Geneva Theatre Guild holds auditions for The Laramie Project

How do we respond to senseless acts of violence and bigotry within our community?  That is among the questions to be explored when Geneva Theatre Guild (GTG) teams up with The Theatre Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for a joint production of The Laramie Project this fall.  Auditions for The Laramie Project will take place at 7:00 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 7th and 8th in The Barn (on St. Clair Street) at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.  The play, which will be directed by Pat Collins, will be performed at the black box theatre in The Geneva Community Center on the first two weekends of November (November 5-7 and 11-13).

The Laramie Project is a compelling docudrama, originally created by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, based on interviews with the residents of Laramie, Wyoming in the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay student at the University of Wyoming.  The play chronicles the ways in which the residents of Laramie struggled to come to terms with Shepard's murder.  In broad terms the play explores a community, not unlike Geneva (small college town in a relatively rural setting), dealing with some very real tensions within the community:  discrimination, intolerance, homophobia, hate crimes and bullying.  Ultimately The Laramie Project forces us to think about our own response to bigotry within our own community and it challenges us to consider how we might prevent similar acts of violence in the future.

The Laramie Project is an ensemble piece with parts for eight women and eight men who will portray over 70 characters.  As a joint production between the Geneva Theatre Guild and Hobart and William Smith Colleges, approximately half of the cast (four men and four women) will be community members and the other half of the cast will be Hobart and William Smith students.  All members of the local community 18 years of age and older are welcomed to audtion.  No previous experience is necessary to audition.  Auditioners should dress comfortably, come prepared to move and to do cold readings of monologues from the play, and should bring a detailed list of possible scheduling conflicts.  Copies of The Laramie Project are on reserve at the Geneva Free Library or may be purchased at The College Store on the campus of Hobart and William Smith.

In addition to actors community members who would like to work on other aspects of The Laramie Project (community outreach, publicity, ticket sales, costumes, stage crew, etc) are invited to participate.  For further information contact either Pat Collins (pcollins@hws.edu) or production manager Eleanor Stearns (ebstearns@rochester.rr.com).