About the Play:

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is a full-length drama by Moisés Kaufman. In a fascinating epilogue to the original piece, the troupe revisits the town a decade after the Matthew Shepard tragedy, to explore what progress, or lack thereof, had been made in a decade. Their interviews with previous subjects and new ones comprise the narrative, which again deploys reportage and once-removed characterizations without editorializing. A bold work that asks the question, "How does society write its own history?"

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later adds an essential sequel to the original work about the murder of Matthew Shepard, which took place in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Shepard, a young gay man was discovered bound to a fence, savagely beaten and left to die in an act of brutality and hate that shocked the nation. His death became a national symbol of intolerance. After the murder, members of the Tectonic Theatre Project travelled to Laramie and conducted interviews with people from the town, which became the basis for the original play, The Laramie Project. Ten years later, five members of Tectonic (Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris and Stephen Belber) returned to Laramie to try to understand the long-term effect of the murder. They conducted follow-up interviews with the characters from the original play, and this time spoke to the two murderers and Shepard's mother. Those interviews were the basis of a companion piece, entitled. What they found was a community grappling with its legacy and place in history. While The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is a "stand-alone companion piece," the two plays together comprise an epic and deeply moving theatrical cycle that explores the life of an American town over the course a decade.

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later debuted as a reading at nearly 150 theatres across the US and internationally in 2009 – the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across the US, and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 1 woman, 4 men (doubling)

What people say:

"History forgotten is history repeated, which underscores The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later ... This potent follow-up to the landmark Tectonic Theater Project docudrama about community reactions to Matthew Shepard's 1998 murder reminds anew of how theater provides context in ways no other form can match." — Los Angeles Times

"Rekindles all the anger and heartbreak ... Illuminates with disturbing clarity how sharply attitudes toward the killing have changed in Laramie, how a revised history has gradually replaced the facts of the case, once undisputed." — The New York Times

"Moving ... One feels one's sympathies shifting and deepening as the voices of those we met in the original piece – and some new ones – ruminate upon the meaning of Shepard's death." — Chicago Tribune

"A powerful script." — The Austin Chronicle

About the Playwright:

Moisés Kaufman is a Tony and Emmy-nominated American director and award-winning playwright. Born to Jewish parents in Venezuela, he performed as an actor with the Thespis Theater Ensemble, one of the country's foremost experimental theatre companies. He moved to New York City to study theatre directing at New York University. He is also the co-founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, a theater company based in New York City. In 2016, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Both he and Tectonic Theater Project continue to be active in the New York City and global theatre scene to this day.