¶ … Laramie Project was started by the fact that Matthew Shephard, a 21-year-old gay university student of the town, was bashed and his body tied to a fence outside the town where he was left to die. 10 years later, 200 people of the town where interviewed over the course of 2 years by the Tectonic Theater Project regarding how they felt about the event. The result was the Laramie Project where eight different actors, under the guise of different roles, opinions, beliefs, and perspectives, step forward and describe their perspective to the event as well as the event as they saw it occur and their feelings and opinions of the murder. The incident at the time was touching and the Laramie Project bears touching recollection of that incident. The Laramie Project is directed by Chris Baldrock and provides skilled acting as well as a convincing rendition of the tragedy. As such, it is provocative and moving causing people to think about gay rights and the rights of individuals as well as causing people to reflect about the ironies and paradoxes of the America of today. On the one and, America is diffused by its tradition of religious Protestantism and Puritanism and heavily influenced today by a Conservative and religious Right that includes a strong evangelical movement. This is predominant in part of the South. On the other hand, the core of American values (evidence, for instance, in states such as California and New York) veer strongly towards liberal values that include recognition of sex differentiation and strong revulsion against killing for whatever reason. America has always been split over ideological conflict between North and South. The Laramie Project indicates that this conflict continues.

The play is also provocative...

The people of Laramie saw themselves as upright Americans in that they were simple, decent folk who practiced their religion dutifully. In fact, the two boys who killed Shepard were, initially, "ordinary, conforming locals" or, as Marge Murray put it "absolutely human." The script raises philosophical questions about conceptualization of 'decency' and 'moral uprightness" as well as the questions of evil: mostly how seemingly good man can stoop to evil such as this and how other can condone and legitimize the act. Other philosophical questions include sociology of knowledge and cultural influences on religious development, namely to which extent the society influences the religion or the reverse. The churches in Laramie had differing perspectives on the murder, some being more influenced by American liberal values than others and their degrees of tolerance towards sexual difference, accordingly, differing.
There are times when the script seems overly sentimental (such as the emphasis placed on the deputy…