result,
John V. Lindsay, the New York Mayor of the time,
passed legislation that prohibited the discrimination of homosexuals in the work place and led City
Councilwoman Carol Greitzer to consponsor the
gay rights bill that eventually passed in 1986.

PROGRESS
Gay rights activists were finding more and more
supporters among straight politicians, most notably New York City Congresswoman Bella Azbug
and San Franciscos State Assemblyman Willie
Brown. In 1973, the National Gay Task Force
(NGTF, later called the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force, NGLTF) was formed as a truly national
gay rights organization. Despite its shoestring
budget, the NGTF was instrumental in getting the
U.S. Civil Service Commission to stop excluding
homosexuals from federal employment in 1975,
and it helped make gay rights an official priority of
the Democratic Party during the 1976 and 1980
national conventions. Activists even nominated a
gay vice presidential candidate, Melvin Boozer, for
the Democratic Party at the 1980 convention.

THE SICKNESS THAT DARES NOT SPEAK

ITS NAME [The AIDS Crisis]
At first, there was so much confusion surrounding
the disease: what was causing it, how to test for
it, and what could be done about it. Described as
a rare cancer in the very first Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report in 1981, the mysterious
illness was named GRID (Gay-Related Immune

10

Deficiency). After reports surfaced that some heterosexual hemophiliacs, drug addicts, and Haitians
had been diagnosed with the disease, the name
was changed in 1982 to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

UNCLE SAM DOESNT CARE

Meanwhile, the federal government was doing
very little in response to the rapid spread of AIDS.
Although the CDC had described the disease as
an epidemic as early as 1981, President Ronald
Reagan refused to provide adequate funding for
dealing with the disease. In fact, he didnt event
say the word AIDS in public until 1986, and his
first major speech to mention AIDS was in 1987
when almost 21,000 people had already died
from it.
Of course, there were some people in the government who were doing whatever they could to help,
like the struggling, underfinanced researchers at
the CDC. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop took
a politically brave stand in 1986 by recommending an aggressive education program for youth:
Education about AIDS should start at an early age
so that children can grow up knowing the behaviors to avoid to protect themselves from exposure
to the AIDS virus. Then, in 1988, the Presidential
Commission on HIV, headed by Admiral James
Watkins, recommended laws that prohibited discrimination against people with AIDS and encouraged AIDS education as early as kindergarten. The
recommendations were largely ignored.

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

The 1980s contained many setbacks for gays
and lesbians, and certainly AIDS was the primary
battle to be fought, both at a societal level, and
for too manya personal one. But there were
still enough political gains during the decade to
give homosexuals in America hope. One important development was the founding of the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC) in 1980 as a gay/lesbian
political lobbying organization. By 1988, HRC
could brag that it had become the ninth largest

political action committee in the country with a

budget of $2.1 million. Also, the Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was founded
in 1985 to counter inaccurate and sensationalized
coverage of the AIDS crisis, and the organization
has since developed into a powerful media watchdog group focused on representations of gender
identity and sexual orientation.

IN BILL WE TRUST
When Clinton became president in 1993, he
seemed to be a godsend to the gay and lesbian
community. Queer activists were desperate for a
presidential ally after eight years of Reagan and
four years of Bush (the first President Bush). In
stark contrast, Democratic Party candidate Bill
Clinton promised to get rid of the militarys prohibition of homosexuals and increase AIDS funding.

Silent Soldiers
But despite all these advances, gay and
lesbian activists were disappointed by big
setbacks during the Clinton years. The first
was Clintons failure to deliver on his promise regarding the militarys exclusionary
policy toward homosexuals.

CRIMES OF HATE
As the new millennium approached, gays and lesbians all over the country were feeling pretty good
about the direction things were heading. Then
several high-profile murders reminded them that
there was a lot more work to be done.
On October 7, 1998, a twenty-one-year-old University of Wyoming student named Matthew
Shepard met two guys at the Fireside Lounge, a
gay hangout in Laramie, Wyoming, and asked
them for a ride back to campus. The two drove
Shepard out to a field, robbed him, severely beat
him, tied him to a fence with his own shoelaces,
and left him to die. Shepard was discovered
eighteen hours later by a passing bicyclist, and
he was pronounced dead on October 12. At the
trial, the defendants argued a gay panic de-

fense: they had gone insane temporarily because

they claimed Shepard made sexual advances on
them. They also said they had only wanted to rob
Shepard, not kill him. The jury was unmoved, and
both men received two consecutive life sentences
in-one could have received the death penalty, but
Shepards family intervened. At Shepards funeral,
a notorious antigay protester named the Rev. Fred
Phelps and his family (as members of his Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas) carried
signs reading Matthew Shepard Rots in Hell and
God Hates Fags. Afterward, there was an attempt
by President Clinton to add sexual orientation as
a protected characteristic to federal hate crime
legislation (which would strengthen and expand
the Justice Departments ability to prosecute such
crimes), as well as a similar move in the Wyoming
state legislature. Both attempts failed.
On July 5, 1999, Barry Winchell was brutally
beaten to death with a baseball bat by a fellow
Five weeks after Matthew Shepards murder,
Moiss Kaufman and fellow members of the
Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie,
Wyoming and over the course of the next year,
conducted more than 200 interviews with
people of the town. From these interviews they
wrote the play The Laramie Project, a chronicle
of the life of the town of Laramie in the year
after the murder. The Laramie Project is one of
the most performed plays in America today.
Army Airborne Division soldier at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky, because he was believed to be gay
(Winchell was dating a transgender woman at
the time). A great deal of publicity followed, with
heavy criticism of the ineffectiveness of the Dont
Ask, Dont Tell policy. It is sad to note that afterward, Fort Campbell significantly increased the
amount of gay discharges given out, and reports of
harassment in all of the armed services shot up.
If anything good can be said about these sad
events, it is that they did not go unnoticed.
Shepards murder inspired a number of songs by
celebrity performers, a play titled The Laramie
Project, and three movies (The Laramie Project,
The Matthew Shepard Story, and Anatomy of a
Hate Crime), while Winchells story was told in a
Showtime movie in 2003 (Soldiers Girl). Trans-

