By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 14 | The president of the Tyler Civic Theatre Board, Ray Beal announced at an impromptu press conference held outside the theatre's entrance yesterday, that the theatre's board members had voted to proceed with the staging of performances of the play, The Laramie Project. Local Gay activist Troy Carlyle, Chairman of Tyler Area Gays, a local LGBT equality rights organisation told KLTV ABC7News that he was "proud of the city of Tyler," and that this decision showed that there were significant changes in the attitudes towards LGBT issues.
Last month, the theater board voted unanimously to present the play, however, board members reconsidered the decision after some protests in the small East Texas city had objected to the subject matter.
The play, written by by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, portrays the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of Laramie, Wyoming. The play is also based on company members' own journal entries and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder is widely considered to be a hate crime motivated by homophobia because of Shepard's being openly Gay.
Tyler, which has been nicknamed the "Rose Capital of the world" because of its large role in the rose-growing industry; about 20% of commercial rose bushes produced in the U.S. are grown in the city & surrounding Smith County, is considered to be a politically heavily conservative bastion with a large and growing retired senior citizen population.
According to KLTV ABC7News, the supporters to stage the play numbered at around 100 while there was only a lone protester in opposition across the street while the board met inside.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment