WAUKESHA – Now set for Wednesday, November 12, at 7:00 p.m. in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, a forum on hate crimes is being organized by the dramaturges for the fall semester theater production, The Laramie Project. Originally it had been planned for Monday, November 10. The community is invited to join in.
Each of the three panelists will give a 10-minute presentation, and then the floor will be open for discussion, moderated by student Elizabeth Rankin, Waukesha, one of the campus production’s two dramaturges. Serving on the panel are campus dean and associate professor of sociology Brad Stewart, who will address “Attitudes vs. Actions”; Ron Gulotta, assistant professor of sociology, speaking on “Community Response to Hate Crime”; and Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher, who will explain “Hate Crime Legislation.”
Stewart holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Iowa State University, Ames, and focused his academic research on race, ethnic relations, and juvenile delinquency. Gulotta earned a Ph.D. from Loyola University of Chicago and wrote his dissertation on persistence and desistence in delinquent careers. Bucher has been Waukesha County’s district attorney since March, 1988, and served in the office from 1979-81 and 1983-88. He’s been active in the DARE program and has created several crime prevention organizations within Waukesha County.
Building on the “First Year Initiative” to strengthen campus community ties through a common experience in an academic pursuit, a reading selection was made by a campus committee of volunteers for the faculty, staff and students to discuss across the curriculum and throughout the year. The Laramie Project, a drama written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project and based on interviews conducted in Laramie, Wyoming, after the brutal murder in 1998 there of Mathew Shepard, a gay university student, was chosen because of both its form and its content. It is short, popular, and available in book, as theater, and on HBO film, and it sets forth a number of issues. Several faculty have required their students to read it; others merely have recommended it. Theater director Mark Lococo, associate professor of Communication & Theatre Arts, has produced it for stage on campus this semester. (Performances are Friday and Saturdays, November 7, 8, 14, and 15, and 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are available by called the UW-Waukesha ticket office, 262/521-5212. Doors open an hour before each performance. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $6 for students and senior citizens, and free to UW-Waukesha students with ID.)
The Laramie Project raises the issue of hate crimes, which can be diminished only through the understanding that comes from getting to know people with differing views. The forum will address these.
The University of Wisconsin-Waukesha is a campus of the freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges. For information about programs, admissions, or financial aid, contact the Student Services Office at 262/521-5200 or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu. |
