Matthew Shepard Story Facilitator 's Guide The Matthew Shepard Story is a 2002 award-winning film based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man who was murdered in 1998. Rather than following Matthew 's story directly, the film follows Matthew’s parents after the conviction of the two men responsible for the murder of their son. The movie touches on themes like homophobia, assault, rape, coming out, love, friendship, and justice. Setting Up It is important to create the appropriate
representation and an HBO film based on the actual 1998 murder of twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard. On October 6th, 1998, Mr. Shepard was bound to a fence and severely beaten and left to die in the outskirts of the small town of Laramie, Wyoming. He passed away as a result of the injuries he sustained six days later. This was a hate crime, since Matthew was targeted because he was gay. The Laramie Project originated when members of The Tectonic Theatre Company went
The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman, is centered on Laramie, Wyoming, and the social significance of Matthew Shepard's murder on October 6, 1998. A gay political science student at the University of Wyoming, Shepard is found bound to a fence after being brutally beaten unconscious. Five days later, he dies. The idea of The Laramie Project is to capture the emotions, reflections, and reactions of the people who were most closely related to this crime. Kaufman's objective is to learn through the
sixty. Through the patchwork of interviews The Laramie Project conveys the themes of identity, representation, and change. The main character of The Laramie Project is the town of Laramie, Wyoming. The subject matter is how the murder of Mathew Shepard impacted this small American town. “We could be on any main drag in America...As we passed the University Inn, on the sign where amenities such as heated pool or cable TV are usually touted, it said: HATE IS NOT A LARAMIE VALUE” (Jacobus 1632). The
‘The Laramie Project’ is a play written by Moises Kaufman about the murder of University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard. It was interesting to see the outrage that this caused. The murder of Shepard was considered a hate crime and I agree with this. I can see the hostility that this murder caused because of the amount of questions it left. The scary thing is that we live in a culture where hate crimes exist. This murder was a reminder to the country that being “different” is something that
October 6th, 1998, and Matthew Shepard was simply enjoying himself at the local Fireside Bar. Little did he know that the two men who claimed they were gay were actually executing a plan to kidnap him and bring him to a desolate fence at which they would brutally beat and leave him alone to die in freezing weather. The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman, contains a series of interviews of various people from Laramie, Wyoming, discussing the tragic death of Matthew Shepard. The Laramie Project highlights
What’s So Great About That? In one of the first mainstream documentary dramas, The Laramie Project seeks to uncover the truth behind the vicious murder of teenager Matthew Shepard, the victim of a homosexual hate crime in October of 1998. Written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the New York based Tectonic Theater Project, this piece is made up of a series of moments rather than scenes, and told in a series of interviews with the people surrounding the case, be they doctors, policemen, or average
of those surrounding them, which is a trend all too common in the modern world. In “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard: Life and politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder”, transcribed by Beth Loffreda, mass media affected the spread of the truth behind an incident and blindly lead the majority of the United States population to believe various aspects of the murder of Matt Shepard that were created by the media. The spread of unrestrained information about the murder was only possible with
Introduction: Matthew Shepard was a college student who was very open about gay rights. On October 6, 1998 in Laramie,Wyoming, Shepard was found beaten and hung on a fence, to which you could have mistaken him as a scarecrow. A cyclist found him and took Shepard to the nearest hospital. Sadly Shepard was confirmed dead just a few hours later by the doctors. The story was publicized and many people began to show their support for Shepard, such as many Gay rights activist, Celebrities, Even local
resident of Laramie, Wyoming discovered Matthew Shepard's limp body bound to a fence. From a distance Kreifels mistook Shepard's slender frame for a “scarecrow”, and was horrified to find otherwise (Kaufman). Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student, had been beaten until he was no longer recognizable, and while still technically alive he was rushed into urgent care. He died, after slipping into a coma, six days later (Kaufman). Shepard was a homosexual man, and his murder
the whole play, but as emotional scenes and climaxes occurred, the sound of wind was intensely noticeable. I believe it was Misha Johnson that played the character of Matthew Shepard's good friend, as she was expressing her emotions about how she could not believe how people could do that to one of her best friends, and how Matthew or as his friends called him, "Matt" -- was just looking for a friend to relate with in the world. The scene was particularly dramatic in the sense that the amplitude
An Intelligent Design Makes The Laramie Project Shine A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing the William and Mary Theater Department’s production of The Laramie Project, a play that tells the story of the murder of Mathew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, that took place in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming. Over the course of the next year, members of the Tectonic Theatre project travelled to Laramie six times and conducted over 200 interviews with the people living there
creates an dreadful and terrible portrayal in the public mind. The word was used by sheriff to describe the murder of Matt Shepard, Gladwell writes that “ When he[sheriff] described the situation to us he told us that [Shepard] was found by a mountain bike rider, tied to a fence like a scarecrow”(Loffreda 238). This wording caught public attention and helped creating Shepard 's’ death into a huge issue among public.The images created by this word became a symbol of a cause against violence. If the
Media sensationalism is the first thought to come to mind when analyzing this piece from “Losing Matt Shepard”, by Beth Loffreda. A young man tied to a fence, sitting on the ground, beaten and found near death, would grab a reader’s attention, enough to shake our head and wonder what this world is coming to. A young man, slight and youthful in appearance, homosexual, tied to a fence “like a scarecrow” (238), beaten so badly that “the only spots not covered in blood were the tracks cleansed by his
It is very common in society for movies to be made from popular works of literature. This then sparks a debate of which was better. With a younger audience, most people tend to choose the movie, however, more literate people always chose the book. The Laramie Project written by Moises Kaufman is a play based off of interviews with people who experienced the devastating event in Laramie, Wyoming. A young man was beaten within an inch of death and then left to die because he was gay. The play includes
About 5,000 years ago one of the world’s biggest murder mysteries occurred on the Ӧtzal Alps. On September 19, 1991, a dead body was discovered on those mountains and was named Ӧtzi the iceman. This mummified man is the oldest living preserved body from the late Stone Age. Many questions were raised about this ancient discovery over the years and most have been answered, but one still has many people scratching their heads. Why was Ӧtzi murdered? The theory that makes the most sense is that
Matthew Shepard Case Brief Facts: Twenty one year old, University of Wyoming college student, Matthew Shepard, died October 12, 1998 at 12:53 a.m. after spending five days in a comma due to massive injuries and head trauma in a robbery and hate crime assault (Matthew Shepard, 2000 [on-line]). Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney (22) and Russell Henderson (21) of Laramie in a local bar called Fireside Lounge. McKinney and Henderson had been drinking. The two led Shepard to believe they were gay and
Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 In 1969 the federal government put into effect the federal hate crimes acts. The federal hate crimes act protects people of all race, religion, gender, color, ethnicity, and national origin. At the time this law only applied if the victim was engaging in a federally protected activity such as voting or going to school. However, the law did not include hate crimes against gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability status. It was not until
with their own areas or even their own government. Hate groups target people because of who they are, their race or religion, and they often commit crimes because of their prejudices. Even though laws have been made to fight hate crimes, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,
some people it is a positive change like winning the lottery or get married. For other people, they have negative changes like filing for divorce or becoming paralyzed for the rest of their lives. Matthew Shepard and I are a great example of having a negative and positive event change our lives. Matthew Shepard’s event that changed his life was unfortunately negative and something he can never recover from. The event that changed my life forever was positive and will help me through life. The events