In October 1998, a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay. The Laramie Project draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members’ own journal entries, and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and 8-16 actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.
Written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by John Nunemaker
The dialogue and monologues which comprise The Laramie Project are taken from interviews, news reports, courtroom transcripts, and journal entries. It is an amazing theatrical collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.