Playbill: 25 years ago, in the tight-knit town of Laramie, Wyoming, a young gay man named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, chained to a fence, and left to die in a homophobic hate crime. Shepard’s death marked a turning point in the United States surrounding LGBTQIA+ rights and protections, eventually leading to the passage of the country’s first federal legislation for hate crimes in 2009.
1 comment:
I saw The Laramie Project for the first time when I was twelve. My sister’s high school put it on, and even at the high school level, I remember it being a phenomenal production. I view The Laramie Project as a testament that best isn’t always Broadway. As stated in the article, The Laramie Project needed to exist in Laramie first and foremost and had its biggest impact amongst colleges. While Broadway is great, the anti-hate message of the Laramie Project has been better fueled by its roaming young audiences than it could have been in New York City. Another aspect of the Laramie Project I find interesting is how it was created in a documentary style with the actors and playwrights interviewing people around Laramie. Watching the Laramie Project felt real; they didn’t feel like mock flat characters, but rather, true humans. I find this documentary style of theatre so interesting and I hope that it resurfaces in new works today. Overall, The Laramie Project is such an important production; it proves that art can lead to legislation and change.
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