It's the anniversary of an American tragedy. Twenty-five years ago this month, Matthew Shepard, a young gay student at the University of Wyoming-Laramie, was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in a lonely field.
Composer-lyricist Craig Hella Johnson's powerful, Grammy-nominated fusion-oratorio, "Considering Matthew Shepard," will be presented in a joint staged-concert production by Springfield Contemporary Theatre and Springfield Chamber Chorus. There will be two performances, on Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13, both at 7:30 p.m., in the Historic Fox Theatre, 157 Park Central Square in Springfield.
We heard about these performances, on KSMU's "Arts News," from Rick Dines of Springfield Contemporary Theatre, who staged the production; and Chris Brammer, director of Springfield Chamber Chorus.
Brammer says he is a longtime fan of Craig Hella Johnson's choral music: "Most of his performances, most of his concerts, involve musical styles that are not just the 'high choral art.' He does a wonderful job of weaving choral music, as a trained choral professional might experience it, into other genres — bringing in folk music, pop music and opera, and the list goes on and on. And by doing so, he has opened choral music to a much, much wider demographic."
Equally interesting are the many lyrical sources chosen by Johnson for this work, says Rick Dines: "There's text from (Matthew Shepard's) parents. There's text from Matthew's journals, which his parents actually gave Craig (Hella Johnson) to use — some of those had not been publicly released." Johnson pulled texts from multiple sources representing multiple traditions, including the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi.
And, ironically, there's input from poet Lesléa Newman, who had been booked to speak during LGBT Awareness Week at the University of Wyoming, where Matthew Shepard was a student.
Dines says Shepard "been part of the committee that had booked this poet to come and speak. And the night before he passed was the night she was speaking. And she went on to write a book of poetry inspired by Matthew, 'October Mourning.'
And, Dines notes, Newman has just published a new tribute to Shepard called "Always Matt."
"One of my favorite things about this work," Brammer says, "is the humanization of the event itself," but not just using texts that focus on the specific event, "to allow the listener to humanize the event for themselves."
In fact, Dines says, there is actually a song written from the point of view of the fence upon which Matthew Shepard was hung to die after being savagely beaten. "There is (also) a piece called 'The Deer Trio,' because when the police arrived the next day, there was a deer lying in the grass, that they think had been lying there for hours near him, almost standing guard."
The local performances of "Considering Matthew Shepard" will comprise seven vocal soloists, the 40-member Springfield Chamber Chorus, a seven-piece band, and during the finale of the piece, some 60 to 75 members of the Springfield-Drury Community Choir will join in.
The dates again are Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fox Theatre on Park Central Square. Tickets are $22 and $25, but in keeping with SCT tradition, the Thursday-night show is a "pay what you can Night." For information, call SCT at 417-831-8001, or visit springfieldcontemporarytheatre.org.
