“Change, but no progress."

That is how the tireless advocate for federal and state anti-hate crime legislation Judy Shepard describes the past 10 years since her gay son Matthew was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming.

That killing and its aftermath were captured by Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project in the much-produced 2001 docudrama The Laramie Project. Monday night, on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s death, theater companies across the United States and around the world participated in simultaneous readings of an epilogue/sequel, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.

In all, an estimated 146 companies participated from all 50 states and such countries as Canada, Great Britain, Spain and Hong Kong. Although the original play had its South Florida premiere at the Caldwell Theatre, it was Manalapan’s Florida Stage that was tapped to represent the region in this shared premiere.

While reviews of the play were specifically discouraged, and the script does have an unfinished, unshaped feel to it, the evening as an event had a sense of global community about it and an unsubtle call to action that efforts to eradicate hate crimes are still in their infancy.

As with the first play, the members of the Tectonic troupe trekked to Laramie to interview the locals, injecting themselves into the play with reenactments of transcripts of their conversations. Ten years later, they found signs of growth in the town -- the Walmart had been transformed into a Super Walmart -- but the townsfolk were largely in denial about the Shepard case.

Trying hard to shake off the label of Hate Crime Central, many of those interviewed preferred to think of the college student’s death as a “robbery gone bad” perpetrated by a couple of druggies, with the victim’s sexual orientation all but incidental. Such a view was clearly refuted by the testimony at the trials of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, the two young men accused of and convicted of Shepard’s murder, but the residents of Laramie as represented here do not seem to let facts get in the way of their opinions.

The first act of Ten Years Later is a series of “moments,” snapshots of the encounters, with a flatness to the dramatic arc that seems intent on mimicking the Laramie terrain.

The payoff comes after intermission, with face-to-face prison interviews with Henderson and McKinney, the latter a remorseless figure who simply sees himself as an abject criminal. Only briefly present in the first play because of a lack of access to them at the time, their views a decade after the fact are one of the play’s most compelling pieces of the Laramie puzzle.

Also involving is a tangential battle in the Wyoming legislature over a defense-of-marriage bill, with Wyoming emerging as one of the few states in the autumn of 2008 to defeat efforts to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

The 18-member Florida Stage cast included producing director Louis Tyrrell, managing director Nancy Barnett and public relations director Michael Gepner. Among the other cast members were such frequently seen area actors as Dan Leonard, Bruce Linser, Lourelene Snedeker and Karen Stephens.

The only no-show of the evening was Tony Award winner Glenn Close, who hosted the reading at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and was to have introduced the reading via streaming Webcast. But despite all cyber-efforts, Close was unable to be conjured up by Florida Stage’s technical staff. So much for the blend of new technology and good old-fashioned live performance.

Florida Stage drew a packed house for the event at $30 a seat, with the proceeds going to The Shepard Foundation and to Compass, Palm Beach County’s gay and lesbian services organization.

Clive Cholerton, the new artistic director of the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, is nothing if not a risk taker.

If the first two shows he’s produced – including the world premiere of an extraordinary melding of dance and song called Vices: A Love Story – didn’t make that point, his new one surely does: a concert version of Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 study of the life of post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat.

This is the first time this show, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1985, has been produced in any form in South Florida. And while the unstaged version does leave one wishing for more visuals, this Caldwell Sondheim has to be counted a success. It has a standout performance from Wayne LeGette as the single-minded, work-obsessed Seurat, and the rest of the 14-person cast ably handles Sondheim’s tricky melodies and lyrics (without once getting tongue-tied).

That cast includes a talented group of South Florida actors, including Brian Minyard as Jules; his wife, Melissa Minyard, a Broadway actress, in the lead role of Dot, Seurat’s mistress; and Kim Cozort, a multiple Carbonell Award winner, as the nurse.

The concert series allows for the focus to be on the lyrics and music and there is only minimal staging, scenery and costumes, to keep production costs down. The actors work “on book,” meaning they are reading the score and dialogue, and they are accompanied only by pianist Jon Rose rather than an orchestra. It may seem like a dress rehearsal or recital, because all the actors are dressed in black, no small irony in a show concerned about a painter obsessed with color intensity, interaction, juxtaposition and light.

