The Laramie Project

“We need to own this crime … We are like this. We ARE like this.”

In 1998, in the tight-knit town of Laramie, Wyoming, a young gay man named Matthew Shepard was the victim of a homophobic hate crime.

In the wake of the national media frenzy that followed, ten members of the New York-based Tectonic Theater Project visited Laramie on six separate occasions over two years, in an attempt to find out what happened and why.

They conducted more than 200 interviews with members of the community, creating a chronicle of a town’s trauma. The play that Kaufman crafted from those transcripts has been hailed as one of the most impactful works of theatre ever produced.

A ensemble cast portray more than 60 characters in this shattering depiction of a profoundly moving modern tragedy.

“A pioneering work of theatrical reportage and a powerful stage event.” Time Magazine