The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project  is a show that touches on very sensitive topics and therefore must be presented ideally in order to address such topics appropriately. My goal for this show was to help encapsulate the audience in the trauma, heartbreak, and forgiveness of this incident through lighting, which plays a critical role in supplementing the actors’ performance and determining the mood of each scene.

Laramie, Wyoming is a very small town with a population of only 25,123 in 1998. As Jedadiah Schultz states, Laramie is “a town with a strong sense of community — everyone knows everyone … A town with a personality that most larger cities are stripped of.” This meant to me that Laramie’s community should instill a sense of warmth and comfort—a feeling incomparable to that of a large, bustling metropolis, for Laramie is in fact “Like No Place On Earth.” These sensations of warmth can be seen in my depictions of a sunny Wyoming day along with the lively but intimate scene of the Fireside Bar.

Upon reading the script, I concluded that The Laramie Project  is a show that presents themes of isolation, tolerance, and finally community. I worked with the director on analyzing the script and repeatedly emphasized the fact that this is not a play about a hate crime; this is rather a play about the community surrounding such a vicious act.

While each of the people in this community is in their own world, these people frequently witness their worlds collide. To mimic this, I heavily utilized haze throughout the production to emphasize each beam of light. A large portion of this work of verbatim theatre consists of monologues, which is why I often would use specials to illuminate the actors, placing each character in their own intimate world for that moment. However, for other moments in the play, such as the news scene, these beams would cross, symbolizing chaos and a total loss of control. For instance, this news scene is essentially a bombardment of media that looms over the once quiet town, as an unwanted reputation develops and overwhelms Laramie’s innate hospitable charm.

The Laramie Project  presents a number of contrasting moments, routinely switching between chaos and comfort, which is why lighting is crucial in emphasizing the intended mood of each scene. My intention was to effectively convey the unifying themes of this show through lighting by finding an ideal balance between discomfort and alleviation, for while this tragic incident may be over, the ongoing battle against hate still continues, which is the exact thought I hope the audience walks away with.