"This is the time to begin the healing process," says a father in the play, THE LARAMIE PROJECT, as he confronts the hate crime murderer of his son. My students want to perform this play in order to promote acceptance of diversity in our school and to show the results and severity of bullying.
My students are gifted visual artists at a commercial art high school in New York.
62% are considered underprivileged with free or reduced lunch.
As the drama teacher, I have found my students, 9th-12th grades, to be incredibly talented in all areas of theatre arts. Despite increasing budget cuts in recent years that affected our productions and threatened our drama program, my students remained passionate, dedicated and determined to do theatre. They have greatly affected their audiences with their intense, passionate, raw performances, most recently with an original, dramatic production of DRACULA funded by a one-time grant from our local community.
Our school has a sizable population of gay/lesbian/bisexual students. The older students have been proud of how accepting everyone has always been of each other. In the past two years, however, there has been a disturbing increase among younger students in the bullying and harassment of gay students and those perceived to be gay.
My Project
In order to combat the rise in gay bashing and bullying in our school, the senior drama students and I would like to produce the play THE LARAMIE PROJECT and perform it for our English classes. THE LARAMIE PROJECT, by Moises Kaufman, tells the true story of college student Mathew Shepard who was bullied, beaten and murdered because he was gay, and the impact of this hate crime on the town of Laramie, Wyoming, and the entire nation. After each performance we will have a discussion session with the audience, cast, a guidance counselor and myself to address the issues of gay bullying in our school and to give gay students information about where they can get support.
This project will allow my students to contribute to our school community and leave a positive impact after they have graduated. It also requires them to reach a higher maturity level and take responsibility for the social consciousness they are creating, experiences which will help prepare them for college.
The risers we request will be used to build up our stage in our black box theatre so the audience can more clearly see our production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT.
We believe this production will do a great deal to open the dialogue in our school about the importance of accepting diversity among our students, and will help to combat the rising issue of the bullying of gay students, and of students who are perceived to be gay, in our art high school.
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