As Pride Month comes to an end, the Brownsville Repertory Theater did not want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the inclusiveness the community is creating while also finding a way to support organizations that offer help for the LGBTQ community, such as the Trevor Project, with a virtual play that will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
High school actors from several schools in the community will perform “The Laramie Project: An online reading” that will accept monetary donations for the Trevor Project, an American non-profit organization focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.
“That’s one of the reasons why I kind of wanted to do it this month, is the last day of pride month but I think it’s very very relevant and it should serve as a reminder that every community no matter the size can still make a difference and can still be accepting and loving and that’s a message that should always be there,” Artistic Director Chris Ikner said.
“The idea of raising funds not only for the Brownsville Repertory Theater through donations but also taking donations for a cause that so many believe in, The Trevor Project. The idea that hate is not a value, which is kind of a true line of that show, is something that I think is important, an important story for people to be reminded of during this time with everything that’s going on.”
The play was developed by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project in New York and it’s about the Matthew Shepard incident that took place in 1998 in Wyoming. Shepard was a gay man that was found beaten and tied to a fence and the play focuses on the aftermath of the incident and how it affected the community.
“It was a hate crime and it is kind of interesting looking at the news and seeing how things like different terms pop up, that was one of the first times the term ‘hate crime’ was brought to public attention after that happened,” Ikner said.
“[Kaufman and the theater] were kind of looking for an idea to write about and what they did was these actors went to Laramie after the event had happened and interviewed people of the town about the incident and everything that happened and how they felt about it. So, it doesn’t necessarily deal with the event happening on real time, but the aftermath of it and how it actually affected an entire community and how people’s voices actually made a difference and made a change to a community.”
To attend the virtual play, email [email protected].
