Posted by MOA on October 8, 2009

On Monday, October 12, over 150 theaters across America will stage world premiere readings of Tectonic Theater Project’s newest work Laramie Project:Ten Years Later, An Epilogue. A sequel to the original Laramie Project The journalistic play returns to Laramie, Wyoming ten years after the murder of Matthew Shepard to determine what impact Shepard’s legacy has had on the community and the country in the intervening decade.

Graphic novel/comic book writer and Ben-10 co-creator Steven T. Seagle will eschew the printed page for the night to co-direct (alongside partner Liesel Reinhart) the production at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage – an event which is unique among the 150 national stagings in its use of music (provided by 60 members of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and singer/songwriter Randi Driscoll and her band) and for its celebrity readers (including Mary McDonnell – President Roslin in Battlestar Galactica and Mary McCormack – Kate Harper in The West Wing as well as many others).

“It’s an incredible experience. The text is powerful. The music is powerful. The performances are powerful. And most powerful of all is the pressure! The final script just arrived and we now have four days and two rehearsals to pull the whole evening together,” said Seagle. Speak Theater Arts, of which Seagle is a founding member, is co-presenting with GMCLA and The Broad Stage as a benefit for GMCLA’s Alive Music Project – an anti-bullying program that tours Los Angeles area schools. Tickets are almost sold out, but remain available at the GMCLA web site .