11

gender youth Brandon Teena had been raped and

then murdered a week later on New Years Eve,
1993, and his death inspired a 1998 documentary
and a 1999 feature film, Boys Dont Cry (for which
Hilary Swank won an Oscar for Best Actress).
The portrayals of these horrible deaths reminded
Americans that although the antics of Will and
Jack might be on TV every week, many American
queers lived in terrible danger.
GOIN TO THE CHAPEL... AND WERE
As Americans celebrated the turn of the century
in 2000, the idea of same sex couples marrying
legally was considered far-fetched by many, even
though Hawaii and Alaska had come close to
allowing it in the 1990s. The issue was revived
when Vermont introduced civil partnership laws in
2000, which basically permitted same-sex couples
to marry but called it a civil union instead. Then,
three years later, the Massachusetts Supreme
Court shocked the nation when it ruled that disallowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional
in the state, and the legislature would have 180
days to act, until May 17, before the ruling
would go into effect.
But even before that date, San Franciscans stole
the spotlight. On February 12, 2004, Mayor
Gavin Newsom announced that the city would
begin issuing marriage licenses to homosexual
couples. This soon led to a whole rash of gleeful
marriage celebrations across the country, including
Sandoval County, New Mexico; New Paltz, New
York; Multnomah County, Oregon; and Asbury
Park, New Jersey.
Then came the backlash. The California Attorney
General took the city of San Francisco to court
and in March, the California Supreme Court ordered the city to halt giving out marriage licenses
to same-sex couples (by then, about 4,000 such
marriages had taken place). The San Francisco
marriages were soon invalidated, and eventually
the rest of the spontaneous weddings would face
the same fate. A couple weeks after the San Francisco weddings began, President George W. Bush
announced his support for an actual proposed
amendment to the U.S. Constitution- called the

12

Federal Marriage Amendment banning same-sex

marriages in all states. Its supporters in Congress
tried to force a direct vote on the proposal within
months (but failed), and the measure was eventually put to a vote in 2006, when it failed again.
But nothing could stop the May 17, 2004, marriages in Massachusetts, where thousands of
people cheered the couples lining up at Cambridge
City Hall. The marriage issue was much discussed
in elections a few months later, as eleven states
voted on so-called Defense of Marriage Acts. The
issue kept coming up in the presidential election
that year, although even the Democratic candidate,
John Kerry, did not endorse same-sex marriage
(though he did support civil unions). For the Republicans, the issue was complicated by the fact
that Vice President Dick Cheneys daughter (and
campaign manager) Mary was an open lesbian.
Candidate Cheney avoided talking about the issue as much as he could, and Mary Cheney later
stated that she actually came very close to quitting as campaign manager because of the marriage issue ... but didnt. An organization of gay
Republicans called Log Cabin Republicans refused
to endorse Bush because of his views on marriage,
but it didnt make much of difference: not only was
he reelected, but all eleven DOMAs passed in their
respective states (Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky,
Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah).
As of the writing of this book, the campaign for
legal recognition of same-sex couples continues
across the country, with each state a different battleground. Forty-four states have passed Defense
of Marriage laws, and twenty states have written
same-sex marriage bans into their constitutions.
The supreme courts in New York and Washington
disappointed gay and lesbian activists by refusing
to extend marriage as Massachusetts had done.
Meanwhile, Connecticut, California, Hawaii, Maine,
and New Jersey joined Vermont to offer
civil partnerships. California was the first state
in which the legislature passed a law instituting
same-sex marriage, but Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger terminatedvetoedit. A case questioning the constitutionality of the federal Defense of
Marriage Act is making its way through appeals

courts. There are still no final verdicts on marriage

cases in the Maryland, Connecticut, and California supreme courts, while in certain states, state
legislators have introduced bills making same-sex
marriage legal.
JUST MARRIED
In 1892, Alice Mitchell was regarded as insane in
part because she suggested that she could marry
Freda Ward. Just over a century later, Boston
marriages no longer refer to the living arrangements of coupled Victorian-era women. They are
legal marriages available to same-sex couples
throughout Massachusetts today. Marriage is also
available to same-sex couples in Canada, South
America, and several European countries and
even more nations have civil partnership laws.
The militaries in countries such as Canada, Great
Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Israel accept,
indeed actively recruit, gays and lesbians. These
countries remind Americans that the fight for
equality is far from over, and a brighter, fairer
future is withinreach.
A quick look back at history inevitably leads us
to hope, despite unrelenting discrimination, harrowing hardships, grave losses, and continuing
threats to equality. Within one century, homosexuals have gone from being considered depraved
sinners, criminals, and sick degenerates to being
a political force to be reckoned with, visible leaders in a number of spheres, and proud members of
the American public living openly and honestly. No
doubt, theres a lot to be proud
EXERCISE: WHAT IN THE WORLD?
Now, with a general understanding of the history
of Gay America, its time to paint on a larger canvas. In groups, take the different years noted above
and make your own timelines of other events that
also happened during similar dates. One group
should focus on foreign events, another on events
in your state, and still another could focus on
much more local news. It might also be interesting
for a group to select another communitys history
to map in the same way.

What connections can you make between this

timeline and that of the world, the nation, and the
neighborhood? What is universal about these timelines? What separates them?
To finish, have a timeline presentation that clumps
together the different events of a period so you
hear the many different perspectives from that
particular time. What was happening in the Gay
America timeline is bound to be different from
what was happening in international news.
Hearing all the major events and happenings
from that particular time will help us to see the
bigger picture and hopefully remind us that no
one story is complete and can ever speak for
everyone and everything.
EXERCISE: AND THEN WHAT?
Its been nearly 15 years since Matthew Shepards
tragic murder and in that time many things have
happened in the ongoing fight for gay equality.
Basically, our timeline of Gay America needs to
be updated! I encourage you to break into small
groups and look at some of the events and issues
discussed below, as well as adding to the list with
other topics you discover and think are relevant.
Based on what you learn, what connections can
you make to things that appear in Linas timeline?
Some Suggested Topics:
Defense of Marriage Act
Proposition 8
The Legality of Gay Marriage
Homophobia, Bullying, and Gay Suicides
It Gets Better Campaign
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate
Crimes Prevention Act
Dont Ask, Dont Tell

13

Storied Lives

Moiss Kaufman enjoys telling stories. He

especially enjoys telling stories about how we
tell stories. The Venezuelan-born, gay playwright
and director says narrative serves a very primal
purpose in our life.
Whether they are historical, collective or individual,
Kaufman has spent the past 15 years exploring
stories, writing about them, interpreting them. He
is at ease in the distant past, where sexuality was
hidden by all but the most extreme of individuals.
And he has made a place in the present, exploring
a town and its understanding of its own dark
side. And yet, he holds out hope for the future,
believing that a story a child hears today could
give him hope for a life that may be 10 years
from being achieved.

