On Friday I went to go see The Laramie Project at the new Arena Stage. I could see the building right from the metro, it is structurally different than any other building in the area. The walls are all glass and the roof lights up to show its round shape. When you walk up the stairs you can see the roof of the old building since they built the new one around it which is pretty interesting.
I don’t know if you any of you have seen the Laramie Project but it was unlike any play I have seen before. There are very little props, just chairs for each of the actors, tables, jackets or clothes for the actors as they move from one character to the next and perhaps one or two other items. There were only eight actors but they each played 15-20 different people by changing their posture, hair style, voice, etc. It was pretty amazing and totally believable. Some of the cast was from the original Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie and conducted the 200 some interviews of the people from the town and University. I was left wishing I had bought tickets for the follow up play The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later where they went back to the town to conduct interview ten years after the Matthew Shepard tragedy.
http://www.laramieproject.org/