The auditions for the spring drama,  The Laramie Project, have already been held, and parts have been divided out between the enthusiastic participants. WFS has been holding a spring play for many years, and this year’s non-musical spring play is coming out in mid-April. Compared to plays from recent years, this year’s spring play stands out for originality, and it seems like everyone is looking forward to it.

The Laramie Project is written by Moisés Kaufman. The play is written according to the historical murder of a gay student named Matthew Shepard at the University of Wyoming. This murder received  global attention afterwards in terms of social justice and homosexuality. The play draws on hundreds of interviews from the original event and puts them together. “The unique part about this play is that every single person actually existed in the murder event,” introduces English Teacher Lauren Gutstein, “Every voice is taken directly from the real interviews so you can hear a lot of real voices in this play, which shows how the society back then saw this event and specifically the town people’s perspective.”

Gutstein is in charge of running the production this year, and was the one to choose the play. This is her first time directing the spring play for the school. “I think that this year’s play is quite a challenge for students,” Gutstein explains. “Usually we do a comedy or a fiction play for the spring play, but this year’s play is different because it is a non-fiction play/ docudrama, so it will be kind of new for students who join in the play this year. However, the play itself is artistically composed, which makes it not a boring documentary.” As a Quaker school, WFS holds strong ideas of simplicity, equality, and peace etc. which makes the play fits perfectly in terms of the similarity of the ideas. “This play talks about ideas I think fit our school’s Quakerism. It mentions concepts such as tolerance, acceptance and so on. In my opinion, it is going to be a good lesson for both audiences and the students who are in the play,” says Gutstein. “It is an educational play on account of the fact that it talks about social justice and homosexality.”

This year’s spring play caught a lot of positive attention among students. Some students think that the spring play provide them with an incredible opportunity to learn more about acting, and they are all looking forward to participating. “I signed up the audition immediately when I first saw it. I love acting and I want to be an actor someday, so I think the spring play is a chance for me to learn more acting skills and I can’t wait to be on the stage,” says Sissi Jian ’20. There are also many students who are not interested in acting; however, they want to see the play: “Though my dad is an actor, I’m not really interested in performance; but I would love to see this year’s play. I heard it is really educational and I would love to see how they make it into a fun play,” says Miranda Peak ’19.

Clearly, a lot of students and teachers are really exciting to see The Laramie Project because of its authentic story and educational nature.  It will definitely be worth seeing.