Courtesy of Photofest

Kaufman has told the story of how Victorian

England told its story of sexuality during the trial
of Oscar Wilde. He called it Gross Indecency:

14

The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and won critical

acclaim for the show in 1997.
Six years later, he directed the story, written by
Doug Wright, of how Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
born Lothar Berfeldetold her story of oppression
and repression from Nazis and Communists. The
play, I Am My Own Wife, went on to win the 2004
Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for
Best Play, and merited the first of two Tony Award
nominations for Kaufman, this one for directing.
But it was, in its way, a simple storyan Our Town
for the new millenniumthat became his most
well-known work, due in large part to the currency
of the subject matter but also likely because of
the HBO movie that resulted from it. The Laramie
Project, Kaufmans play about the response of the
town where Matthew Shepard was murdered, is
meticulous in its detail, because Kaufman and his
companythe Tectonic Theater Projectwent to
Laramie, Wyo., to interview and record the aftermath of Shepards killing in October 1998 as it
was happening.

So, Moiss Kaufman will go on telling stories. And

we will go on reading and watchingand maybe
even listening.

sands of dollars every year for AIDS? That it ends

with a drag show at the cowboy bar? To me, in a
town like that, that definitely is progress.

1 Storied Lives originally appeared in the November 18, 2010 edition of

Metro Weekly magazine. The interview, as originally conducted by Chris
Geidner, is reproduced here by permission of the editor.

There is a social symposiuma university symposium for social justice now called the Shepard
Symposium for Social Justice. Every year, thousands of students from all over Wyoming come
to Laramie to attend this symposium to hear civil
rights speakers and social justice speakers. So,
that is obviously some change. The nature of
the dialogue, we felt, had changed. Those were
some markers that were clear and quantifiable.

METRO WEEKLY (MW): Why write The Laramie

Project: 10 Years Later? Why did you want to revisit the site of Matthew Shepards 1998 murder?
Moiss Kaufman (KAUFMAN): When the 10th
anniversary was coming up, I realized that there
was a curiosity on my partI got very curious
about what Laramie looked like 10 years on after the crime. When we were there the first time,
we encountered a town that was very, very, very
hurtand in shock, and in turmoil because of this
murder that had happened in their midst. I often
say, I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. If
there is a murder that happens a block away from
my house, I think, Well, this is New York, thats
it. In Laramie, because it was such a small town
of 26,000 people, people there were forced to ask
themselves, Why are we making a community
here where this kind of thing happens? And they
asked themselves, Why are we raising children
like that here?
So, there was a real soul-searching that went on
during our time there, and I think that the reason
why I wanted to go back was because I wanted to
see how Laramie looked 10 years after that event.
I wanted to know: What does an American town
look like 10 years after a murder of that magnitude occurs in its heart?
MW: Now that youve gone back, you have that
additional part, how do you feel that changes the
performance?
KAUFMAN: The first thing we realized when we
went back to Laramie was that perhaps the question that we were posing was not terribly helpful.
How has Laramie changed? is not a great question. Perhaps the question is, How do we measure change? Do we measure it by the fact that
now there is an AIDSWalk that goes right down
the main street of Laramie and that raises thou-

Perhaps something that wasnt so quantifiable

was the fact that we started hearing quite a
number of people that were saying that Matthew
Shepards murder wasnt a hate crime. And they
started saying that Matthew Shepards murder
was a drug deal gone bad, or a robbery gone bad.
We found that there was a real attempt on the part
of many people in the town to rewrite history, and
to rewrite the narrative of the murder. And, unfortunately, there werent only a few people who were
saying that. It was a prettyin our opinion
prevalent view.
Now, of course, there are many people in Laramie
who say, No, absolutely, it was a hate crime. And
it was because Matthew was gay, and we have to
own this. So, that dialogue within the community
of How are we going to tell this story? How are
we going to recount this narrative? How are we going to create our identity? How are we going to tell
of our identity? Those are really the questions that
the second part of Laramie deals with.
The play is not only about the event of Matthew
Shepard and how the town of Laramie responded
to the event any more. Now, its about how a town
constructs its own identity and how a town constructs its own narrativesand how we, as individuals, and as communities, deal with the narratives that define us.
MW: The Laramie Project obviously took you to
a place where far less time had passed since the
incident that you were writing about and your
interviews and writing process began. How do you

15

see this process of gauging history as it happens

different from looking back 100 years earlier at the
trial of Oscar Wilde, as you did in your earlier play,
Gross Indecency?
KAUFMAN: I think that Gross Indecency really
inspired me to write The Laramie Project because,
when I read the transcripts of the trial, I found in
them a document that was a sort of X-ray of Victorian society. It was a document that spoke of how
Victorians felt about sexuality, about sexual orientationbut not just about those things, but also
about class, about religion, about education, about
meaning and about identity.
Even though they were trying Oscar Wilde, in the
transcripts of the trial you hear Victorian men and
women speak of what they held dear to their heart.
In those texts, you understand what were the ideological pillars of that culture at that time.
My desire to go to Laramie was in a large part
nurtured by this curiosity: Can we talk to the
people of the town and gather a document that
would operate like the transcripts of Oscar Wildes
triala document that would, in fact, record not
only how the people of Laramie felt about sexuality, sexual orientation, and hatebut how they
felt about class, how they felt about their identity,
how they felt about education, how they felt about
violence, how they felt about what were teaching
our children?
MW: The efforts you saw in Laramiewhether
conscious or subconsciousto rewrite that narrative: What was your response as somebody who
had come to Laramie back when the narrative was
more raw, as opposed to the way that people were
talking about things 10 years later? How did you
view that as a playwright?
That idea, that desire to construct an identity, is a
very profound desire for all of us as human beings.
When somebody asks you where you are from?
Well, Im from Arkansas, and I came to New York
when I was 12, and I started.
Narratives serve a very, very primal purpose in our
life. Laramies desire to re-write the narrative had
as much to do with the fact that, fortunately or

