HELENA – Carroll College Theatre is producing The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman and The Tectonic Theater Project. This production is a documentary-style play which has the transcribed words of over 200 real people who lived at the time of the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. This show will run February 9–17, in the flexible black box-style theatre in the lower level of the Carroll College Campus Center. This year is the twenty-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death.
In October 1998, a twenty-one year old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten, and left to die tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay. Moises Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six 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. They 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 Laramie Project chronicles the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the murder.
Other items of interest:
- Directed by local guest director John Rausch
- Twenty tickets will be reserved for door sales only beginning one hour before curtain
- Show performed in the round (audience on all four sides)
- Six projection screens surround the space and will display footage and photos from the event
- Actors play multiple parts and remain in the room for the entire show
- Six of the performers are faculty and staff members, two are community members, and 25 are Carroll students
- A talk back will be held after the February 15th performance
- Knights of Columbus will be on hand with a beer and wine bar before the show and during intermission
Shows will be at 7:30 p.m. on February 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17, with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on February 11. Parking is free in the Campus Center lot off of Lyndale for all performances. The theatre is fully ADA accessible through the east entrance of the Campus Center. Tickets are available at the door or online. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors, and $2 with a current Carroll College ID. Use the coupon code: “shire” for a $4 discount on tickets if you purchase tickets online (not valid with Carroll ID tickets).
For more information contact:
Kimberly Shire
Director of Theatrical Production
Carroll College
kshire@carroll.edu