The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, widely considered to be a hate crime motivated by homophobia.[1] The play draws on over 200 interviews conducted by the theater company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries, and published news reports. While the play is divided into three acts, eight actors portray more than sixty characters in what have been described as scripted "moments," rather than traditional scenes.

The play premiered at The Ricketson Theatre by the Denver Center Theatre Company (Denver) (part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts) in February 2000 and was then performed in the Union Square Theater in New York City before a November 2002 performance in Laramie itself.

As a result of the play's success, HBO commissioned a 2002 film of The Laramie Project, also written and directed by Kaufman. The film employs a documentary style but includes actual events re-enacted by actors.

The play has now begun to be used to teach about prejudice and tolerance in PSHE and citizenship in schools and has also been used in the United Kingdom as a GCSE text for English literature.

The Laramie Project has been performed by a number of schools and colleges, as well as professional players in the U.S, the UK and New Zealand. For example, the play was premiered in Ireland at the inaugural Dublin Gay Theatre Festival by AboutFACE Theatre Company. Many of the performances in the U.S. have been picketed by representatives of Fred Phelps, who plays a similar role in the play [2].

The play also inspired grassroots efforts to combat homophobia. One person was inspired to donate more than 500 books and other media to the University of Wyoming's Rainbow Resource Center [3]. Today, that campus office houses the largest LGBT library in the state of Wyoming.

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