16

unfortunately, this town had given the town such a

bad reputation. Many people in Laramie said to us,
Well, weve sort of become the hate crime capital
of America. You say Laramie, and it is equivalentfor many peoplewith hate crime.
I think when something like that happens, that not
only affects an entire community because of the
event and the brutality and the fear the event generates, but because of the aftermath that redefines
your identity. And many people in Laramie feel,
No, were not the hate crime capital of America.
No, this is not what were like. There is a profound
desire to reconstruct your identity and reconstruct
your sense of self.
MW: Matthew Shepards murder, outside of Laramie, also served to reconstruct the identity of a
lot of gay people. It was a stark reminder of the
dangers that we still out there
KAUFMAN: That we all face.
MW: Yes, and, for the people who were constructing their own identity at that time, that murder
became a part of their identity because it was a
shared experience that people faced. When you
create theater around this, thats also based in fact,
how do. You think that helps outside of Laramie at
creating the narrative that we all live with?
KAUFMAN: Well, there is a way in which people
felt and feel that Matthew Shepards murder was
a defining moment in our historyin our history
as Americans, in our history as gay people, in our
history as people who are in the middle of a social
justice fight. and some would say, in the middle
of a social justice war. And Matthew Shepard was
one of the great casualties of that war.
One of the things that theater can do is provide
narratives that bring us together. Theater can
provide narratives that show us what the kind of
iconic events of our history are. When we go to the
theater, we see the re-creation of how a historical
event feltas you say, we all feel that this could
happen to all of us. And, also, The Laramie Project
tells the story of an American town dealing with issues that we as gay people have to deal with every
day. So, theres something very cathartic about

feeling that youre part of a national dialogue,

feeling that youre part of a discussion that is
happening on a national level.
I always say that there are many reasons why the
Matthew Shepard murder became that kind of watershed historical moment. There are over 1,000
anti-gay crimes in America every year that are
reported. That means there are probably another
500 that are not reported because people are in
the closet and just dont report it. But for some
reason, this one resonated. This crime was the one
that we as a nation came together and said, Look
at whats happening. It operated as a lightning
rod in our culture. When something like that happens, you have to ask, Why? Why this one? Why
Matthew Shepard?
And you know, there are many answers. Partially,
its the symbolic nature of the crime. It was a
crucifixion, and you cannot do that in this culture
without creating an incredible amount of attention.
The other reason was because he was white and
he was photogenic. A Latino drag queen who is
killedgoes home with someone, is tied to the
bed and murderedis not a worthy victim in our
culture the way Matthew Shepard was. So, I think
that theres those reasons. But theres another reason that is a very positive reason: We, as a culture,
were finally able to hear it. I profoundly believe
that had Matthew Shepard been killed the way
he was killed 10 years beforein 1988 as
opposed to 1998we would have never heard
of it. So, I think the fact that we as a culture
are somewhere where we can actually have this
conversation is something that the theater can
reflectbecause thats what we do in the theater,
we have conversations.
I think that, unbeknownst to him, Matthew
Shepard went on to become a narrative that
resonated with many of us.
MW: It resonated to the point that, a little more
than a year ago, the president signed into law the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, which obviously is a level of narrative that most stories dont reach.

KAUFMAN: I think that youre absolutely right. It

is in no small parttheres a reason why the act is
called the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Act.
These were two particular moments in our history.
The Tectonic Theater Project was able to go to the
White House when it was signed. In a way, it was
partially because we had been following this narrative so long that we needed to be at the White
House when it was being signed. It took 10 years
to get that legislation passed [after Shepards murder] and it was in no small part due to the efforts
of Judy Shepard.
MW: What has your experience been with Judy
Shepard? Obviously, shes been a strong source of
that narrative that resulted from her sons murder.
KAUFMAN: My experience with Judy has been
that of witnessing an activist being born. As she
herself says, she was a mom. And because she
was thrown into this position, she had two options:
She could demand her privacy and go home and
keep this a personal catastrophe for herself, or she
could take arms and own the spotlight that was
shone unwilling on her.
And she owned it. She became a spokesperson.
She trained herself to be able to speak publicly
and to speak from her heart. And it has been
really inspiring and magnificent witnessing the
transformation from a very private person into a
very public figure that speaks so eloquently and
beautifully about social justice and issues of
equality and identity.
For many years, she didnt see the play, she wasnt
able to see the playand I completely understood.
And. then, she finally saw the play. And, then,
we made the movie, and she came to see the
movie. And, since then, shes become an ally to
Tectonic Theater Project. And, many places where
they do The Laramie Project, they invite her to
come speak. So its really proved, for the Matthew
Shepard Foundation and for her, a very helpful tool
which is very encouraging.
MW: When you talk about the importance and
creation of narrative, The Laramie Project and,
as you said, the birth of an activist of Judy

17

Shepard almost seems intertwined as narratives

at this point.
KAUFMAN: I think so. Look, I want to be very
clear, Im not saying that because of The Laramie
Project she became an activist because this was
a woman who underwent to take on the transformation, and she made decisions at each step of
the way that, as difficult as they were, were noble.
She would fight me on thatshe would not allow
me to call her noble, but I think theres nobility in
Judy Shepard.
But I do think that definitely The Laramie Project
provided an extra forum where she could continue
to have the conversation.
MW: Obviously, the political narrative of change
is one that is front and center as LGBT advocates
look at the possibilities for change after the midterm elections, and youre bringing a show to
Arena Stage that really puts one of the key parts of
that narrative front and center. How do you bring a
show like yours to a city like this?
KAUFMAN: Bringing the play to Washington is
very moving to me. I think that there is something
important to think about, which is that, yes, political change and legislative change occur. But,
before political and legislative change occur, the
hearts and minds of people have to change. Matthew Shepard being murdered, and then that
creating - Im not going to say creating a movement because the movement already existed, but it
articulated something for the movement that was
happening at the time, was something that definitely contributed to legislative change.
There are events in our culture that galvanize us,
that bring us together as a culture, that bring us
together and that allow us to create a societal narrative. And I think that Matthew Shepard was definitely an event that allowed us to create a societal
narrative, where we all came together and said,
Yes, this is whats its like, this is what its like to
be gay in America. This thing can happen to you.
And, to Laramies credit, something like that happened in New York State, where a man was taken
to an apartment and brutalized and rapedbecause he was gay. It was in New York. There have

18

been hate crimes all over the nation. Matthew

Shepards resonated, and I think theres a way in
which Laramie, Wyo., is right in feeling, Why do
we have this reputation, as this happens in many
other places? That is a very valid discourse.
What I find problematic is: What do you do as a
response to that discourse? And I think that trying
to change the narrative may not perhaps be the
most ethical thing to do with that.
MW: Thats a subtle way to put it. Looking at your
other work, you have dealt with Oscar Wilde in
Gross Indecency and Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in
I Am My Own Wifepeople who were outsiders,
but they reveled in that. Matthew Shepardthe
narrative of Matthew Shepardwas almost the
opposite of that, thoughwanting to be a part of,
as opposed to an outsider in his community. When
youre looking at those worksall Tectonic Theater
Project works that you directedhow do you see
them?
KAUFMAN: The reason why the play is called The
Laramie Project and not The Matthew Shepard
Project is because I was really, really interested in
how the people of Laramie were responding, about
the historical event that happened as a result of
the murder.
But, I think there is a way in which - I didnt set
out to write a trilogy, and, as you know, Doug
Wright wrote I Am My Own Wifebut I think that
the recurring theme with all of them is that I am
profoundly fascinated by how we construct narrative, and I am profoundly interested in how theater
can participate in a sort of national construction
of narrative. And, I think that in that sense
that perhaps is the link or the glue between all
of those works.
Its a profound curiosity and interest in theater and
in what theater is capable of doing, what theater
is capable of generating, and what role theater can
play on a national level.
MW: Recently, a lot of public attention has been
focused on LGBT suicides. Having looked at the
way that hate played into Matthew Shepards murder, you must have thought about the way hate
plays into these suicides.

