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The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman

Mois?s Kaufman is a playwright, Theatre director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. He is the author of "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde", "33 Variations" and is perhaps best known for writing The Laramie Project with other members of Tectonic Theater Project....
 and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Tectonic Theater Project

With Mois?s Kaufman at the helm, the Tectonic Theater Project explores the ways in which experimentation with form and structure can inform theme in contemporary drama....
 about the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy Range mountains....
 student Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard

Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and subsequently murdered near Laramie, Wyoming. He was attacked on the night of October 6?October 7, 1998 and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, from severe head injuries....
 in Laramie
Laramie, Wyoming

File:GrandAveLaramie.jpgLaramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The population was 27,204 at the United States Census, 2000....
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
. The murder is widely considered to be a hate crime
Hate crime

Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by Race , religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, Ageing, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation....
 motivated by homophobia
Homophobia

Homophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Some definitions lack the "irrational" component....
.

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, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.

he Laramie Project premiered at The Ricketson Theatre by the Denver Center Theatre Company (Denver) (part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Denver Center for the Performing Arts

The 'Denver Center for the Performing Arts' is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, a graduate-level training school for actors, acting classes for the community, spectacular rental facilities and the site of a v...
) in February 2000 and was then performed in the Union Square
Union Square (New York City)

Union Square is an important and historic intersection in New York City, located where Broadway and Bowery, Manhattan came together in the early 19th century; its name does not celebrate the federal union but rather denotes the fact that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island" and the confluence of several troll...
 Theater in New York City before a November 2002 performance in Laramie.






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The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman
Moisés Kaufman

Mois?s Kaufman is a playwright, Theatre director and founder of Tectonic Theater Project. He is the author of "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde", "33 Variations" and is perhaps best known for writing The Laramie Project with other members of Tectonic Theater Project....
 and members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Tectonic Theater Project

With Mois?s Kaufman at the helm, the Tectonic Theater Project explores the ways in which experimentation with form and structure can inform theme in contemporary drama....
 about the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy Range mountains....
 student Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard

Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and subsequently murdered near Laramie, Wyoming. He was attacked on the night of October 6?October 7, 1998 and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, from severe head injuries....
 in Laramie
Laramie, Wyoming

File:GrandAveLaramie.jpgLaramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The population was 27,204 at the United States Census, 2000....
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
. The murder is widely considered to be a hate crime
Hate crime

Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by Race , religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, Ageing, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation....
 motivated by homophobia
Homophobia

Homophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Some definitions lack the "irrational" component....
.

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, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.

Performances

The Laramie Project premiered at The Ricketson Theatre by the Denver Center Theatre Company (Denver) (part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Denver Center for the Performing Arts

The 'Denver Center for the Performing Arts' is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, a graduate-level training school for actors, acting classes for the community, spectacular rental facilities and the site of a v...
) in February 2000 and was then performed in the Union Square
Union Square (New York City)

Union Square is an important and historic intersection in New York City, located where Broadway and Bowery, Manhattan came together in the early 19th century; its name does not celebrate the federal union but rather denotes the fact that "here was the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island" and the confluence of several troll...
 Theater in New York City before a November 2002 performance in Laramie. The play has since been performed by a number of schools and colleges, as well as by professional playhouses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Many of the performances in the United States have been picketed by representatives of Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps

Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. is an United States pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church , an independent Baptist Christian Church based in Topeka, Kansas, Kansas....
, who is portrayed in the play picketing Matthew Shepard's funeral. Though the play has been produced worldwide, it still generates controversy.

The current holder of the royalties/rights to the play is Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Combating homophobia


The Laramie Project is sometimes used to teach about prejudice and tolerance in personal, social, and health education
Personal, Social and Health Education

Personal, Social and Health Education is an element of the state school curriculum in England & Northern Ireland . Also known as "PACE", "PSE" and "PSHCE" in some schools, it is a subject that many secondary teachers find difficult to teach because it has not had the status of an examinable subject....
 and citizenship in schools, and it has also been used in the UK as a General Certificate of Secondary Education
General Certificate of Secondary Education

The General Certificate of Secondary Education is the name of an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 13-16 in secondary education in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland....
 text for English literature.

The play has also inspired grassroots efforts to combat homophobia. After seeing the play, New Jersey resident Dean Walton was inspired to donate more than 500 books and other media to the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy Range mountains....
's Rainbow Resource Center. Today, that campus office houses one of the largest LGBT
LGBT

LGBT is an acronym and initialism referring collectively to Lesbian,Gay, Bisexuality, and Transgender people. In use since the 1990s, the term ?LGBT? is an adaptation of the initialism ?LGBT? which itself started replacing the phrase ?gay community? which many within LGBT communities felt did not represent accurately all those to which it...
 libraries in the state of Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
.

Film


As a result of the play's success, HBO commissioned a 2002 film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 of The Laramie Project
The Laramie Project (film)

The Laramie Project is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Mois?s Kaufman. Based on The Laramie Project, a play by Kaufman, the film tells the story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, Wyoming....
, also written and directed by Kaufman.

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