Preview

The Laramie Project

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1747 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Laramie Project
SUMMARY

A montage of images - the prairie, cattle ranches, fast-food restaurants, a cement factory, car dealers, the University of Wyoming - reveals the town of Laramie, Wyoming, pop. 26,687. As the town's police sergeant says, "It's a good place to live. Good people - lots of space. We're one of the largest states in the country, and the least populated." Laramie residents take pride in being part of the "gem city of the plains," and appear to believe in the motto "Live and Let Live."
What happens to a town like Laramie when something unexpected, unconscionable and unforgivable rips it apart? What happens to its people when they are thrust into the unrelenting glare of a national media spotlight? And what happens to a community when trust among its own people has been shattered?
For a group of young actors and writers from a New York City theater company, these are the questions that have led them to this unassuming town, where they seek out Laramie residents - shopkeepers, teachers, students, bartenders, social workers - whose lives were forever changed on October 6, 1998. That was the night when a gay college student named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied up and left for dead on a fence off a rural road... and when Laramie, Wyoming became the Hate Crime Capital of America.
Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard was in a local Laramie Wyoming bar, the Fireside Lounge. While at the bar, 21-year-old Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. According to McKinney, Shepard asked them for a ride home. Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, severely beaten, punched and hit with the butt of a gun, tied to a fence and left to die. Shepard was discovered by a bicyclist 18 hours later, still alive but unconscious. Shepard suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. There

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Laramie Project

    • 688 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the play, “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman he includes many testimonies from the towns people of Laramie, giving the audience a more accurate view of what led up to the murder of Matthew Shepard. Many of the townspeople gave similar accounts of what they thought and felt of the Matthew Shepard case, but there were also those who had other thoughts. From the gathering of witnesses and their testimonies the factors that led up to Matthew Shepard’s murder was being ignorant and closed minded about the views of homosexuals and to prevent this from happening in the future citizens need to be more open minded of the things happening outside their comfort zone.…

    • 688 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Matthew Shepard

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages

    On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie Wyoming. McKinney and Henderson had agreed to give Shepard a ride but instead of taking him home they drove the car to a remote, rural area where they then robbed, pistol whipped and tortured Shepard and then left him to die. Eighteen hours later Shepard was found still tied to the fence however he was in a coma. The first police officer on the scene was Reggie Fluty who found Shepard alive but covered in blood. Shepard suffered fractures to the back of his head and in front of his ear, and he also experienced extreme brainstem damage which affects the body’s ability to function normally. The injuries that Shepard sustained were too severe for the doctors to operate and Shepard never regained consciousness and died on October 12, 1998 at 12:53 a.m.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rights are indefinitely something that people are born with, not something you earn. In The Laramie Project, by Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project, Matthew Shepard, a homosexual college student was at a bar drinking and keeping to himself, when two other men Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson who were drunk approached the bar. They both made plans between each other to pretend to be gay and take Matthew Shepard somewhere and teach him a lesson; they attacked him, left him tied to a fence all bloodied .The author of The Laramie Project wanted this story to reach everywhere, and touch people’s hearts, so that they can see that no one should be treated differently because of how one chooses to express their person.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dude, You'Re a Fag

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout reading Pascoe’s book I found myself constantly replacing the names of the students at River High with the names of the students at my high school almost matching everyone perfectly. El Capitan also being a racially diverse working-class high school in California I found it compelling to relate to that of River High. However, there were some definite on the surface differences such as our schools great devotion to our agriculture department and cowboy heritage with seasonal Rodeos. Using Pascoe’s analysis of the word fag used in high school I instantly related it to the cowboys at our school, who wore button down t shirts, cowboy hats and tight jeans. Even though our school was prided for its cowboy background, using Jeffrey Weeks cultures of resistance or a history of opposition and resistance to moral codes it finally made sense why they were constantly the target for this demeaning attempt to weaken their masculinity(9). I never understood this because at River High the African Americans got away with the cool…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    School shootings are a form of violence that happens when a child or student is bullied at their school and wants revenge on their peers. The go to the school and open fire and often afterwards commit suicide. Why do school shootings happen, the effects of shootings and how it can be prevented are very important key topics that will be discussed in this paper.…

    • 1939 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Population 485 Essay

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages

    While Population: 485 centers on several different themes throughout the book, I chose to focus my interpretation on the sense of belonging the author, Michael Perry, seems to crave all through the literature, and more specifically, during chapters one and seven. In chapter one, titled Jabowski’s Corner, he opens the door to his journey by bringing us to the small town of New Auburn, Wisconsin. This is the place he belongs. He introduces many of the people of New Auburn in every chapter, but I chose chapter seven because he describes the diverse groups of individuals that make up the town and refers to them as “My People,” which is also the title of the chapter. These are the people that make up the town, the people he belongs with. I feel his love for the land, in this small Wisconsin town, is deeply expressed in both chapter one and in chapter seven. Another association the two chapters have is the idea that to truly feel that comfort and pleasure of belonging in the place where you live, love for the land may not be enough. Michael finds a way to connect to the community and then to connect the community with the land.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine yourself waking up every morning and realizing that you have to literally avoid death from the moment you wake up till the time you are supposedly safe at home. Imagine that you’re told by many people, who you love, that you’re a sin and that you will burn in hell. Imagine that everyday the people you thought cared for you turn you away and threaten you if you don't change, for some people that is something they can never even begin to understand, but now imagine it happening to someone for their entire life. Laverne Cox, a transgender woman and actress, gives a powerful speech during ‘Creating Change 2014’ (an organization that brings awareness to the LGBT community) she talks about the violent injustices and police discrimination against the lives of transgender women of color as a way to spread awareness of the inequalities of transgender within the LGBT community to those who feel the T in LGBT isn't as important. Throughout her speech she appeals to the viewer's empathy to those in pain through personal anecdotes and asyndeton sentences.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Laramie Project