KAUFMAN: I have been incredibly dismayed by

the suicides. Not surprised, but dismayed. We live
in a culture in which a lot of the discourse is incredibly homophobic. Every time that you go to a
church or a synagogue and the rabbi or the priest
or the minister says, Homosexuality is a sin, you
are contributing to creating a society in which children feel like they need to kill themselves. Every
time people talk about the sanctity of marriage,
they are creating a society in which gay and lesbian children feel the need to kill themselves. I think
that that discourse is murderous. I feel that that
discourse needs to be called out for what it is.
The thing that people have to remember is that
other minorities are born into homes of minorities,
so that if youre Jewish youre born into a Jewish
home, if youre African-American youre born into
an African-American home. The GLBT kids are
born into homes that are usually not GLBT, and
that creates an incredible sense of isolation and
10neHnessand that makes them much more
vulnerable to virulent discourses.
Children hear what we say. When children are
bullying their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,
theyve learned it somewhereweve taught them.
So, on the one hand, we have to rejoice and we
have to be happy that the hate crimes legislation
passed, and, on the other hand, we have to not
lose track that theres still an incredible backlash
going on in our culture against our community.
That backlash takes the form of acceptable
discourse, and that that acceptable discourse
finds very virulent and vicious ways of penetrating
the zeitgeist.
MW: Youve talked so much about the importance
of narrative, and one of the things that Ive found
most interesting about the It Gets Better project
started by Dan Savage is the fact that its actuallyinitiallyLGBT people directly attempting
to influence what that narrative is. It seems like
incredible power to influence the narrative that
wasnt available in the past.

but it is a fantastic experiment in some kind of

intergenerational dialogue that has never really
occurred that way.
I always say that, as gay people, we have three
historiesthe history of the community that
includes Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman and
Proust and all of the gay and lesbian people who
came before us. Theres also a personal story,
which is that you can go to anybody in the world,
and say, What was it like coming out for you?
This ideathat there is a coming-out story
occurs in a personal realm, but it is a personal
realm that we all share. So, there is a community
history [and an individual history], but theres also
a personal history that we all share. And I think
that the It Gets Better campaign operates exactly
in that space. What it does is allow children to
see themselves 10, 20 years from now.
Thats what has been really inspiring to me. The
workers at Google did their video, the workers at
Gap did their video, the people from the Broadway community did their video - so that, hopefully,
were reaching many children with many varied
interests. So that children who are interested in
computers or the Internet, they can find in the
workers of Google some nourishment and some
support. And people who are interested in theater can look at the Broadway community and
see some support there, and we hopefully will be
serving as an antidote to the kind of bullying thats
going on.
When I was growing up in Venezuela, I didnt
know that there were any other gay people. I didnt
know that anybody else went through what I was
going through - that thought never crossed my
mind. I thought I was the only person in the world
going through this. So, the more that we go into
the different professions, communities - the more
that we try to reach children everywhere we can,
the more well be saving lives.

KAUFMAN: Absolutely, I think that it is a fantastic,

fantastic experiment in changing the narrative. Its
going to take years before we realize whether
the It Gets Better campaign really helped,

19

Kaufman received a Tony nomination for his play

33 Variations and healso directed Rajiv Josephs
Pulitzer Prize finalistBengal Tiger at the Baghdad
Zoo(with Robin Williams) on Broadway in Spring
2011.
Other Broadway credits: Mr. Kaufman directed
the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playI Am
My Own Wife, earning him an Obie award for his
direction, as well as Tony, Drama Desk, Outer
Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel nominations.His
playsGross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar
Wilde,The Laramie Projecthave been among
the most performed plays in America over the last
decade.
Mr. Kaufman recently directed his first opera,El
Gato con Botas (Puss in Boots), which received
rave reviews during its limited run.
Other credits include: The Nightingale(La Jolla Playhouse),A Common Pursuit(Roundabout),Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo(Mark Taper Forum);Macbethwith
Liev Schreiber (Public Theater);This Is How It
Goes(Donmar Warehouse);One Armby Tennessee Williams (New Group and Steppenwolf Theater
Company);Master Classwith Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theater); andLady Windermeres
Fan(Williamstown Theater Festival).
Mr. Kaufman alsoco-wrote and directed the film
adaptation ofThe Laramie Projectfor HBO, which
was the opening night selection at the 2002
Sundance Film Festival and won the National
Board of Review Award, the Humanities Prize and
a Special Mention for Best First Film at the Berlin
Film Festival. The film also earned Mr. Kaufman
two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director
and Best Writer. He is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project and a Guggenheim Fellow in
Playwriting.

20

Photo: Moiss Kaufman by Lara Alcantara

Moiss Kaufman

How Does Tectonic Create its

Productions?
An Introduction to Moment Work
Over the past fifteen years, Moiss Kaufman and
Tectonic Theater Project have developed a wholly
unique methodology, creating some of the most
theatrically thrilling and important American theater of the past decade. Following the world-wide
success of The Laramie Project, and with growing
interest in Tectonic and its unique approach to
making theater, the Tectonic Education Arm was
officially launched in 2005. At the core of the Tectonic Education Arm is Moment Work, a technique
for creating and analyzing theater developed by
Moiss Kaufman.

The final phase of Moment Work is implementation: the same process Tectonic Company members have engaged in thousands of times to create
the world of the play. The focus is on the dialectical relationship between the studio work, the
subject matter, and the writing process. Participants create a body of work and then discover how
the theatrical forms learned at the onset and the
subject matter talk to one another.

