The Laramie Project Summary

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project is a play unique in its reflection of a historic event and in its reception by the national audience. The play is a response to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay university student, so it is often censored and feared for its effects. In particular, the play encounters frequent opposition and censorship in American high schools as a result of the schools’ reluctance to challenge the prejudiced, societal beliefs on homosexuality, which are fostered by the institutions of religion and family.

In 2007, in Burbank, California’s John Burroughs High School, students from the drama class and the school’s GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) proposed a performance of The Laramie Project only for it to be banned by the principal, Emilop Urioste Jr. According to drama teacher Scott Bailey, Urioste “somewhat angrily told me...that if we did the play here in Burbank it ‘would

In 2008, the play’s production at Acton Boxborough Regional High School also faced resistance. Several parents feared the influence of homosexual content on their children’s ideology and asked that the production be halted. In particular, Amy Contrada, whose daughter played a TV reporter in the production, insisted that the play “is an extremely offensive piece of propaganda that uses the murder of the gay college student Matthew Shepard to push acceptance of homosexuality and horribly demonize Christians and others who have moral issues with homosexual behavior” (boxturtlebulletin). Contrada and other parents eventually worked with MassResistance, a gay opposition group, to organize a conference with speakers including a doctor who warned about the dangers of homosexual sex and a former gay man who is now a Christian pastor, married with two children