On Broadway, where it was directed by James Lapine, one of the highlights of the show was the pointillist lighting, and most memorable of all was the creation of a living tableau in which Seurat’s best-known painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, came to life.

So it is somewhat of a contradiction that this once visually oriented production has been pared down exclusively to its auditory sense. Granting that this production is a minimalist concert version, I couldn’t help but wonder if just the suggestion of scenery or some period parasols or dashes of pointillist colors wouldn’t enliven the set. There were large slides of Seurat’s paintings projected onto a screen as a backdrop to the actors, but perhaps more could be done.

Even more interesting, perhaps, would be if the actors interacted more while on stage. Mostly, they were aligned in a long row of chairs, stepping forward only when interacting with Seurat.

The story revolves around Seurat and his passion for painting, the personal toll it takes on him, his relationship with Dot and the assorted visitors in the park, and his search for new ways to express his art. His alienation and desire for connection are all evident in the production, as are his longing to be with Dot, despite her frustrations with his intense focus on his artwork.

Seurat’s pointillist theories were rejected by the Impressionists, and as the show makes mention, his colleagues Sisely and Renoir pulled out in protest from the Paris International Exposition in 1900. But in La Grand Jatte, painted in 1884-86, Seurat took a scientific approach to applying color theory to painting, resulting in a new artistic language and altering the direction of modern art.

It must be LeGette’s French heritage that makes him such a perfect Georges Seurat, and it doesn’t hurt that he bears a resemblance to the young Mandy Patinkin, who starred in the 1984 Broadway production with Bernadette Peters. LeGette effortlessly inhabits the character of a driven artist. His comedic ability and talent are evident in The Day Off, where he takes on the personalities of the dogs in the painting, barking, ruffing, sniffing and snorting. His voice and presence carry the show and cast.

Other performances of note include Elizabeth Dimon in the dual role of Old Lady/Blair Daniels, who possesses an extraordinary voice, and Laura Turnbull, another Carbonell winner who shines as Yvonne in the first act. Bruce Linser puts in a good effort and passable German accent as the coachman Franz. And a good word needs to be put in for Jon Rose, who proved to be a very adept keyboardist.

One of the most haunting numbers of the evening was the song, Beautiful, the duet sung by Dimon, whose rich voice lent clarity and resonance, and LeGette, whose deep baritone provided a counterpoint of emotional depth.

The opening-night house at the Caldwell was large if not full, but it was enthusiastic, and gave the cast a standing ovation.

To paraphrase a lyric from the show -- “It’s certainly fine for Sunday” – it’s certainly fine for me. I’m one of those people who finds Sondheim’s music a little remote, but while I didn’t leave the theatre humming, I did leave with more than I came with. And that’s what good theater should do.

Jan Engoren is a freelance writer based in South Florida.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE will be presented four more times: 8 p.m. tonight, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, at the Count de Hoernle Theatre in Boca Raton, with tickets ranging from $25-$35. They are available by calling (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432, or by ordering online at www.caldwelltheatre.com. Future Broadway Concert Series performances will include Ragtime, The Most Happy Fella and City of Angels.

Despite the still rocky economy, the region’s professional theaters appear to remain bullish on programming, with few signs of caution or budget-pinching in the season ahead.

All eyes remain on Caldwell Theatre Company, which is coming off of a critically acclaimed summer under new artistic director Clive Cholerton, who continues to shake the cobwebs off the Boca Raton institution, while digging the troupe out of substantial debt. Sure, it's opening with the century-old The Voysey Inheritance, a 1905 drama by Harley Granville Barker about a Ponzi scheme and its consequences -- sound familiar? -- but in a new adaptation by the provocative David Mamet (Nov. 8-Dec. 13).

Also on the Caldwell’s bill is an East Coast premiere of Chemical Imbalance, a broadly comic retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde tale (Jan. 3-Feb. 7). The season ends with The American Plan, a Catskills-based early work by Richard Greenberg, whose Take Me Out was an earlier Caldwell hit, but it seems likely that the characters in this nostalgic love story will be keeping their clothes on. (April 11-May 26).

