In the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming, 21-year-old university student Matthew Shepard was tied to a fencepost, severely beaten, and left to die. His body—battered, bloody, barely clinging to life—was discovered eighteen hours later. He was rushed to a hospital and put on life support. He died five days after. The reason for this brutal crime? Matthew was gay.

In the aftermath, Tectonic Theater Project, led by founder Moisés Kaufman, traveled to Laramie. Over the course of a year and a half, the group interviewed over 200 subjects, creating a theatrical portrait of a town coming to grips with horrible, hate-fueled violence. Out of these interviews, journal entries, and found texts, The Laramie Project was born.

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Hailed as one of the most captivating pieces of contemporary theatre, The Laramie Project reveals the lowest depths of hatred and greatest heights of compassion within any seemingly average community.