I had a nice experience today.
Posted: 2004-02-07 01:47am
I played Stephen Belber and a few other characters in a production of "The Laramie Project." After the performance tonight, the director brought us into the theater, and there waiting for us was a priest, who turned out to be the real Father Roger Schmit, who is a character in the play. It turned out he had moved to Kansas City to be the pastor for the local hospital (the one I was born in, as a matter of fact).
He was avery warm man, and he gave a quote that proved he was the man in the script.
"Tolerance. Such a terrible word. I mean, who wants to be merely tolerated?"
he was a great guy. You have to understand, the Laramie project is transcripts of interviews a theater group (including Stephen Belber) made with the people of Laramie, Wyoming in the year following th emurder of Matthew Shepard; of the religoous clergy they interviewed, including Mormons and Baptists, Father Roger blew them away because they had gotten used to dealing with hypocrites.
"What those two young men did to Matthew was violence. But when someone calls you a fag, or a lez, or a...a-"
"Dyke?"
"Dyke! Yeah, dyke. Do you realize that is violence? That is the seed of violence."
This was a real pleasant surprise; the actor playing Father Roger still had his faux collar on that was only tape; so Father Roger gave him the collar he was wearing, saying he had a dozen more.
It's nice to meet a religious authority who reminds you that religion isn't always a battle against logic and rational thinking. As opposed to the gentleman who will be seeing us tomorrow.
Linky link link.
He was avery warm man, and he gave a quote that proved he was the man in the script.
"Tolerance. Such a terrible word. I mean, who wants to be merely tolerated?"
he was a great guy. You have to understand, the Laramie project is transcripts of interviews a theater group (including Stephen Belber) made with the people of Laramie, Wyoming in the year following th emurder of Matthew Shepard; of the religoous clergy they interviewed, including Mormons and Baptists, Father Roger blew them away because they had gotten used to dealing with hypocrites.
"What those two young men did to Matthew was violence. But when someone calls you a fag, or a lez, or a...a-"
"Dyke?"
"Dyke! Yeah, dyke. Do you realize that is violence? That is the seed of violence."
This was a real pleasant surprise; the actor playing Father Roger still had his faux collar on that was only tape; so Father Roger gave him the collar he was wearing, saying he had a dozen more.
It's nice to meet a religious authority who reminds you that religion isn't always a battle against logic and rational thinking. As opposed to the gentleman who will be seeing us tomorrow.
Linky link link.
Phelps almost came to our production... Sadly, he didnt. His appearance would only have made the message we were trying to get across all the more clear.