Just announced is a concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning meditation on “the art of making art,” Sunday in the Park with George, about post-impressionist Georges Seurat and his fictional disciple (Oct. 8-11). According to Cholerton, this could be the start of an occasional series of concerts of shows the Caldwell does not have the resources to produce in full.

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is jump-starting its season with an attention-getting world premiere of a musical revue, Love Is Love, with lyrics and direction by Martin Charnin (Annie). If that is not enough to grab your interest, featured in the cast will be two former Little Orphans of Broadway, Andrea McArdle and Shelly Burch, plus such local talent as Avery Sommers and Laura Hodos (Oct. 15-25).

The subscription season’s riskiest item is another world premiere, Fanny Brice: The Real Funny Girl, an attempt to mine the facts in the life of the Ziegfeld Follies clown, but with plenty of musical numbers (Nov. 10-22). Two big, splashy musicals separated by a half century, La Cage aux Folles (Jan. 12-31) and Anything Goes (March 9-28) are on tap -- with the emphasis on “tap” -- plus Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning heart-tugger, Lost in Yonkers (Dec. 1-13).

Florida Stage is certainly not using the recession as an excuse to pull away from its mission of developing new work, with a season of four world premieres. Yes, its opening show, Seth Rozin’s Two Jews Walk Into a War …, sounds like a crowd-pandering ethnic joke, but it is a thought-provoking comedy between the last two surviving Jews (Avi Hoffman of the defunct New Vista Theatre Co. and Gordon McConnell) in all of Afghanistan. Make up your own punch line (Oct. 21-Nov. 29).

Then there’s the latest from Carter W. Lewis (Ordinary Nation, Women Who Steal), The Storytelling Ability of a Boy, a tale of schoolyard violence that was well received at last spring’s 1st Stage New Works Festival (Dec. 9-Jan. 17). The prolific Israel Horovitz, a pioneer of off-Broadway, contributes a revenge drama (Sins of the Mother, Jan. 27-March 7) set, as most of his plays are, in a New England fishing village. And Florida Stage’s go-to guys for musicals, Bill Castellino and Christopher McGovern, have another new one, Dr. Radio (March 24 - May 2), about a radio repairman and the songs these broken-down receivers contain.

While compact Palm Beach Dramaworks is busy looking for a new, larger home, it unveils a solid season of “theater to think about,” a quartet of serious, somewhat neglected works by major writers for the stage. In the leadoff spot is Norway’s Henrik Ibsen and his proto-feminist classic, A Doll’s House (Oct. 16-Nov. 29), followed by Britain’s Michael Frayn with his cerebral encounter between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, Copenhagen (Dec. 18-Jan. 31).

Then the spotlight moves to America, with Mamet’s early raw-caper scheme, American Buffalo (Feb. 19-April 4), and Edward Albee’s highly personal Pulitzer Prize character sketch, Three Tall Women (April 23-June 13).

The Kravis Center heads into its second season of producing its own Broadway series with the subscriber magnet of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons musical biography Jersey Boys, in a rare three-week run (March 10-28). Also much anticipated is the Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and the revival of A Chorus Line (Feb. 2-7) that spawned the documentary Every Little Step.

Not part of the subscription, but still a likely sellout is the Billy Crystal solo show 700 Sundays, about growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium (Dec. 3-6). And if that doesn’t satisfy your craving for one-man shows, there is Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander on Jan. 13, playing a motivational speaker in An Evening of Music, Comedy, Personal Growth and Partial Nudity. (No, really, that’s the title, no matter how unappetizing the thought of the “partial nudity").

In his few short months on the job as artistic director of the Caldwell Theatre Company, Clive Cholerton has learned a great deal about “the art of making art.” So it should come as no surprise that he says his favorite musical is Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park With George.

The surprise is that he has found a way to bring to Palm Beach County that pointillist musical about post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat, his modern-day disciples, the creation of his masterwork Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte and the process of making and marketing art.