Using the laboratory setting, the technique encourages participants to create work that is uniquely
theatrical. It enfranchises writers, actors, designers,
and directors to collaborate in the making of work
focusing on the use of all theatrical elements to
become true theater-makers, investigating all the
possibilities of the medium.
How do you do Moment Work?
Participants in Moment Work Trainings actively
engage with the elements of the stageexploring
lights, sound, costumes, movement, text, architecture and others elementsto discover their full
theatrical potential and the poetry inherent in each
element. This experiment in theatrical language
and form encourages participants to think theatrically, to unlock their theatrical imagination, and to
discover the multitude of ways that the elements
of the stage can communicate. Participants are
taught to analyze and critique the work from a
structuralist perspective.
After developing a familiarity with each theatrical
element, Moment Work participants engage in active dialogue between about their theatrical ideas
and the elements of the stage. Starting with a
piece of text, a simple phrase of music, an image,
or a body of research, the focus is to continue the
exploration of the elements of the stage, applying
them to the specific challenges of making original
work that articulates new theatrical ideas.

21

Tectonic Theater Project

Moment Work Exercise
Submitted by Scott Barrow
This exercise is a combination of many exercises
that we do during a full three day moment workshop and is designed to give the participants an
idea of our methodology for creating and exploring
a piece as well as draw the attention of students
and teachers to all of the tools that are available
to us as storytellers in the theater outside of just
script and text.
Exploring Props:
Students sit on one side of the space as an
audience would.
The teacher places an object or objects in front
of the group on the floor. (ex: a cane, a ball,
newspaper, a paper towel tube, etc.)
Students with an idea of how they want to use the
object in an unconventional way approach the object. They say, I begin. and share a short improvised interaction with the object. When they are
done they say, I end. And return to their seats
The Laramie ProjectChristina Rouner, Jeremy Bobb Photo Credit: Michael Lutch

22

while the next volunteer hops up. (ex: the student

extends the canes hook upwards from her shirt
and makes it look around; its a bird! Or another
student peers through the paper towel tube scanning the horizon; A Spyglass!)
After a round of this, the ideas will begin to build
on each other as a vocabulary of these props is
developed. The teacher will then ask, What can
we do to further theatricalize this Moment? The
students will then add elements to the moments
after seeing them. (ex: In the paper towel moment,
what happens if the actor rocks as if the waves
are moving him? What if the audience makes
wind sounds? How does it change the story if we
turn the light down or off?)
Analysis:
As storytellers, what elements of the stage did we
utilize to communicate more fully?
How was the experience different as the actor
versus as audience making suggestions?
Once a prop is used in a certain way, how does
that change the audiences understanding of that
prop? How does it change the way in which the
actor can use it to communicate?

Tectonic Theater Project

Moment Work Exercise
Submitted by Scott Barrow

The Museum

An exercise in spatial analysis and relationship.

What tells a story? What can we communicate
non-verbally and how?
The class lines up on one side of the room,
resembling the relationship of an audience to a
proscenium stage.
Three actors walk through the open space
experimenting with level: (ex: sitting, stretching, laying down, striding etc.)
The director calls FREEZE! when she sees
an interesting picture. She then is allowed to
make one small change to the body position of
each actor. (ex: turn the head of one actor to
look at the actor on the ground, or turn an actors body away from us, etc). The actors hold
this composition for a minute or so, while the
audience observes the sculpture.
Each audience member then writes down
their idea of:

The relationship of the characters

What has just happened

How the characters feel about

the event

If it is an abstract or absurdist museum piece,

questions like what is the general mood? or
What might the artist call the piece? may
serve better.
Structural Analysis: Audience and director share
their ideas, which almost always have similar
threads of content. The discussion helps to define
what tools: positioning, expression, stance, were
successful in communicating ideas.
What made us think that actor was sad?
Victorious? Scared? Etc
Did anyone else think they were lovers?
Fishing? Etc
How could we make it clearer that they
were not fighting? etc
Further Reflection:
What time of day was it?
What was the weather?
Where are they?
Where are they coming from or going to?
Sometimes it is useful to snap a quick picture of
the piece so the actors can relax during the discussion and yet we can still check in with the image.

23

Understanding
Documentary Theater
By Nicole Kempskie
DOCUMENTARY: of, relating to, or employing
documentation in literature or art
Synonyms: factual, hard, historical, literal,
matter-of-fact, nonfictional, objective, true
Antonyms: fictional, fictionalized, fictitious, nondocumentary, non-factual, non-historical, unhistorical (Merriam Webster Dictionary)
Just as there are multiple genres of film and literature, so too are there many different types of
theater. On any given day somewhere around the
world you may find a theater company performing
theatrical pieces that are Realist, Absurdist, Musical, Shakespearean, Expressionist, and Farcical, to
name a few. Each genre contains different acting
styles, theatrical conventions, and techniques that
are unique to them. One of the newer theatrical
genres that has become very popular in the past
few decades is documentary theater, also referred
to as: docudrama, ethno-theater, ethno-drama,
and investigative theater. This form of theater
takes real events and uses the medium of theater
to depict the unfolding of these events. Johnny
Saldaa, one of the major scholars writing about
this genre, explains:
An ethno-drama, the script, consists of
analyzed and dramatized significant selections from interview transcripts, field
notes, journal entries, or other written
artifacts. Characters in an ethno-drama
are generally the research participants
portrayed by actors, but the actual
researches and participants themselves
may be cast members. (Saldaa, Qualitative Inquiry, Volume 9, 2003)

24

Unlike reality TV, the most common form of reality-based entertainment we consume in this
country, documentary theaters goal is to try and
represent the truth of an event and in doing so,
raise awareness, open up dialogue, and educate
and inform an audience about the subject matter at hand. The writer of a documentary theater
piece has the same ethical obligations that a good
journalist doesto honor and truthfully represent
those they are depicting, and to tell their story
with respect, integrity, and honesty.
Tips for watching documentary theater:
Track the facts of the event and the moments
that comprise the overall story. Documentary
theater pieces are based on real events and
so will contain factual information that can be
further researched in the media (internet,
newspapers, magazines, biographies, etc.).
Notice how the writers use the medium of
theater and its unique conventions to inform us
of the facts and tell the story. How have they
constructed reality?
Try to discern what the message being
delivered is, and what the point of view of the
writers might be. Identify what the writers do to
persuade us of their point of view.

