Last night, Tom and I attended 'The Laramie Project - 10 Years Later' at the University of Arizona, the sequel to the groundbreaking documentary/play about Laramie, Wyoming, in the months following the 1998 murder there of gay college student Matthew Shepard. The project was created by the Tectonic Theater Project.
Last year, as the tenth anniversary of the brutal crime approached, members of Tectonic decided to return to Laramie to see what had changed. Last night, on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s death, the new piece would be premiered near-simultaneously in more than 150 cities across the globe. Actors in all 50 states (including Laramie) and 14 countries performed the play at the same time, and the performance was followed by a live video feed from New York where the playwrights, along with Judy Shepard, answered questions.
It was disheartening to hear the revisionist history being created regarding the facts of the case. A widely discredited 20/20 story in 2004 has provided cover to those who don't want to look too closely at the murder. They say that it was robbery and a drug deal gone bad as opposed to a hate crime. I can understand the desire to move past such a horrific event, but to do so at the expense of the truth is shameful, and no matter how many 'stories' get created, the trial exposed the truth, and we need to remind folks of that.
It was a great performance and I was very moved. If you haven't seen The Laramie Project, I strongly urge you to do so.
And here's the link to the Laramie Project Forum
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1 year ago
I saw the HBO movie about the laramie project. It was very emotional and at points shocking I must admit. I still feel a very strange feeling about Matthew Shepard and his families horrific loss of a son. It should be a story told in schools and used in secondary schools as a way of saying the hatred that still exists in the u.s. not just of Matthew but anyone who is a minority or different.
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