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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2002)
may 17.2002 Self-conscious urbqnqbox Jedadiah Schultz prepares for the part he was horn to play by Finc| the perfect gift for any occasion. order online at www.urtoanabox .com or by phone S03.777.6179 C hristopher M c Q uain t 'o f e S M o t ia P articularly intriguing about the Portland production of The Laramie Project is the casting of Jedadiah Schultz as, among other characters, himself. He was one of the many Laramie, Wyo., resi dents interviewed by Moisés Kaufmans Tectonic Theater Project during its research following the Matthew Shepard murder. Schultz was 19 at the time and applying for college scholarships. One of the play’s most memorable “interview” sequences is his relating of how his normally sup portive parents, upon learning that his scene for a scholarship competition was from Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “gay fantasia” Angels m America, decided for the first time not to attend a performance by their (straight) son. At the beginning of the play, Schultz doesn’t feel comfortable disagreeing with his parents’ notion that homosexuality is a sin. By the end, a year later, he’s saying “1 just can’t believe I ever said that stuff about homosexuals, you know? How did I ever let that stuff make me Jedadiah Schultz portrays himself and several think you were different from me?" other characters in The Laram ie Project chultz remembers the Tectonic interviews as a turning point in his life, both as an actor and as a human being. “Here 1 am in the middle of Wyoming,” he exclaims, “and I’m able to see how a group of actors from New York work and develop a play and their ideas about theater.. .as a business and as a craft. But also they were really forcing me to question who I was as an individual and where I wanted to go and how much 1 could grow.” His ultimate goal to be a professional actor, Schultz has been accepted to Yale School of Drama and counts among his many stage cred its a full-fledged production of Angels in America at University of Wyoming and another produc tion of The Laramie Project in Salt Lake City. The experience in Utah went so well, he S checked out other cities in which Laramie was being produced, he shares, and Artists Reperto ry Theatre “was one of the more respectable theater companies that was doing the show.” .It’s the last time he plans to perform in this particular play. “I’ve been involved in so many ways— seeing someone else play me and now playing myself—so it's going to be nice to have this give me some closure.” So what’s it like to audition to play yourself? Schultz maintains a sense of humor. “I had to audition because it’s not just a question of how well I can play myself...but take on seven to eight other characters. So it becomes not just about me but about the level of craft that I have.” Still, he laughs, “you would like to think you can play yourself pretty well." JH The research had a profound effect on Kret- zu’s direction for the production. “It really made me f?el even more at peace with doing this. Speaking to them and sharing that time with them made it clearer to me what this piece is about...what I wanted to express. So much of the actors’ work.. .to me is not to do an imper sonation of these people but to allow the spirit to come through them.... The words are very power ful and very simple and direct and to the point, and, hopefully, they can embody those words." events coinciding. In fact, he says: “That was always part of the plan. ‘Gee, we’re doing The Laramie Project. Think we should do it during Pride week?* The play has such a broad base of interest for people that I’m not really worried about it taking away from anything. It’ll be a nice adjunct to what’s going on.” ndeed, it seems The Laramie Project transcends its issues of sexual orientation and homo phobia to capture a complex, disturbing, very real mosaic of American life. “It’s about so many things,” rtists Rep’s Laramie will be Kretzu states, “that if you come unlike any of the other produc expecting the telemovie version tions that have been staged. of the Matthew Shepard story, Designer Tim Stapleton has come up Director John Kretzu you’re going to be disappointed. with a set that remains true to Kauf traveled to Wyoming It’s much richer than that...it’s man’s original minimalist concept to meet the people his about everyone’s feelings and while evoking the rural through the characters portray how they were changed by this use of soil and a clapboard walkway event. It’s about how humanity can come out that recalls a sidewalk out of the Old West. of something inhuman. It’s a transformative “Part of the wonderful thing about directing,” experience. It’s that way for me, it’s that for the Kretzu says, “is taking a text and interpreting it. actors, for all of us who’ve been working on it, What I love about this piece is that it is so open, and we really hope it will be that way for the and it allows such a great jumping-off point. It’s audience.’ more a screenplay— and for a really avant-garde film—so it really allows you a lot of freedom.” T he L aramie P roject plays May 25 to June 30 The production runs May 19 through at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW . Alder St. June 30, which places it squarely during Portland Tickets are $I5~$28 from 503-241 -1278. Pride. 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