Contrary to circulating rumors, the El Cajon Valley Players (ECVP)’s production of The Laramie Project at El Cajon Valley High School was never in jeopardy of closing down, according to John Barnes, director of ECVP. The Laramie Project is a documentary in the form of a play, telling the story of the 1998 anti-gay murder of Matthew Shepard through characters playing residents of Laramie, Wyo. The play ended its two-week run at the school Jan. 29.

Barnes said he initially discussed the play and what type of publicity and advertising would be involved with Grossmont District Superintendent Terry Ryan around late October or early November, well before the play was cast.

“When I went up to pitch the play to them [the superintendent’s office] I agreed to a series of conditions. One of the conditions was we would not advertise the play beyond our school, beyond our normal means,” Barnes said.

Due to the subject matter of the play, Barnes realized that a portion of the 140 season ticket holders would probably not want to see the play. In order to generate more ticket sales, Barnes had asked the superintendent’s office for permission to put an advertisement in a local newspaper during his initial conversation with Ryan, but was denied.

“When they asked us not to do that, I agreed,” Barnes said. “I must say that the conversation with the superintendent [Ryan] that first time and only time I talked to him about it [the play] was very positive. He was very supportive. He said we had the legal right to do the play.”

Ryan said the play’s publicity was handled in the same manner as other plays in the past have been handled.

“I requested he [Barnes] promote the play in our normal and usual manner, to ensure that it got the same level of publicity that all other plays in our district receive,” Ryan said.

Certain profanity was taken out after review of the script, which both Barnes and Ryan agreed to. After the first night of the play a further revision occurred when Ryan requested the words “hell” and “damn” be taken out of the script completely. Barnes complied with his request and the play was allowed to continue.

Mick Rabin, co-chair of the East County chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) realized the reasons for taking out obvious profanity, but questioned why The Laramie Project was analyzed to this extent.

“There are certain liability issues that schools typically need to cover themselves with. So there probably is some legitimate precedent to that,” said Rabin. “Not that I’m particularly for censorship… I don’t think they [ECVP] would have gone through that same kind of scrutiny if it weren’t for the subject matter.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Ryan had only received a few complaints from parents who objected to his decision to cut profanity from the script.

Barnes noted he has regularly taken out profanity from other plays in the past, including a recent ECVP performance of Neil Simon’s Rumors, a play laced with heavy profanity.

“I am not aware of any other plays that have been altered by the district. This is up to the directors at the individual sites,” said Barnes. “I removed the words for Rumors as I remove most profanity from all my shows.”

Barnes was extremely happy with the turnout for The Laramie Project, given the controversial subject matter and the other obstacles he faced.

“Ultimately the victory is the play went on,” he said. “Even with the ‘damns’ and ‘hells’ out it was a fantastic show. We got a huge response. It broke, by the way, every attendance record we have had for every show we have ever done.”

Barnes said The Laramie Project had a total of 809 people attend the eight-performance run. The previous record was 625 for another play with eight performances. The Laramie Project also set the largest single-night attendance record with 152 people.

More students from the school saw The Laramie Project than any other play the school has performed, with 45 students in the audience one night, Barnes said, adding that over 50 students from other schools’ gay/straight alliances came out to the show as well.

“It’s gotten a lot of support from a lot of different people. That’s really the best,” he said. “There was a woman who came to see the play on Friday night this past week who actually knew Matthew Shepard. She talked to kids for a half an hour afterwards, and they asked her all sorts of questions and she cried with them and she laughed. The kids were just huge winners there.”

Barnes knew the play would be successful despite El Cajon’s reputation as a conservative community.

“I knew our audience would be able to handle it,” he said, adding, “The response overwhelmed even me. People from everywhere coming up and thanking us for the show and being honored to be there. They were very, very glad that the show went on.”