Laramie Project, Ten Years Later: A Performance Post-Script
As I've said in a previous post here I was truly honored to participate in The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, an Epilogue at the Newmark on Monday Oct. 12.
I also plan on attending The New Century Players production of the original play, The Laramie Project, at Rex Putnam High School (the show runs through Oct. 31, for ticket information click here).
But I never actually expected to hear from anyone who had witnessed this moment in history.
Then I opened up a message in my Facebook mailbox.
Here is a letter from Dale Hottle (pictured above) who, as he says below, was there when the original events occurred.
It meant the world to me that he shared this letter with me and now I share it with you.
Byron,
I know it has been a bit now since you performed the Laramie Project Epilogue. I wanted to tell you thank you to you and all of your fellow actors from that night. Thank you for helping to tell this story. Thank you being a part of this historic change. But mostly thank you for the love, compassion and warmth that each of you added to the story and persons represented.
The story that is told in this play is amazing and one very close to my heart. I was in Laramie when the original events occurred. I was even one of the Angels in Angel Action so that night some of my friends were represented on the stage.
I had a lot of trepidation as I got closer to the evening of the show. I kept remembering going to the vigils, the way it changed the town, making the armbands for hope, living for each bit of news as it developed, standing as an angel with the hate behind me, gunman across the street (just in case) and the smiles from the crowd, the hope it encouraged. Each piece added to it. The play is true. Laramie is a one point of separation town and the emotional impacts were huge. I spent so long living in the past as I walked into the theater that I had forgotten that the play dealt with 10 years later. As the play went on, I saw the hope, the change, the characteristics that came to life. Each actor was true to what is a Wyoming mentality. I don't know if you had video of who you represented or how the preparations where done but each of you were very close to representing exactly what exists in the hearts of people still there. It reminded of how far we have come....how much farther we have to go. But it is something that I do see when I go home to visit, an encouragement to say the least.
This play helped to share that and you each did an wonderful job in sharing those emotions whether, sorrow or anger, joy or frustration, but mostly hope. The hope for change and the ability to see it.
I'm not a writer so I guess what I am trying to say is Thank you. The play touched and warmed my heart with memories and hope and you each did an excellent job. As I am unsure of how to share this with the rest of the cast but please feel free if you are in contact.
Once again thank you
Dale Hottle
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|184.0.85.xxx |2012-01-12 17:47:49 ronnie gustafson - dear uninformedin response to the above letter from frank willis. i was also there and a close friend of matties, as well as someone who also knows (knew ) dale hottle who wrote the before mentioned letter. let me tell you something mr willis-he did get in that car with those bastards that night because he hadnt driven to the club and wanted a ride home. his apartment was several miles from the club he was at that night.yes he had a dark side, as well all do..and if you did a little research before jumping to conclusions you'd see the man was dealing with some mental and physical stuff that would destroy lesser people. those tow men that set him up were known drug dealing loser bastards that i had the unfortunate chance(es) to wait on when iwas serving tables at the only local 24 hr restaurant laramie had.not one redeeming quality in either of them, and they were known for lying, cheating, stealing, and manipulating anything and anyone to get what they wanted. so the category of promising someone ...
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Last Updated (Thursday, 22 October 2009 13:57)
An earlier episode in his life seems to show his penchant for seeking this kind of danger. In a March, 1999 interview with Vanity Fair, Judy Shepard discussed that while Matthew was on vacation in Morocco during his senior year in high school, a gang there raped him. Again, it seems that Matthew Shepard put himself in a perilous situation with straight males (I've been to Morocco many times and people don't get dragged off the street and raped).
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