‘Still a story that needs to be told’: UNR students tackle the painful, prescient story of Matthew Shepard’s death and its aftereffects

At the University of Nevada, Reno’s Church Fine Arts building, 12 student actors, a handful of student crew members and theater instructor/director Bill Ware stood in a circle holding hands. It was the intermission in their rehearsal for The Laramie Project, appearing at the university’s Redfield Studio Theatre Nov. 1-10.  

“You should probably cover your ears,” Ware cautioned me from over his shoulder. “It gets really loud when we do this.” 

I did as instructed—and then all of them issued a ground-shaking, primal scream. 

Fortunately, I’d also been warned before the start of the rehearsal. “What we’ve been doing at intermission or after the show is, if it gets too emotional or too crazy, I just have them scream really, really loud and jump around and shake it off, just get it out of their system,” Ware said. “Because they need to have something to get them into character and something to get them out, right? I don’t want them to take this home.” 

Of course, I knew why: This was the heartbreaking story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of 21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, and a portrait of the town of Laramie as it came to grips with the violent act.  

Written by playwright/director Moisés Kaufman and members of the theater troupe he founded, Tectonic Theater Project, The Laramie Project is a work of verbatim theater drawn from more than 200 interviews with residents of Laramie, actual news reports and journal entries written by company members themselves about the experience. The script is an assemblage of the precise words collected over the two-year period during which Kaufman and Tectonic members visited Laramie, arranged strategically to share the story of Shepard’s nightmarish death as well as the events that occurred in its wake. 

Madison Youngblood, Alexander Mead, Colleen Keene, Alyssa von Eberstein, Hunter Healy, Benit Henson (yellow hoody), Ora Harris, Phedre Perkins, MJ Boga, and Matthew Fish during a rehearsal. Photo/David Robert

For many adults like me, Shepard’s death was a notorious watershed moment, like Sept. 11 or the Kennedy assassination. Yet many of today’s young adults haven’t heard the story, which is part of why Ware was motivated to bring it to the stage at UNR.  

“This is a show I’ve always loved, because I have known people involved, and I’ve been to the fundraisers,” Ware said in our pre-rehearsal interview. “The murder of Matthew Shepard happened while I was a student at UNR. … The students (today) don’t know the story. I asked a few, and they were like, ‘Who?’ They’ve all heard of The Laramie Project, but they don’t know what it’s about. They just know it’s a play about something that happened in history.” 

Which is unfortunate, considering more than a quarter-century has gone by, and the show is still stunningly relevant and prophetic in its reflections of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment. 

This fall, the FBI issued a worrisome report: Despite the overall drop in violent crimes over the last year, hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity rose 8.6 percent. Crimes based purely on sexual orientation have gone up 83 percent since 2021, coinciding with a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced during that period.  

Meanwhile, The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People found, among other things, that 60 percent of these young people have felt discriminated against in the past year due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.  

Staging this play during the contentious 2024 election cycle, which could determine the trajectory of these issues, felt particularly important.  

‘I just thought it was a scarecrow’ 

On Oct. 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard—or Matt, to those who knew him—went to the Fireside Bar in Laramie. An openly gay student, Shepard met two men at the bar, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, who led him to believe they were also homosexual. Later, the bartender saw the three men leave together. 

Eighteen hours later, a cyclist named Aaron Kreifels went for a ride in a remote area of the desert and hit a rock, crashing his bike. That’s when he noticed something by a split-rail fence.  

“I just thought it was a scarecrow,” he said later in his Tectonic interview. “I was like, ‘Halloween’s coming up,’ thought it was a Halloween gag.” That was until he got a little closer and saw Shepard’s hair, which was most definitely human—on a battered, bloody, unconscious human tied to the bottom of a buck, or split-rail, fence.  

Kreifels ran to the nearest house to call the police, who arrived on the scene and cut Shepard loose. Shepard was eventually transported to the nearest major hospital that could treat his injuries, in Fort Collins, Colo. 

In police interviews after their arrests, McKinney and Henderson recounted luring Shepard into their truck, where Shepard reportedly placed his hand on McKinney’s leg. In a homophobic panic, McKinney struck Shepard with his fists and the butt of a pistol. The men took him to the hills above Laramie and proceeded to savagely beat and rob him, then tie him to the fence and leave him, barely breathing, alone in the cold.  

Thanks to eyewitnesses who reported seeing Shepard leave with McKinney and Henderson, and evidence including Shepard’s shoes found in McKinney’s truck, both men were soon arrested and confessed to the crime. Both are serving life sentences. 

Shepard died from his injuries on Oct. 12, with his family at his bedside. 

News of the crime quickly spread around the nation and world, with candlelight vigils and protests taking place in cities across the country—and Laramie sitting in a very uncomfortable spotlight. Shepard’s death garnered tremendous media attention and brought attention to hate crimes against LGBTQ+ individuals, spurring the creation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing support and advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, and the establishment of new laws against hate crimes. The Laramie Project, which opened in Denver on Feb. 26, 2000, has been performed in at least 20 countries. 

Today, only two states lack some form of hate crime legislation: South Carolina and, ironically, Wyoming. 

Those who loved him 

Ware and his actors were fortunate to gain insights on Shepard from some of the folks closest to him, including his parents and one of his oldest and best friends. 

