Catholic
Education
‘Defeating hate’ with a play about a killing
By SHARON ABERCROMBIE
Oakland, Calif.
When Dennis Kohles, theatrical director at Bishop O’Dowd High
School in Oakland, Calif., decided to stage “The Laramie Project,” a
play based on the 1998 hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay
college student, he never guessed that the real-life plot would repeat itself.
But it did. Last fall, Laramie, Wyo., came to Northern California.
Kohles and his cast were barely into rehearsals when, one Monday
morning, a stream of invective poured into the Oakland school -- via the school
fax machine. A minister by the name of Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church
in Topeka, Kan., threatened to picket both O’Dowd and nearby Newark High
School, which was also producing the play. The kids knew that name quite well.
Especially Gregory Manley, a 17-year-old student. Phelps is a character in
“The Laramie Project.” Manley was playing him.
Phelps, who demonstrated at Matt Shepard’s funeral, claims
that God sends all gays to hell and condemns churches and other institutions
that take a more tolerant, understanding view of homosexuality. His actions are
powerfully portrayed in the play. One of his most chilling lines is
“God’s hatred is good.”
The prospect of his showing up for opening night was only the
beginning. Days later, on Oct. 3, the O’Dowd cast was stunned by another
part of history repeating itself, once more, right where they lived.
Eddie Araujo, a 17-year-old transgendered youth who had called
himself Gwen, was murdered in the nearby community of Newark. Three young men
have since been accused of beating and strangling Araujo to death at a party
after discovering he was male. They dumped his body into a shallow grave, where
it was found several weeks later.
“I couldn’t believe it could happen here,” said
Graham Patzner, 15. Patzner played the role of Russell Henderson, one of
Shepard’s killers; Henderson and another Laramie roofer brutally beat up
Shepard and tied him to a rail fence in a remote field outside town. Shepard
died five days later in a local hospital.
Until Patzner had immersed himself in Moise Kaufman’s
powerful drama about the quiet community torn apart by the crime, the sophomore
said he hadn’t been aware of “so much hate in the world.” Then
the faxes started coming again. Phelps said he would show up at St.
Edward’s Catholic Church the day of Eddie Gwen Araujo’s funeral --
the same weekend as the O’Dowd play.
Homophobic hatred linked with religious hatred -- a double whammy
in one large package. But the O’Dowd cast met it head on. They were not
intimidated.
“These kids were just incredible. I was so proud of
them,” said director Kohles. Arajau’s killing and the pickets
“made it 10 times more important to put this play on, to get the word out
about intolerance,” said Jamie Sharp, a 15-year-old sophomore who played
three roles, including a Muslim woman who is a voice of tolerance in the
town.
Trevor Moppin, a 14-year-old freshman cast as the killers’
sentencing judge, said, “The only way to keep defeating hate is to do
plays like this.”
Moppin said he wonders what happened in the life of Fred Phelps to
make him so homophobic. But he thinks there still must be a spark of compassion
hidden in the minister somewhere.
In looking back on his role as Phelps, Manley said the role
“was a great challenge. Fred Phelps is such an extreme character,
it’s hard not to make him into a stereotype. But when I thought about it,
I realized his message comes across without the stereotype.” Manley said
he was puzzled how the minister “gets so many people to follow
him.”
Katelyn Simons, a 17-year-old senior, said she had a difficult
time getting into the role of Kristen Price, the homophobic girlfriend of Aaron
McKinney, one of the murderers. “It was really hard to portray somebody
that hateful.”
Simons was horrified by Araujo’s murder and angered by
Phelps’ intent to make trouble in the Bay area, but said she was not
intimidated. She said she gave the play her “best shot.”
When Alice Davis, 15-year-old sophomore, heard about Araujo’s
death, she saw it as a “wake up call.” Hate is not a matter of
geography, she reflected. “It is everybody’s problem.” Davis
played Reggie Fluty, the police officer who is called to the scene of the
crime.
Andrew Cholerton, a 17-year old senior who played a hospital CEO,
shook his head in astonishment at “how some people have so much energy to
kill other people.”
No one was more shocked by the angry faxes and Eddie Gwen
Araujo’s slaying than the play’s director.
“I guess I’ve lived in the East Bay too long,” said
Kohles, a lifetime Oakland resident and O‘Dowd alumnus. “Our kids are
very open and mature, more like college students. Some of them have gay
relatives. And our religion classes here teach the kids to learn how to do a
good discernment of tolerance and how people differ,” said Kohles, who
remembers himself at their age as “naive.”
Last year he assigned “The Laramie Project,” for class
reading to find out if the teens would like to consider it for a production.
“Our criteria has always been, ‘Let’s do good
theater,’ ” he said.
Besides Kohles, the school has two drama teachers and eight
theater classes with more than 100 students enrolled.
“Quite frankly, I thought there would be more controversy
over our current play,” said Kohles. Which is? “ ‘A Chorus
Line.’ It’s a little racy here and there, but we don’t shy away
from such plays. We make sure we do them with respect and good taste.”
The East Bay community knows that very well. Supporters circled
around O’Dowd last fall, as opening night approached. Several churches,
including an interfaith group, purchased several blocks of tickets. The house
was sold out for all four performances.
O’Dowd’s student community affirmed the cast as well.
Members of the Gay-Straight Alliance sponsored a “protest-a-thon” to
collect money for every minute Phelps spoke, with the proceeds going to gay
rights organizations.
On the weekend of the play, about two-dozen people from the
Gay-Straight Alliance and church groups gathered at the school entrance to meet
Phelps.
As it turned out, the preacher was a no-show. But he sent members
of his family and his church to the second performance, said Kohles.
“All in all, it was pretty mild. O’Dowd supporters
proved a pretty positive contrast to their anti-whatever agendas,” said
the director.
Sharon Abercrombie is a free-lance writer who lives in
Oakland.
National Catholic Reporter, March 21,
2003
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