EXERCISE: NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

CATEGORIES (DATA AS 2010)

LARAMIE

NEW YORK*

Population, 2010

30,816

8,175,133

Persons under 5 years, percent, 2010

5.8%

6.3%

Persons under 18 years, percent, 2010

15.9%

21.6%

Persons 65 years and over, percent, 2010

7.5%

12.1%

White persons, percent, 2010 (a)

89.5%

44.0%

Black persons, percent, 2010 (a)

1.3%

25.5%

American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2010 (a)

0.7%

0.7%

Asian persons, percent, 2010 (a)

3.2%

12.7%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2010 (a)

0.1%

0.1%

Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2010

2.8%

4.0%

Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2010 (b)

9.2%

28.6%

White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2010

83.8%

33.3%

Foreign born persons, percent, 2007-2011

6.4%

36.8%

Language other than English spoken at home, percentage 5+, 2007-2011

11.2%

48.5%

High school graduate or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2007-2011

96.0%

79.3%

Bachelors degree or higher, percent of persons age 25+, 2007-2011

50.0%

33.7%

Persons per household, 2007-2011

2.23

2.61

Median household income, 2007-2011

$41,304

$51,270

Persons below poverty level, percent, 2007-2011

25.7%

19.4%

1,737.5

27,012.5

POPULATION

RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CULTURE

EDUCATION

HOME AND INCOME

GEOGRAPHY
Persons per square mile, 2010
Notes:
(a) Includes persons reporting only one race
(b) hispanies may be of any race, so also are inclued in applicable race categories
* Includes data for all 5 NYC Boroughs
Source: US Census Bureau State & County QuickFacts

25

Laramie

New York City and Laramie, Wyoming are approximately 1,782 miles apart! Although separated
by a great distance, by looking at the above chart
we start to see how things compare in New York.
What are some of the big differences you notice?
How about any similarities? As a class, have a
conversation about what these numbers mean
and what else you want to know. Ask yourself,
how might your life be different if you lived in
Laramie? After the class conversation, split into
5 groups, each one focusing on one of the above
categories and discuss the data on these two U.S.
Cities. What picture is forming for you about life
in Laramie versus life in New York? How can you
best take this insight back to the other members
of your class?

26

As a group, decide on an artistic way to highlight

a connection between Laramie and New York.
What relationship between the two cities will
you highlight? Also, think about the best way to
present that information. Will your group create
your own chart to illuminate an idea? Will you
create a short scene between two family members,
one living in Laramie and the other in Brooklyn?
Just think, every time The Laramie Project is
presented in a place outside of Laramie, Wyoming,
it helps to inform the audiences understanding of
that community. While youre watching the play,
think about how the play shapes Laramie and
what information it gives you about the place
and its people.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

By Nicole Kempskie

Confronting Hate Crimes

In 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, which does the following:
Provides funding and technical assistance to
state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to help them
to more effectivelyinvestigate and prosecute
hate crimes.
Creates a new federal criminal law which
criminalizes willfully causing bodily injury
(or attempting to do so with fire, firearm, or
other dangerous weapon) when:
(1) the crime was committed because of
the actual or perceived race, color, religion,
national origin of any person or (2) the crime
was committed because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability of
any person and the crime affected interstate
or foreign commerce or occurred within
federal special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction. (www.justice.gov)
Use the information above as a starting point for
a class investigation into hate crimes, researching
and discussing the following:
What is a hate crime and how is it different from
other types of crime?
What might be the motivation for committing a
hate crime?
What measures were necessary in order to get
this law passed?
Who advocated for this law?
What opposition did the President and Congress
face in passing this law?
What effects has this law had on incidents of
hate crime in our country?
Standards: CCR6-12 Reading 1-9; Speaking & Listening 1-6; Language
1-6; Blueprint: Making Connections

Compare and Contrast

In addition to the play there is a film version of
The Laramie Project produced by HBO, as well
as a documentary and multiple narrative films.
Choose another version for the class to view and
have students compare and contrast the techniques used in each form to tell Matthews story.
As a class try to determine what benefits and
challenges there are in each form (theater and
film) and which has the potential for having the
most impact on an audience.
Standards: CCR6-12 Speaking & Listening 1-6; Language 1-6; Blueprint:
Theater Literacy, Making Connections

Theater Action Project

Over the course of a week, ask students to identify
an issue in their community that troubles them
something that they would like to change, see
change, or raise awareness about. As a class, list
all the individual issues that the students have
identified. By voting or a process of elimination,
refine the list to 4-5 topics that are most important
to the class on the whole. Divide the class into
small groups and assign each one an issue from
the final list to research. Have each group then do
the following:
Identify 34 people in their community to
interview about that issue.
Brainstorm a list of interview questions that
pertain to the issue such as: how this issue is
affecting their community; the history and the
background of the issue; individual and group
actions that can be taken to influence change;
and political issues that can be taken to influence change.
Arrange and conduct interviews with community members and then transcribe them.
Develop a 1-2 page documentary theater
scene in the style of The Laramie Project that
dramatizes excerpts from the interviews.
Share and perform their scenes for the class
and if possible, the community.
Standards: CCR6-12 Writing 3-9; Speaking & Listening 1-3; Language 1-6;
Blueprint: Making Connections, Theater Making, Community and Cultural
Resource

27

Living Newspapers
As part of President Roosevelts New Deal during
the Depression, the Federal Theater Project (FTP)
was instated to provide work opportunities for unemployed theater professionals across the country.
One major program created for the FTP was the
Living Newspaper Unit in which playwrights, reporters, and actors would work together to create
theater pieces taken directly from the newspaper
headlines of the day. Many of these plays had a
strong social agenda, and thus, stirred up a lot
of controversy. Divide students into small groups
and have each group research one of the following
aspects of the Living Newspapers work:
The plays: Ethiopia, Triple-A Plowed
Under,Injunction Granted,One-Third of a
Nation,Power,and Spirochete.
The leaders: Hallie Flanagan and
Elmer Rice.
The content: events and issues covered and
the ideologies of the writers.
The challenges: censorship, HUAC, and the
governments response.
After students present their research to the class,
share the following quote with them and discuss
the questions below:
The [Living Newspaper] seeks to dramatize a
new strugglethe search of the average American today for knowledge about his country and
his world; to dramatize his struggle to turn the
great natural and economic forces of our time
toward a better life for more people.
(Hallie Flanagan, National Director of the Federal Theater Project)

Compare the goals of the Living Newspaper

to what Tectonic Theater Projects The Laramie
Project accomplishes. In what ways are they
similar? Different?
Do you think that theater is an appropriate
and effective vehicle for addressing serious
political and social issues?
How do you think The Laramie Project has
been received in different communities across
the country?
Could The Laramie Project have been presented 20 years ago? 50 years ago? Why?
Why not?

28

For an additional hands-on theatrical activity, have

students choose a headline from a local newspaper
to dramatize.
CCR6-12 Reading 1-9; Writing 1-9; Speaking & Listening 1-3; Language 1-6; Blueprint: Theater Making, Making Connections, Theater Literacy.

