The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project is a play by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime motivated by homophobia and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in various states, including Wyoming.

A chorus of voices brings to life the thoughts and feelings of the people of Laramie, Wyoming. The play 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, with more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.