One of the goals of the Matthew Shepard Foundation is “to create an environment where people are afforded an opportunity to discuss the play and its messages,” states its website. At the helm of the foundation are Dennis and Judy Shepard, Matthew’s parents, who, among other foundation activities, are committed to being involved with productions of this show. Ware, whose own social circle led him to form friendships with the Shepards and others in their lives, was fortunate to have Dennis speak to his students in a Zoom call prior to auditions for the show.  

“He told them a little about Matt’s life, about what happened and how it affected the family,” Ware said, adding that Dennis also shed light on many of the characters the students will portray, as well as the funeral and other events that followed Matt’s death. “I think that kind of put the whole thing in perspective for them. It’s not just a story from history anymore; it’s a story about somebody who they know now.” 

He also helped to reframe that moment in history for this new generation. “(Dennis) was like, ‘You guys don’t realize there was a time, not long ago, when you could get beat up just walking down the street for being gay,’” Ware said. “For the students, there was a lot of disbelief, but then they knew what they were auditioning for.” 

Ware explained that while the Shepards were supportive of Kaufman’s work, Judy did not want to be portrayed in the play. (She is not.) Though they went years before reading or seeing the show, they’ve always been supportive. 

While rehearsing The Laramie Project, students met with Zeina Barkawi, a dear friend of Matthew Shepard’s, pictured here in her Reno home. She makes a point of being involved in any production of the play, to help amplify its message to new audiences. Photo/David Robert

Also active in her support is Zeina Barkawi, one of Matt’s oldest and best friends. Both the children of parents who worked overseas, the two met while in boarding school in Switzerland and became fast friends. Barkawi gave an informal talk with the students during their intermission.  

She said that Matt was a typical 21-year-old. He played video games, ate fast food and liked going to bars and clubs with his friends. Like his dad, Matt “was a jokester,” and the two exchanged long letters during college. She even told of the last time she saw him—he’d come to pay her a visit while she was a student at UNR.  

Barkawi, who co-produced the 2015 documentary film Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, said she makes a point of being involved in any production of The Laramie Project, to amplify the message to new audiences. Her willingness to be frank with students is clearly appreciated; many at the UNR rehearsal entered the second act wiping away tears after listening to her.  

Barkawi reflected that now, at age 46, she is the mother of a son whose middle name is Matthew—and she is now older than Judy Shepard was when her son died.  

“I can’t imagine that happening to my child,” she said, “and having to process it so publicly.” 

‘Still a story that needs to be told’ 

More than 60 characters are portrayed in the show, from Kreifels; to the bartender at the Fireside; to Officer Reggie Fluty, the policewoman who first responded to the scene; to students and faculty at the University of Wyoming, local clergy and others, including McKinney and Henderson themselves. Each of the 12 actors in this production plays several characters, conveyed through careful acting and minimal costuming—for example, the addition of a scarf or hat to indicate they’ve switched roles. 

The staging is also minimal. Before a painted backdrop that suggests a Wyoming desert, a buck fence, constructed by the students, sits ominously before it—an inert but chilling reminder of what brought us here. A simple set of risers is placed in various configurations to portray locations such as a living room, a bar, a funeral, an interrogation room and a courtroom. The seating arrangement of the Redfield Studio Theatre places audience members on three sides, evoking the idea that we’re present for the interviews. 

Knowing the play was constructed from interviews and news reports might give the impression that it’s merely a dry recounting of events after the fact, read from transcripts. On the contrary—the excerpts, woven seamlessly together, are stunning in their power and exceptionally moving. Some lines hit like physical blows.  

And the power isn’t only felt by the audience. During the rehearsal I attended, several actors were reduced to tears, caught up in the emotions of the moment. 

Benit Hensley plays several characters, including a young theater student at the University of Wyoming, as well as both McKinney and Henderson.  

“Just reading it was emotional and cathartic,” Hensley said, adding that it’s been a great experience being part of the production. “I love the cast, and the story, obviously, is so moving. I play some rough characters in the second act, and I say some choice things … They did do some inexcusable things, but if the truth isn’t told, then there’s no point.” 

Those “choice things” are indeed tough on today’s ears; words such as “faggot” and “dyke” make frequent appearances. But as Hensley put it, “We can’t change those, because that’s important to hear as part of the hate.” 

Hensley delivers the show’s heartbreaking last line, and on this night, he spoke through tears, which sometimes happens. 

Marco Bisio, whose roles include Dennis Shepard, Moisés Kaufman and various other Tectonic members, also has struggled with the emotions the show brings up.  

“There are times when I’m teary throughout the entire show,” Bisio said. “I can see the effect on other people, too. … We as a cast do a very good job of bringing each other up and really just helping each other through the whole thing, before and after.” 

MJ Boga has known about The Laramie Project for years and is honored to be part of it. “There are certain characters that are harder to rub off at the end of the day,” Boga said, pointing to his role as hospital CEO Rulon Stacey, who makes an emotional announcement about Shepard’s death in a press conference. 

He admits it’s hard coming in to perform the show every day. Despite Ware’s efforts to keep the actors from carrying the story home, it’s unavoidable.  

“It was 26 years ago,” he said, “and it’s still relevant—still a story that needs to be told, which is heartbreaking.” 

The University of Nevada, Reno, presents The Laramie Project at the Redfield Studio Theatre in UNR’s Church Fine Arts Building at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 1:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 1-10. Tickets are $25 with discounts for seniors and students. For tickets and information, visit unrarts.evenue.net/events/THR.1.