Well, Day One in Laramie has been more adventurous than I thought it would be. I flew from Denver to Laramie in the smallest plane I've ever been in, fitting only 20 passengers. It was like a frighteningly real Disneyland ride, complete with a recorded safety shpeel and stomach-dropping turbulence. As we approached Laramie I could make out the town from the air from the maps I had studied. The map was about to become very real.

Keith Hull generously picked me up at the airport. I wore my GW sweatshirt so he would know who I was, even though I was the only man under 40 on the plane. Keith drove me into Laramie and took me on a tour of the town. We drove past several churches, through the university, past Ivinson Hospital, past Walmart, and down the roads that Aaron and Russell took Matthew that night.

Keith was catching me up with what had happened in Laramie since the play. He informed me that Father Roger had left Laramie and was in a monastery. Trish Steger has sold her shop. Stephen Mead Johnson was only in town for a short while before leaving an unhappy congregation. Jedadiah Schultz is now in his first year at the Yale School of Drama and before that had played himself in The Laramie Project in a production in Salt Lake City.

Keith took me to a Mexican restaurant in West Laramie for dinner. He told me about the productions he had been in at the university, some of them with Jedadiah. He also shared with me his experiences seeing the production in Denver, in New York, and in Berkeley. He said that watching the play in Denver was a very emotional experience for him, but that he believed the company had been too generous in their depiction of Laramie. Keith was one of the first people Tectonic talked with- he was interviewed by Gross Indecency actor Michael Emerson- but he thought he didn't have enough connections to the event to be included.

At one point, Keith was sharing with me what he knew of Russell and Aaron when our very sweet waitress came by to present the check. He stopped talking, she said teasingly that she wanted to eavesdrop, so he kept going, and she said, "Oh, that. That's boring." It reminded me how old this case must be for these people. As I learn things the events become very present again, but how do Laramie residents think about this murder and its aftermath almost five years after?

Keith offered to take me to the Fireside Bar for a drink, but he wasn't even sure that it was open. The layout and location was much different than I was expecting. We sat at the bar and were greeted by the friendly bartender. He took our drink orders, he asked if we were from around here, and low and behold, I was talking to Matt Mickelson. It was the first person in the play that was standing before me. I told Matt what I was doing in Laramie and he was quick to give his opinion about A LOT. I quickly saw in him the spirit that I found in the text, and he sounded eerily similar to the play boasting about his bar and his heritage. Much of what he said was mind boggling. Here is some of what I remembered:

He had nothing but the utmost respect for Matt Galloway, who he believes now is living in Casper where his parents own a bowling alley.

Aaron and Russell were not regulars at his bar and he was angry about how the media tried to suggest they were typical of his bar's clientele, who are actually gay and straight, young and old.

He said that everytime the film crews came to film at the Fireside that they destroyed his business. He's had "dyke" and "fag" spray painted across his windows as well as had backlash from the gay and lesbian community. The Fireside had been closed and he just recently opened back up in January.

He saw the production in Laramie and thought it was fair except that it avoided the issues of meth use. He thought they exaggerated his "cowboy accent" and thought it was strange that he was the only character with a cowboy hat (even though he was wearing one when I met him).

Zackie called me at my hotel room at the University Inn this evening. I have no idea how she got the number to get a hold of me. I'm meeting with her tomorrow morning at her office. She's been very sweet and I'm ready for Day Two.

NEXT ENTRY...