Further Reading
Choose one of the following plays to read after
the performance that are linked to The Laramie
Project and writer Moiss Kaufman, and that
deal with gay rights and issues in a profound
and significant way:
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National
Themes by Tony Kushner
I am my Own Wife by Doug Wright, directed by
Moiss Kaufman on Broadway
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
by Moiss Kaufman
Standards: CCR6-12 Reading 1-9; Blueprint: Making Connection

BAM 2013 Theater Sponsor

Major support for BAM Education programs provided by:

Support for the Professional Development: Addressing

Bullying in the Schools in conjunction with NYS DASA
and The Laramie Project provided by Donald Capoccia in
memory of Felicia Garcia, Michael Palm Foundation, Tony
Randall Theatrical Fund, and Ted Snowdon
Expansion of BAMs Community and Education Programs
made possible by the support of the SHS Foundation.
Leadership support for BAM Education programs is
provided by Cheryl & Joe Della Rosa, The Irene Diamond
Fund, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable
Trust, and The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation.

Foundation and Lemberg Foundation.

Development of new education and community initiatives
in the BAM Fisher supported by The Achelis Foundation;
Altman Foundation; Booth Ferris Foundation; Brooklyn
Community Foundation; The Simon & Eve Colin
Foundation; Ford Foundation; Lemberg Foundation;
The New York Community Trust; Rockefeller Brothers
Fund; The Rockefeller Foundation New York City Cultural
Innovation Fund; The Skirball Foundation; and Seth
Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation
Education programs at BAM are supported by:
Barclays Nets Community Alliance; Barker Welfare
Foundation; Tiger Baron Foundation; BNY Mellon; The
Bay and Paul Foundations; Constans Culver Foundation;
Charles Hayden Foundation; Jaharis Family Foundation;
Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation; David
and Susan Marcinek; Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation;
National Grid; PennPAT: a program of the Mid Atlantic
Arts Foundation; Tony Randall Theatrical Fund; The
Jerome Robbins Foundation, Inc.; May and Samuel
Rudin Family Foundation; Rush Philanthropic Arts
Foundation; Sills Family Foundation; Surdna Foundation;
Michael Tuch Foundation; Turrell Fund; Joseph LeRoy
and Ann C. Warner Fund.

Leadership support for school-time performances,

pre-show preparation workshops and educational film
screenings is provided by The Simon and Eva Colin

Education programs at BAM are endowed by:

Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Endowment Fund for

About BAM Education & Humanities

BAM Education is dedicated to bringing the
most vibrant, exciting artists and their creations
to student audiences. The department presents
performances and screenings of theater, dance,
music, opera, and film in a variety of programs.
In addition to the work on stage, programs take
place both in school and at BAM that give context
for the performances, and include workshops with
artists and BAM staff members, study guides,
and classes in art forms that young people may
never have had access to before. These programs
include Shakespeare Teaches, AfricanDanceBeat,
AfricanMusicBeat, Dancing into the Future,
Young Critics, Young Film Critics, Brooklyn Reads,
Arts & Justice, and our Screening programs, as
well as topically diverse professional development
workshops for teachers and administrators.

the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation

to provide an arts and humanities curriculum
to students who perform on stage in BAMs
DanceAfrica program.
Humanities at BAM
BAM presents a variety of programs to promote
creative thinking and ongoing learning. The
Artist Talk series, in conjunction with mainstage
programming, enriches audiences experience
during the Next Wave Festival and the Winter/
Spring Season. The Iconic Artist Talk series,
launched as part of BAMs 150th anniversary
celebrations, features iconic artists and companies
examining the evolution of their work at BAM over
the years through on-screen projections of original
footage and images from the BAM Hamm Archives.

BAM Education also serves family audiences

with BAMfamily concerts, the BAMfamily Book
Brunch, and the annual BAMkids Film Festival.
In addition, BAM Education collaborates with

In September 2012, BAM launched On Truth

(and Lies), a series hosted by philosopher Simon
Critchley that explores the ambiguity of reality with
prominent artists and thinkers, as a co-presentation
with the Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Department of Education and Humanities Staff:

Study Guide Writers/Consultants

Stephanie Hughley, Vice President, Education and

Humanities
Suzanne Youngerman, Ph.D.: Director
John P. Tighe, DMA: Assistant Director
Violaine Huisman: Humanities Director
John S. Foster, Ph.D.: Education Manager
Gwendolyn Kelso, Program Manager
Eveline Chang, Program Manager
Shana Parker, Event Manager
Jennifer Leeson: Administrative Coordinator
Nathan Gelgud: Box Office Manager/Program
Associate
Tamar MacKay, Administrative Assistant
Molly Silberberg, Humanities Assistant
Rebekah Gordon, Administrative Assistant
Hannah Max, Humanities Intern
Lulu Earle, Education Intern

Scott Barrow is a Moment Workteaching artist

and an actor and with Tectonic Theatre Project,
having performed in 33 Variations, the tours of
The Laramie Projectand the Laramie Project
Epilogue as well as Dead Mans Curve. He also is
a fight choreographer and adaptsbooks into plays
for education outreach programs.
Matt Freeman (EducationDirector, Tectonic
Theater Project)has worked with organizations
such as The New Victory Theatre, The New York
City Arts-in-Education Roundtable, and The CUNY
School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) M.A.
in Applied Theatre where he currently serves
as the Assistant Director. Matt holds a B.A. in
Theater and Arts Administration from Muhlenberg
College, an M.A. in Arts Administration from
Teachers College, Columbia University, and an
M.A. in Applied Theatre from CUNY SPS.

Community, Educational, & Public Affairs Programs;

Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin; William Randolph Hearst
Endowment for Education and Humanities Programs; Irene
Diamond Fund; and The Robert and Joan Catell Fund for
Education Programs.
Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through
funding from:

BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the

New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation
Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette
Montgomery, Delegation Leader. The BAM facilities are
owned by the City of New York and benefit from public
funds provided through the New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin;
the New York City Council including Council Speaker
Christine C. Quinn, Finance Committee Chair Domenic
M. Recchia, Jr., Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy
Van Bramer, the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, and
Councilwoman Letitia James; and Brooklyn Borough
President Marty Markowitz.

Humanities at BAM also include year-round literary

programs: Unbound, a new fall series presented
in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore that
celebrates contemporary books and authors from
across the literary spectrum, and the ongoing Eat,
Drink & Be Literary series in partnership with the
National Book Awards, in the spring.
The department also hosts master classes,
including the Backstage Seminar, a series of
workshops on the process of theater-making with
BAMs production staff and guest artists.

Nicole Kempskie is a playwright, educational

writer and consultant, and teaching artist.

Copyright 2012 by Brooklyn Academy of Music

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and
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the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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