The Laramie Project: SLU’s Latest Play Has

The St. Lawrence University theatre team took the stage this past weekend with the play “The Laramie Project” that students and faculty had the opportunity to see between Thursday and Sunday. The production is about a homophobic hate crime that took place in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming which parallels the small-town SLU is located in, Canton, New York.  

Michael Osinski, the director of the production, believes it is the right time to do this play. “I’m gay, and I was alive when Matthew Shephard was killed, and as a director, I have never worked on this play before.” Osinski mentioned he knew it was something he should work on as it is a part of queer history. “I felt like it was the right time to do that,” Osinski said.  

Viewers of the play had their own thoughts on why they believed SLU put on this play. Kennedy Wilson ’26, a SLU student and North Country native, was an audience member during Sunday afternoon’s performance of the Laramie Project. “I feel like this play aligned a lot with the community here in general, coming from a small town, people here are very conservative” Wilson said. “I felt like I could sense a lot of similarities from just the North Country in general to Laramie, even though it was in 1998,” Wilson said.  

The timing of this play and what has been going on in America is something that has been put on notice, too. Nicholas Tiedemann ’25, the lead actor, shares his opinion. “It was especially interesting doing the show in an election year, as conversations about homophobia are amplified in a time like this” Tiedemann said.  

As for being able to put himself in these character’s shoes, a lot of studying was necessary to be ready. “It was difficult being multiple characters but having access to multiple videos of the characters we were playing and doing a lot of characterization work with Michael [Osinski], made it all possible,” said Tiedemann.  

The next play presented by the theatre team will take place in the spring of 2025.