Directed by Dr Michael Mauldin
The Laramie Project documents the lives and reactions of a Wyoming community as they are immersed in the aftermath of the brutal murder of Matthew Sheppard. It contains the moving interviews by witnesses, family and friends and transcripts of court proceedings.
A scene in the play portrays the jarring descent of the national media on to the quite town of Laramie, many productions send all cast members armed with news paraphernalia storming through the audience. This, in addition to a greater integration of digital media in to the play, necessitated a cross-department outreach in Cleveland State University’s production. Alma was involved in a production of this play in high school as a member of house crew, and when she heard that my university was going to be producing it, she was compelled to be even more involved. When Alma heard of the need for a liaison between the Theater Arts department and the School of Communication, she worked with the faculty involved to develop an Independent Study course.
In the course of her work as Media Designer, Alma:
- coached actors on safe handling of shoulder-mounted cameras and fresnel lamps
- assembled a five-source, three screen, live switcher setup
- authored DVDs to provide still-image output
- met with director and production staff regularly for feedback on media
- managed media cues and two media assistants during all shows
- repaired cameras regularly for live operation during shows
- directed two videographers gathering footage of the show during three performances
- edited footage of the production into a single DVD for Theater Arts archive.