The Laramie Project, first staged in 2000, is one of the most frequently performed plays in the United States. It is often staged by colleges and high schools—and not always without controversy.
Stacey Spain—now the executive director of Our Center, and previously a theater instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College and the University of Nevada, Reno—taught the play to students for 15 years.
“When you teach something for that long, you see a sort of generational shift in how people approach the material,” she said.
Shepard’s death was front-page news in 1998, but then began to recede into history. “The need to educate folks about who Matt Shepard was increased over time,” Spain said.
In the 24 years since the play debuted, legal protections for LGBTQ+ people have increased dramatically—largely, said Spain, because of advocacy by Shepard’s parents. In recent years, she said, “young LGBTQ people expect a measure of protection from their laws.”
Spain said she’s seen the play resonate with students in a variety of ways. For one, it’s a valuable historical document. While the story’s messages have endured, the 1990s-style flannel shirts and some of the language—including epithets that have since been “canceled”—seem very much of their time.
“It is frozen in time, as Matt’s life was frozen in time,” she said.
She added that she’s seen the play catalyze two things often high on the list of art teachers’ goals—critical thinking and empathy.
“When you’re teaching theater, you’re almost always going to be teaching a higher percentage of queer kids,” Spain said. “But for kids who have not experienced a play or a piece of art which was centered on the queer experience, it is an invitation for them to learn deeply about something they may not know a lot about. … I think the biggest pieces of learning that I saw were connections that students made about other marginalized identities. Kids who grew up as minorities in their schools … all of the kids who are on the edges … could really look at this play and find themselves in it.”