The show, which premiered on Broadway in 1984, presents some distinct production challenges, which makes it an ideal candidate for the Caldwell’s new Broadway Concert Series, staged readings of shows that the theater wants to “beta test” to gauge audience acceptance for a future larger production or simply to produce as a concert because it would otherwise be beyond the casting or production limitations of the Caldwell.

Sunday in the Park With George will be presented for five performances only, Oct. 8-11, at the Count de Hoernle Theatre in Boca Raton, with tickets ranging from $25-$35, available by calling (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432, or by ordering online at www.caldwelltheatre.com.

Casting is not yet set, but Cholerton has signed local favories Elizabeth Dimon and Laura Turnbull, as well as Broadway veteran Melissa Minyard (Les Miserables) in the pivotal role of Dot.

To tantalize us further, Cholerton mentions a few other shows he is considering for future Broadway Concert Series performances -- Ragtime, Most Happy Fella and City of Angels. Further proof of Cholerton’s good taste.

Over 40 years ago, Czech-born journalist-turned-playwright Tom Stoppard burst onto the world stage with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, his hommage to Samuel Beckett and the emptiness and impotence of his characters.

Ever since, however, Stoppard has been stuffing his plays with heady ideas and dialectical notions, moving from nothingness to cerebral overload. He is the kind of writer who challenges an audience to keep up with him -- and it often is not easy -- but how refreshing to encounter a play that contains more than one can reasonably process in a single sitting, rather than those that spoon feed us less.

Such a thought-laden play is Rock ’n’ Roll, a juxtaposition of Czech history from 1968 to 1990, from the Prague Spring reforms to the subsequent repressive aftermath, with the period’s rebellious rock music. Stoppard puts a face on such potentially dry material, letting us see that tumultuous time through the eyes of a staunchly Marxist professor at Cambridge, his cancer-ravaged wife and his star pupil, a Czech who leaves the comforts of academia for the upheaval in his homeland.

Still, while Stoppard wants to draw us in to the emotional turmoil of these characters, it keeps being overshadowed by the politics. At least it does in Mosaic Theatre’s Southeastern premiere production, which has not yet achieved the clarity, verbal agility and seeming effortlessness that the play requires.

Artistic director Richard Jay Simon deserves credit for stretching himself and his actors with Rock ‘n’ Roll, but in its opening weekend, it was the ambition that was most evident rather than the mastery of the material.

As the play begins, fervent Communist Max (Gordon McConnell) is trying unsuccessfully to prevent shaggy-haired graduate student Jan (Antonio Amadeo) from dropping out of school for the cultural revolution occurring in Czechoslovakia. So off Jan goes, taking only his treasured rock ‘n’ roll recordings.

In Prague, Jan soon attracts the attention of the secret police, is jailed and reduced to years of work in a bakery. He eventually returns to England, long after Max’s wife (Laura Turnbull) has died, for a climactic reunion with Max and a reconsideration of their political ideals.

As densely packed as that synopsis sounds, it leaves out the play’s tangential inclusion of the poetry of Sappho, the rise and fall of rocker Syd Barrett from the group Pink Floyd, the Czech Charter 77 declaration and the many other references that have led Simon to pass out four-page glossaries with each program.

Simon has certainly gathered some of the area’s best performers for the three central roles, but at this point, they still seem to be wrestling with their dialogue, spouting diatribes from the author rather than conversing. It is that ownership of the script by their characters that is missing, the potential portal to the play’s heart.

Sean McClelland takes over much of the theater with his scenic design, with the twin poles of Prague and Cambridge at opposite sides of the space, and a versatile middle ground playing area in between. Nothing has been stinted on this season opener for Mosaic, except perhaps some additional rehearsal time for the cast.

This is not a fully satisfying evening of theater, but there is so much to take in in Rock ‘n’ Roll that it can be sufficient nourishment for the mind regardless of how much of the play flies by overhead. There is plenty here to think about, even if you are likely to be left unmoved.

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, Mosaic Theatre, 12200 West Broward Blvd., Plantation. Continuing through Oct. 4. Tickets: $37. Call: (954) 577-8243.