Matthew Shepard
Over the month of June, Emerald Theatre Company (Memphis’ LGBT theatre troupe) and New Moon Theatre Company will collaborate on two plays about the 1998 hate crime beating death of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Shepard’s death brought national attention to hate crimes legislation on the state and federal level.
From June 5th through the 14th at Theatreworks, Emerald Theatre Company will present The Laramie Project, a classic play based on interviews of Shepard’s friends and fellow Laramie, Wyoming citizens. The play was first put together by Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project. They made trips to Laramie over the course of the trial of the two men accused of killing Shepard, and while there, interviewed 200 people. The Laramie Project is a collage of what they found in those interviews.
The Laramie Project will run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. All tickets are sold at the door.
From June 12th through the 28th at Evergreen Theatre, New Moon presents The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. That play is set 10 years after Shepard’s death — September 12, 1998 — when five members of Tectonic returned to Laramie to analyze the murder’s long-term effects. The play looks at how the murder affected the town’s history and legacy.
The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later will run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. New Moon can be reached at 901-484-3467.
