The Laramie Project

by Moisés Kaufman

book data

387 ratings, 4.08 average rating, 43 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		37%
4		37%
3		20%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

September 11th 2001 by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 128 pages

literary awards

Stonewall Book Award for Literature (2002)

isbn

0375727191 (isbn13: 9780375727191)

description

For a year and a half following the murder of Matthew Shepard, Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project-whose previous play, Gross Indecency, w...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 483)

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03/19/07

Claire rated it:

bookshelves: five-stars, plays, this-is-my-catholicism, top-25-of-all-time

recommends it for: Everyone

Every American should read or see this play. Period. And everyone else should read it too. It is a beautiful, sad, haunting funny biography of a town trying to cope with tragedy. The unsparing honesty of the words, which are taken directly from first-person interviews with real Laramie residents, takes this play out of the realm of Really Good Theatre into something even higher; it's a mirror through which we see ourselves.

I directed this play in Ireland in a town similar to La...more

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01/25/09

WaiThain rated it:

Read in January, 2009

The Laramie Project was one of my favorite plays because it is not too biased. It includes interviews from people who have different views, and I especially enjoyed interviews that were made by the accused and their family members. I was surprised that Russell Henderson pleaded guilty because if he has done it earlier, he would have received a less severe sentence as an accessory. Unlike Fires in the Mirror, in this play, the friends and family members of the accused stayed neutral. They told th...more

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04/07/09

Brenda rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Matthew Shepard was a gay young man who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die a slow, painful death in a small, Wyoming town. His killers were two young men around his age -- one was a Mormon.

When Shepard's murder saturated the media, I felt the usual disgust with the world that I do every time I hear of stuff like this. But I had a hard time bringing myself to read about what happened. It took a reading assignment in a class to get me to read The Laramie Project....more Matthew Shepard was a gay young man who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die a slow, painful death in a small, Wyoming town. His killers were two young men around his age -- one was a Mormon.

When Shepard's murder saturated the media, I felt the usual disgust with the world that I do every time I hear of stuff like this. But I had a hard time bringing myself to read about what happened. It took a reading assignment in a class to get me to read The Laramie Project.

The Laramie Project is a play written after a group of actors from the Tectonic Theater Project interviewed dozens of Laramie citizens. The actors basically asked open-ended questions and let the tape recorder run. People have no idea how what they say contradicts what they do.

"We live and let live here" is what they say. But ask a gay man who lives in Laramie what that means, and he will tell you that "live and let live" means, "You don't tell me you're gay, and I won't kick the shit out of you."

When a critical mass of citizens believe that homosexuality is evil, and that if you let it be known you're gay, you are just "asking for it," then horrible acts of inhumanity result.

In light of the recent passage of Proposition 8, an anti-gay marriage initiative in California, I feel great shame about having had anything to do with the Mormon religion in the past. Knowing that the church spent millions of dollars to get this hate law on the books makes me fear for the men and women of faith who have bought into the church's homophobia and turned this into self-loathing and despair. I wonder how much this encourages acts of violence among stupid people who only need the flimsy excuse of religion to hurt someone.

As you can see, this was a thought-provoking book. If you are like me, you won't read it if you think it will be nothing but a downer. However, the end of the book is sprinkled with acts of kindness that people are capable of, and you will want to look for opportunities to use their resourcefulness and creativity when you are confronted with acts of hate.(less)

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06/11/09

Rinchen added it

I thought that overall this was a very informative book and had a good overall grasp of what happened to Mathew Shepard and the impact that it had on the Laramie populations. I guess since this was a book on something that has already happened and is well known I can’t really expect anything new. What I really enjoyed about this book was that it captured the feelings of almost the whole Laramie population as pose to just talking about what happened to Mathew Shepard.
A issue or an idea...more

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01/30/09

Efrain rated it:

Out of the three plays we read in Plays class this quarter, I liked this one the most. It was a step aside from racism and gave more intuition on a topic that seems more sensitive than that of racism. Kaufman also did a good job in not having any of his scenes repeat the same information found in the beginning of the book. The reason why i like this book tho is because it has random scenes that seem to not fit with anything. For example, there's this one part that goes from Matthew in the hospit...more

