It takes a lot to get me out on a Monday night. Especially a cold and rainy one. Nevertheless, this night was not to be missed. On October 12, The Hartford Stage was one of more than 150 theaters and universities nationwide and internationally to present a reading of “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later”. 

The first “Laramie Project” looked at the circumstances surrounding the 1998 murder of 21-year old Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The play was based on interviews that members of the Tectonic Theater Project conducted with residents of the area.

Ten years later, the new play explores how the community has changed since Shepard’s death. Again, excerpts from interviews formed the play’s dialog. I was mesmerized by this style of writing and by the powerful performances. Of course, the story of Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder and its aftermath is never done. 

For me, aside from questions about whether and how the community changed, one of the most compelling questions raised by the play is about the nature of storytelling itself. 

In an interview with Elizabeth Blair on NPR on October 12, playwright Moises Kaufman, who founded the theater group that created “The Laramie Project” addresses some of the controversy over the Shepard story and the way that some people have chosen to tell it.

"Stories are malleable," he says. "History is malleable. And so we have to be doubly vigilant when we listen to history and we listen to stories."

Great advice for those of us in the business of personal history.