“Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” Coming to Lake Tahoe Community College in November

How does a community deal with and recover from a tragedy that shocked the entire world? This November, the Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) Theatre Arts Department will explore that question in its production of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later,” by Moisés Kaufman, Stephen Belber, Leigh Fondakowski, and Greg Pierotti. The play seeks to understand a town that is forced to cope with the aftermath of a brutal hate crime, while also facing their own biases and fears under the media spotlight.

The play, an epilogue to the original “The Laramie Project,” will be presented November 15, 16, 21, 22, 23 at 7:30 p.m., and November 16 and 24 at 2:00 p.m. in the Duke Theatre. Discussions with the cast and audience will follow each performance. The play contains mature subject matter and may not be suitable for children under 15.

For the original play, “The Laramie Project,” Kaufman and members of New York’s Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie, Wyoming in the wake of the 1998 hate-crime murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year old gay college student. This event served as a catalyst for a nationwide call for stricter hate-crime laws, as well as tolerance and compassion.

After more than 200 interviews with citizens of the town, the play emerged as an unusual and powerful piece of theatre focusing on how the citizens of Laramie were affected and ultimately changed by this act of brutality within their community. The resulting play has been seen by more than 30 million people around the country, and was later turned into a movie broadcast on HBO.

In 2008, on the tenth anniversary of Shepard’s murder, members of the theatre company returned to Laramie hoping to try to understand the long-term effect of the murder. They found a town wrestling with its legacy and its place in history. The result is “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.”

In addition to revisiting the people whose words make up the original play, the epilogue includes interviews with the two murderers, as well as Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard.

The LTCC Theatre Arts Department staged a very successful production of “The Laramie Project” back in 2010. A panel discussion and candlelight vigil were held in conjunction with the play.

“In ‘The Laramie Project,’ we learn about what happened to Matthew and the impact it had on the community, and the nation,” says Susan Boulanger, LTCC’s Director of Theatre Arts. “In ‘The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later,’ we see a town divided. Some people saw Matthew’s murder as a call to action to try to end hatred. Over time, others have had to rework the facts of the case to make it easier to deal with.”

A special guest will be joining the post-show discussion on Sunday, November 17. Zeina Barkawi, a close friend of Matthew Shepard’s, will be joining the director and cast for a discussion with the audience following this matinee performance. Barkawi is also featured in the new documentary film, “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine.”

Tickets are $10 for general admission, $7 for seniors and groups of eight or more, and $5 for students with a valid student I.D. and children under 13. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the LTCC Bookstore Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Friday from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Box Office will open one hour prior to performances. For information, please call (530) 541-4660, ext. 207.