Theater Review: 'The Laramie Project' by Blue Fire Stage Company

Higganum - This weekend, the Blue Fire Stage Company presented a staged reading of “The Laramie Project,” written by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The time is the late nineties and the setting is, of course, Laramie, Wyoming. This unique play, based upon numerous interviews with Laramie residents, explores the emotional impact hate crimes have on an unsuspecting community.

The mission of the stage company is to build a collaborative, diverse and accepting community through the arts and arts education. Blue Fire Stage Company aims to be a place to “share in the collective experience of live theater….where creativity, collaboration, and education come together to enrich our community and make the arts accessible to all.”

This production was a stellar example of this mission statement, with a beautifully inclusive cast working together to bring to the stage this story of the life and death of Matthew Shepard in a most immersive manner. Following the performance, the group invited audience members to join them for a “Community Conversation” to facilitate their goals.

Director Frank Borrelli envisioned the production as a response. “It is a response to discourse in the community around who we are and who we are going to be…Are we going to be an inclusive, kind, equitable humanity or not?” He goes on to add that “this play does not make a decision for its audience around how to feel about its content,” but rather places the members of the Laramie community in the spotlight. All of the characters in the script are real people and all perspectives are included in what they say.

Borrelli chose to seat the actors throughout the audience. Folding chairs were arranged in a large circle, leaving a round performance space in the middle. Lighting pieces were against the wall on three of the sides of the room, with a microphone hanging from the ceiling
in the center of the circle.

The performers, dressed in all black, entered directly from their seats and placed themselves in the open space, sometimes bringing along a chair for their scene. A few sat down on the floor in the middle of the circle after delivering their lines and at the end of several big scenes, all of the performers onstage would pick up their chairs and exit at the same time. At some points, they simply stood up and read their lines from their seat in the audience.

Every move was thoughtful and made the work truly a “staged” reading, completely immersive and very effective, no matter where one sat in the audience. For me, the blocking for the actors about the space was the most memorable part of the performance, unlike anything I have ever experienced.

The members of the large cast were assigned more than one character to portray and some adopted different voices to do so. Other than a Muslim headscarf, there were no props or costume changes. Nevertheless, each one gave a strong performance of their various characters.

The twenty members of the inclusive cast were simply listed in the program alphabetically. They ranged in age from teens to seniors and all of them gave their all to their performances. The cast included Sareth Burgess, Michael Cartwright, Mark Degnan, Christa Douyard, Ari Doyle, Julia Faraci, Rick Fountain (who I recognized in the role of a priest,) Brandon Iovene, Amy Koepke, Chase Lenart, Joe Lenart, Vanessa Lenart, Fabian Marcano, Heather Pach, Kristina Pugatch, Susan Smith, Julia Thelen, Henry Tobelman, Carolina Villamizar, Jennifer Voegtli and Claudia Volano.

The powerful lighting design of The Blue Fire production was done by Borelli. Mark Degnan served as the technical director and Heidi Bengraff was dubbed by the director as "Madame President Stage Manager Extraordinaire.”

At 90+ minutes without an intermission, the reading was probably too long for the blistering hot cafetorium space in the former Haddam Elementary School that had been nicely transformed into a theater. Audience members were warned to plan accordingly and most did their best to make it through, but the standing fans that had been turned off, presumably to help the actors be heard, would have helped immensely.

The performances were sponsored by Prism Counseling and Support LLC. I look forward to being invited to review upcoming productions by Blue Fire Stage Company.

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local theatre venues. She posts reviews of well over 100 productions each year. In 2016, she became a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle. She continues to contribute theatre news, previews, and audition notices to local Patch sites. Reviews of all levels of theatrical productions are posted on Naugatuck Patch and the Patch sites closest to the venue. She recently became a contributor to the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Her weekly column and theatre reviews appear in the Thursday Weekend section of the paper.

Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and on Twitter @nancysjanis417 Check out the NEW CCC Facebook page.