The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard changed the town of Laramie, Wyoming forever. Shepard was a gay man who was kidnapped, tortured and beaten to death due to his sexuality. The case opened the conversation about hate crimes and how they’re defined which eventually led to the passing of legislation to include sexuality and gender in the definition of hate crimes.
The event was turned into a documentary- style play by the theater group, Tectonic Theater Project. They conducted more than 200 interviews to capture the aftermath of the murder.
The play will be coming to NE Campus from March 5-8. The 60 characters are played by 12 students in this production. Director Jakie Cabe said the shifts between characters are immediate on stage, which can be challenging for actors.
“One minute she’s [an actor] playing a Muslim student, the next minute she’s playing a rancher from Wyoming,” he said. “Everybody is having to make these immediate jumps. One minute he’s playing an actor, the next minute he’s playing a hospital administrator, then the next minute a friend.”
Matthew Shepard isn’t depicted in the play. The audience only hears about him through the townspeople’s voices and their experience of the event. The dialogue from each character was pulled from interviews, journal entries and news reports, involving real people.
NE student Kaitlin Bridges fills six roles, including the sheriff who finds Shepard’s body. She said her monologue after finding his body is tragic.
“I even did research on that moment, and she has this literal quote where she’s like, ‘Baby boy, it’s OK. I’m right here. I’m right here. Don’t give up. Please stay with me,” she said. “It just makes me tear up thinking about it, especially as I’m performing. I’m playing this very real person. You can’t help but tear up.”
NE Student Cas Wheatley plays the role of the first openly gay professor at the University of Wyoming. She said it’s important to see the full grieving process for those who are in the same community as Shepard and how they could’ve been in his shoes.
“It can feel like a very isolating incident, but it doesn’t have to be,” she said. “There are so many people who are gay and lesbian, and they’re living their best lives as older people and they’ve been able to make it. It’s almost a sign of hope.”
Cabe called “The Laramie Project” an earnest and compassionate play and felt it was a good time to show it now due to the rising intolerance.
“I always think it’s good to go back to history and look back and see what’s happening,” he said. “Have we learned or are we following the same pattern? Are we changing that pattern?”
Bridges said it was important for her to audition because she wanted to be a part of raising awareness for the hate toward the community. She said she has conservative family members coming to see the play and hopes it will open their eyes a little more.
“A lot of people have never even heard about Matthew Shepard’s story,” she said. “I didn’t actually until I learned about this. And I think this play is a great way to bring awareness.”
Wheatley said she isn’t part of the LGBTQ+ community but thinks the subject matter is important because it affects people she cares about. She hopes the play will generate more empathy toward the community.
“Just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in your town, to people like friends of friends, to people you go to school with,” she said. “Everyone has a story where they’ve been, not the victim of a hate crime, but where they’ve been taunted over something.”
Cabe said the audience will be able to recognize someone in their life in the characters.
“I think there’s enough of most types of a cross-section of Americana that everybody’s going to identify with,” he said. “I hope they question, ‘How would my beliefs change if something like this were to happen? How would I handle it if I found out my son was gay? Or how would I handle it if I lost my son to something like this?”