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01/22/09

Benewaa rated it:

This book is very interesting because it shows the hatred many of us have for each other. Mathew, a gay boy who lived in Wyoming was brutally beaten by Russell Henderson and Aron McKinney. The two boys first met Mathew at a bar and as the bartender describes it, they approached him first. Later on in the night, Mathew left the bar with the two strangers and that was the point the boys took Mathew to a remote area and they humiliated him.
The main theme of this book is homophobia...more

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01/14/09

Qi Yin rated it:

Read in January, 2009

The Laramie Project, by Moises and The Members of the Tectonic Theater Company is a play about the beating of a young gay men, Matthew Shepard to death. The author Moises and the crew members of the Tectonic Theater went to Laramie, Wyoming and conducted over 200 interviews with the people and the people who are involved in the incident.
Though it is the two perpetrators, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson's fault for the beating Matthew Shepard, Matthew Shepard is also responsible for ...more

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06/16/09

Kevin2 added it

i liked this book a lot because it talked about issues that people aren't comfortable talking about. it brought out the truth from people that were really affected. i also thought after reading the book that the murder of matt was very immature. i think this because they murdered him because he was gay and they "claim" it was a robbery or because he was hitting on them. i think the actions of these people are sick and i liked how the book had many opinions about this issue. i was also ...more

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01/28/09

Lashai rated it:

Read in January, 2009

A friend of mine had suggested that i read this book, because she thought it was good. Overall, i would agree with her. I like most the main concept of the story. Reading about conflicts with homosexuals always interests me because i have many friends and some family members who are homosexuals. One of my closest friends is homosexual, and as i read this book, i thought of him because many times by boys who disliked him because oh his sexuality. I just think it's pathetic that things like t...more

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02/26/08

Ellen rated it:

A must-read for fans of theatre but even extends into relevence for all Americans. It deals with an incident of a hate crime against a young, gay man in Wyoming. The text of the play is from actual interviews of people living in Laramie at the time, taken by the author of the play and members of his theatre company. Heartbreaking and too common, it gives people a look into the life of one man killed because of his sexual identity. It makes the issue peronal. A harsh reality that many people...more

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06/10/09

Denise rated it:

Read in June, 2009

recommended to Denise by: Mark A-C

I was given this play to read by a well-respected director and actor at the local civic theatre. It is a wonderful, but scary, story about the murder of a gay student in Wyoming a few years back. That our world still has homophobic people who could be so possessed as to take another's life is a frightening and saddening truth. I can't wait to see this on stage, either as a staged reading or in some other form....

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06/25/09

Kirsten rated it:

Read in June, 2009

A book club selection. I saw this on stage a few years ago, and of course I'm familiar with the story. But reading it had a surprisingly big effect on me. I literally got chills. I'm not sure I even have words. It took me right back to Montana (and also makes me glad I don't live there anymore, frankly).

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03/30/09

Karen rated it:

bookshelves: plays, top-25-favorite-reads

Read in March, 2009

My first reaction was "Wow." I've never read a play that has affected me as much as The Laramie Project has. There are so many emotions, so many thoughts that this play evokes that you'll be exhausted when you finish. It's fabulous--a work of art.

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12/17/08

Adrianna rated it:

bookshelves: read-college-freshmen-year

Read in January, 2008

Everyone needs to read this. I totally went to a high school like that, without the hate crime but it was the same mentality.

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10/25/08

Lannie rated it:

Read in October, 2008

Written a year after Matthew Shepard's murder in 1998, The Laramie Project is poignant and daring not only in its presentation of the humanity that is lost in the crime, but also the hope that redemption might follow. The Laramie Project is definitely not your conventional two-act play; it's written as a gruesome and beautiful impressionist painting, blending hundreds of interviews conducted by members of the Tectonic Theater Project. Definitely recommended for anybody interested in literature,...more

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