may 17.2002
Self-conscious
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Jedadiah Schultz
prepares for the part
he was horn to play
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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. But Kretzu is unconcerned about the two
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