Nearly a decade after Cariboo Hill became the first high school in Burnaby to produce the groundbreaking play The Laramie Project, the school is remounting the production.
Cariboo Hill Theatre Company is presenting The Laramie Project Cycle, a two-part night of theatre, at the Cariboo Hill Studio Theatre this week.
The play was created in 2000, in the aftermath of the October 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who left a bar in Laramie, Wyoming with two others and was found the next day at the edge of town, tied to a fence, brutally beaten and close to death.
He died several days later from severe injuries.
A company called the Tectonic Theater Project in New York created the play based on interviews conducted with inhabitants of the town, company members’ own journal entries and published news reports about the event.
Ten years later, Tectonic’s artistic director, Moisés Kaufman brought many of the original writers and performers together to create what was intended to be a brief epilogue to the original piece. But when the artists returned to Laramie, they soon discovered that they had another full play on their hands. The result is The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.
Cariboo Hill is staging both parts on separate nights, and audiences can attend both nights for one ticket price of $15.
Part 1 is on Friday, April 27; Wednesday, May 2 and Friday, May 4. Part 2 is onstage Saturday, April 28; Thursday, May 3 and Saturday, May 5. Showtime is 7 p.m. nightly.
Cariboo Hill Studio Theatre is at 8580 16th Ave. in Burnaby. For tickets and information, call 604-296-6890.
