Tectonic Theater Project
On 6 October 1998 Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die tied to a fence in the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. He died 6 days later. His torture and murder became a watershed historical moment in America that highlighted many of the fault lines in our culture.
A month after the murder the members of Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and conducted interviews with the people of the town. From these interviews they wrote the play "The Laramie Project". The piece has been seen by more than 30 million people around the country.
R. D. MacLean
Shepherd was born on March 7, 1859 to Henry Shepherd II and his wife Azemia. As the son of a prosperous landowner, Shepherd became an agent for his father's Louisiana properties and for the Louisiana properties of other relatives at the age of 19. He attended college at Washington and Lee College and the University of Virginia. In 1879 Shepherd made his amateur stage debut in New Orleans as Brutus in a production of "Julius Caesar". Following this, he formed his own Shakespearean theater company in Louisiana.