Albany students to perform 'Laramie Project'

ALBANY - Hatred, violence intolerance and homophobia are tough subjects for just about anyone to tackle.

A group of local students are doing just that. They are using the theater in hopes of not only changing attitudes in their school, but in their community as well.

It was 1998 when a 21-year-old college freshman was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead near Laramie, Wyoming. Several days later he did die. Two young men were charged with murdering him because he was gay.

Now the headline-making story has come to Albany High School.

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AHS Theatre Ensemble: The Laramie Project

Instead of working from a script, student actors are working from interviews and actual police and court documents to re-tell the graphic death of Matthew Sheppard.

"I get a little teary-eyed every time we go through the lines because it's so raw and emotional and saying the words, because you know these are the exact words somebody said, somebody real," student actor Rosa Collins said.

The Albany High School Theatre Ensemble and its director have taken on controversial subjects before, like suicide with "Alizay's Diary," and have long wanted to tackle "The Laramie Project" and issues of hatred, bigotry and violence.

"This play is a gateway for those discussions because we do have issues of racism here and adultism, classism, we have isms as we do in every system in the country," director Ward Dales said.

The young actors are hoping "The Laramie Project" will not only evoke a discussion among their peers about homophobia and intolerance, but they are hoping the discussion will branch out in the community -- because they say it is a community problem too.

In fact, it was an outside group -- the fanatical Westboro Baptist Church, with its anti-gay message -- that showed up on the school's doorstep and rebuked the student body earlier this year. The group also protested at the funeral of Shepard.

"What it brought to Albany High is that we actually got to see what hate looks like, not just talk about it or hear about it, but to see it when it came to Albany High," student actor Fatima Shepard said.

According to the Capital Region Gay and Lesbian Community Council 97 percent of gay and lesbian students in the Capital Region report they are verbally or physically harassed at school.

Performances begin on Nov. 19. At the end of each there will be panel discussions.