The Laramie Project is a play chronicling the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the hate-crime murder of Matthew Shephard, a young gay man. Half the acting, technology, management, costume and design students of Toi Whaakari are involved in working to put across a conservative small town rural America where 'fags' are brutally murdered and 'community' is challenged in The Laramie Project.

At the Te Whaea Theatre from 6-10 June. Directed by Miranda HarcourtThe Laramie Project is a play chronicling the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the hate-crime murder of Matthew Shephard, a young gay man. Half the acting, technology, management, costume and design students of Toi Whaakari are involved in working to put across a conservative small town rural America where 'fags' are brutally murdered and 'community' is challenged in The Laramie Project.

At the Te Whaea Theatre from 6-10 June. Directed by Miranda HarcourtThe other half are exploring the world of American academia in post 9-11 times where challenging foreign policy may be dangerous for your health and sanity.

Miranda Harcourt is directing Moises Kaufman's The Laramie Project[1] a play chronicling the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the hate-crime murder of Matthew Shephard, a young gay man.

"This piece is vibrantly exciting to watch because our actors bring to life more than sixty different people from the town, they play everyone from rural ranchers to university professors," said Miranda Harcourt.

"The playwright and original actors interviewed real people from Laramie and used their words to construct a play that really brings the audience to an understanding of how dark hatred can be and how a community can turn itself around to find some enlightenment."

The second play, Steven Sewell's indictment of US policy and culture, Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America, definitely takes the prize for longest play title of 2006, with students nicknaming the play 'Yanks and Nazis'.

"It's a searing denunciation of US attitudes towards 'dissident countries' and what happens to liberal academics within that American system," says Vanessa Byrnes, the play's director.

"I find the way the play looks at ethics and belief in a post modern world fascinating because it asks what we should believe when everything we read or watch has some kind of 'spin'."

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Stuart McKenzie was creator and director for the 10-part documentary series Tough Act which is screening on Saturdays at 3.30pm on TV2. The fly-on-the-wall series follows the lives of the students from the 2005 Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School intake as they audition and then embark on their first year of a 3 year acting course. Stuart says: "They're a great bunch of people and it's a roller coaster ride of intense highs and lows. Dramatic, as you'd expect."

Here's the link to Jane Clifton's brilliant review of the show including her acidic comment on the programme scheduling: www.stuff.co.nz
And also a link to the RNZ podcast of the Nine to Noon television review between Sarah Daniells and Katherine Ryan. They both loved the show. All the reviewers have major issues with the TV2 time slot. www.radionz.co.nz

Thanks to The Write Stuff