In 1998, gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard left the Fireside Bar with Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. The following day he was discovered tied to a fence, brutally beaten and close to death. Six days later he died. Later that year, ten members of Tectonic Theatre Project traveled to Laramie and conducted interviews with the people of the town and these texts became the basis for the play, The Laramie Project. Ten years later, five members of Tectonic returned to Laramie to try to understand the long-term effect of the murder. They found a town wrestling with its legacy and its place in history. In addition to revisiting the folks whose words riveted us in the original play, this time around the company also spoke with the two murderers, McKinney and Henderson, as well as Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is a bold new work by Moises Kauffman which asks the question, “How does society write its own history?”
Performance dates: May 7-10 at 8pm and Sunday, May 11 at 2:30pm
High School Matinee: Friday, May 9, at 11am.
Contact Stephen Hollis, Theatre Program Director, FDU at (973) 443-8467.