The Laramie Project

Wednesday 7th October 1998: Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student at the University of Wyoming, was found lashed to a fence in the hills outside Laramie. He had been pistol-whipped, beaten and left barely breathing. Matthew never regained consciousness and died five days later. His attackers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, both Laramie men also in their early twenties, were already in custody. What followed was a worldwide media frenzy. The brutal death of Matthew Shepard forced the American public to address issues long swept under the carpet; Hate Crime and Homophobia. Moises Kauffman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project travelled to Laramie a month later. Over the course of two years they interviewed 200 townspeople and boiled down 400 hours of transcripts into the play involving 79 characters. The Laramie Project gives voice to every aspect about the brutal murder and its environment and asks could this be our town?