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Things don’t happen in a small town like Laramie, Wyoming, but when someone is beaten and left to die, the true colors of the residents come out. Some people in the town did not give a care in the world to him dying because he was gay and thought he should have died. Others thought it was down-right wrong, immoral, and a complete hate crime. Matthew chose to be gay, it was his right as a human being, and he was going to fight for that right. His fight for human rights continued after his death. It brought out the gay community in Laramie and they fought for that lifestyle and showed everyone there was nothing wrong it. It also brought out the gay community all around the United States to come out and feel proud of whom they were. Ignorance is defined within Kaufmann’s The Laramie Project not only as insensitivity but as stupidity and immaturity.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Laramie Project

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “How could this happen? I-I think a lot of people just don’t understand, and even I don’t really understand, how someone can do something like that. We have one of the most vocal populations of gay people in the State… And it’s pretty much: Live and let live.” The murder of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual college student, stunned the isolated town of Laramie and started a national uprising against hate crimes. Moíses Kaufman explores the murder in depth and tires to uncover the motives for which this heinous crime was committed. Laramie was described through the interviews that were conducted by the Tectonic Theater Project as a community where everybody was familiar with each other, and minded their own business. For this reason, the murder came as a shock and changed the “Gem of the Midwest”, into a town known for this terrible tragedy. Laramie seemed to be the melting pot of Wyoming, a place where diversity can live in peace. Moíses Kaufman’s point of the Laramie Project was that Matthew Shepard’s murder was an isolated incident, and could have happened anywhere because Laramie was a community with the “Live and let live” mentality, along with being tolerant with religious, sexual, and social diversity. The people Laramie and Patrick Buchannan appear to have the same view on acceptance, which is an open mind to a diverse society. In his essay “To Reunite a Nation”, he explores the obstacles that many immigrants needed to overcome to build the nation we have today, and how everybody should appreciate and have tolerance. Buchannan’s argument and Laramie’s views complement each other, which illustrates how the murder of Matthew Shepard’s murder was such a rare occurrence.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laramie Project Reaction

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Laramie, WY, is a modest town which became ignominious overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being callously beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide dispute about homophobia and hate crimes. My reaction to this moment in time initially is horror and shock that people did and do these unspeakable acts to their fellow human. However, I can also appreciate the many different views that were portrayed in the film.…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wyoming, October 7th 1998. Aaron Kriefels is cycling in a remote rural area when he sees what at first he believes to be a scarecrow tied to a fence. He looks closer and sees not a scarecrow, but a young man badly beaten and close to death. The victims name was Matthew Shepard. On Dec. 1st 1976, Matthew Shepard was born in Casper, Wyoming. He attended elementary school in the states, but after his first year in high school his family moved to Saudi Arabia. He then attended the American School in Switzerland where he was elected as a peer mediator. His friends and peers felt comfortable talking to him and he was someone you came to when you needed advice. He was described by his father as "an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people's differences."[1]…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lane Tech College Preparatory has chosen to do a play on The Laramie Project, a non-fiction story of discrimination upon homosexual and the hate crime of Matthew Shepard’s murder in 1998. The story takes place in Laramie, Wyoming, based on hundred of interviews afterward the murder, and re-enacts in chronology of the murder. It truly is a really serious and important subject to touch upon but, Lane Tech failed to show it to its full extend and beauty the production could have been. The sound system was horrible during the performance. Finance seemed to be a problem; the costumes for example were pitiful. Last but not least…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the best plays that I have read in this dramatic literature class is The Laramie Project. The way the play was written was very interesting, by having different points of view of each person in the script. Taking peoples quotes from an interview of the incident is another creative way of implying literature to a controversial situation instead of one dialogue. It formalizes a broad understanding of the people around the victim of a hate crime and what people thought of it in Laramie Wyoming. Witnesses, sheriffs, doctors and a church pastor's response and insight on Matthew Shepard's murder exploits their character but also giving more information of the atmosphere and Western culture of Laramie.…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In your grievance appeal filed at Cheyenne Unit, you claim Officer Chambers treated you unfairly during a strip search. You are requesting staff receive additional training on how to conduct a proper strip search.…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is a division of two opposing parts. In literature, they are often two opposing forces, ideas or values that are represented by characters to show a conflict in values and ideas. This comparison can be used to deliver a philosophical message in the audience.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics