By Moisés Kaufman & Stephen Belber

Sydney Actor’s School, Graduating Actor’s 2019

In October of 1998, a twenty-one year old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming and left to die. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay.

Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made several trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. During theses visits, the Tectonic Theater Project conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town. Some people interviewed were directly connected to the case and others were citizens of Laramie. The resulting play chronicles the town of Laramie in the year after the murder.