This month members of the Anacortes High School Theater Department present “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later,” a documentary-like play written following the 1998 murder of a young man named Matthew Shepard. Pictured here are actors Benjamin Crabill and Nolan Sauer (right). The AHS student production opened on November 10, with other performances November 11 and 13; 17-19 at Brodniak Auditorium. Donations accepted for admission.

Cast members include Anne Stoner, Ellen Hallingstad, Taylor Phillips, Nolan Sauer, Heather Williams, Kaitlyn Metternich, Andrew Stalsbroten, Mackenzie Wilson, Nicole Nystul-Baumann and Benjamin Crabill. Director is Scott Burnett and student directors are Brenna Casey and Hope Hurtado.

The following is from the Tectonic Theater Project website: “On October 6th of 1998 Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die tied to a fence in the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. He died six 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, which they later made into a film for HBO. The piece has been seen by more than 30 million people around the country.

“Ten years later, Moisés Kaufman and members of Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie to find out what has happened over the last 10 years. Has Matthew’s murder had a lasting impact on that community? How has the town changed as a result of this event? What does life in Laramie tell us about life in America 10 years later? And how is history being rewritten to tell a new story of Matthew Shepard’s murder, one that changes the motivation of his killers from homophobia to a ‘drug deal gone bad’ despite all evidence to the contrary?

On October 12, 2009, The Laramie Project Epilogue premiered in 100 cities across the country, performed simultaneously by High Schools, Universities, Professional Regional Theaters and, in New York, the original casts of the play and film.”